HHS opens comment to add step-count and strength targets to guidelines

The Department of Health and Human Services has opened a public comment period to inform new federal guidance on step counts and muscle-strengthening activity, which it intends to add as a supplement to the national physical-activity recommendations. The notice was published in the Federal Register on 13 October 2026 [s1].

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans are the federal government's benchmark advice on how much and what kind of activity supports health. HHS describes them as "the benchmark and primary, authoritative voice of the federal government for providing science-based guidance on physical activity, fitness, and health in the United States" [s1]. The department released the first edition in 2008 and the second in 2018 [s1][s2]. The planned addition — formally the "Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition Supplement: 2027 Steps and Muscle-Strengthening Guidance" — would extend that second edition rather than replace it [s1].

What the department is asking for

HHS says it is "working on supplementing the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition by adding new, science-based step count and muscle-strengthening activity guidance" [s1]. The notice invites written comments that identify "existing high-quality, evidence-based reports, programs, or campaigns related to steps and/or muscle-strengthening physical activity and related positive health outcomes" that could inform the supplement [s1].

The agency was specific about how it will weigh what it receives. "The Department does not make decisions on specific policy recommendations based on the number of comments for or against a topic, but on the scientific justification for the recommendation," the notice states [s1]. Commenters are asked to attach supporting documentation — verifiable data and the like — for any recommendation they make, and individuals and organisations may submit more than one comment [s1].

Comments will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on 12 November 2026, via the federal rulemaking portal under docket number HHS-OASH-2026-0463 [s1]. The request is being made under sections 1703 and 1704 of the Public Health Service Act, the statutory authority the department cites for its disease-prevention and health-promotion work [s1]. The notice is a call for existing evidence rather than a proposal: it does not float draft recommendations for the public to react to, but asks the field to point the department toward the strongest research, programmes and campaigns it should weigh as it drafts the supplement [s1].

Why steps and strength

The two topics the supplement would address map onto gaps in how activity advice is commonly communicated. Step counts have become a near-universal metric because of smartphones and wearable trackers, yet the 2018 guidelines are framed chiefly in minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity rather than in daily steps. A federal step-count figure, if one emerges from the process, would give clinicians and the public a measure that matches the devices most people already carry.

Muscle-strengthening activity is the second focus. The existing guidelines already recommend such activity alongside aerobic exercise, and the planned supplement signals an intent to expand the evidence-based detail around it rather than to introduce it as a new idea. HHS frames the broader document as advice on how physical activity "can help promote health and reduce the risk of chronic disease," and describes the guidelines as the federal government's authoritative voice on physical activity, fitness and health [s1]. A supplement, rather than a full third edition, lets the department add detail on two discrete topics without reopening the 2018 recommendations as a whole [s1][s2].

What is settled and what is not

What is settled is procedural: the government has committed to developing a steps and muscle-strengthening supplement to the 2018 guidelines, opened a comment window that closes on 12 November 2026, and set out the standard by which it says it will judge submissions — scientific justification, not comment volume [s1].

What is not settled is the content. The notice solicits evidence; it does not propose a specific daily step target, a strength-training prescription, or any numeric recommendation. Those would come later, through the supplement itself, and the branding of the document as "2027" guidance indicates the department does not expect to publish the finished product until then [s1]. For now, the concrete facts are the scope of the planned supplement and the deadline to weigh in on it.