A 46-country study has shown that India is among the laziest countries in the world. India is ranked at 39, with people averaging just 4,297 steps a day.

Stanford University researchers used step-counters installed in most smartphones to track the walking activity of about 700,000 people in 46 countries around the world. The most active, according to the study published in the journal "Nature", are the Chinese, particularly those in Hong Kong, where people averaged 6,880 a steps a day.

The worst nation was Indonesia, where people walked nearly half as much, averaging 3,513 steps a day. The worldwide average is 4,961 steps, with Americans walking an average 4,774 steps. The top half of the chart includes Hong Kong, China, Ukraine and Japan, with people walking over 6,000 steps daily, while the countries at the bottom are Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

Indian women walk barely 3,684 steps, men have logged 4,606. The study found that for both males and females, a larger number of steps recorded is associated with lower obesity, but for females, the prevalence of obesity increases more rapidly as step volume decreases. The study found that in Indian women, obesity increases more rapidly as the number of steps they take decreases (232% obesity increase for females versus 67% increase for males; comparing lowest versus highest activity).

Delhi-based dietician Ritika Samaddar suggests at least 10,000 steps a day to remain fit, "People feel that if they have walked for an hour in the morning, they have got their share of physical exercise. But you need to be active throughout the day."

Stanford researchers say in countries with less obesity, people walked a similar amount every day. In nations with higher rates of obesity, there were larger gaps between those who walked a lot and those who walked very little.

By Premji