If I Walk 10000 Steps A Day Will I Lose Weight

I tried to go from walking 500 steps to 10, 000 every day for a month, and I saw results but wouldn't do it again

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Many people work desk jobs that have them sitting down for eight to nine hours a day. Plus, there's the time spent in a car or on public transportation commuting to and from work that adds to this sedentary lifestyle.

Steps A Day — Or Fewer?

I work from home, which means my daily activity consists of walking to the fridge or the bathroom in my small apartment.

Before I started this experiment of walking 10, 000 steps every day for a month, I was averaging about 1, 500 steps a day, but only because I would sometimes walk closer to 2, 000 steps on the weekends, as opposed to my usual 300 to 500 on a workday. Frankly put, I was not moving around nearly enough.

The US Department of Health and Human Services says that adults should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

Boost Your Steps Per Day — Hint: It's Not Just Walking More

Doing so can help reduce your risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, depression, and high blood pressure, according to the Mayo Clinic.

But that recommended amount of exercise doesn't correlate to the 10, 000 steps that most fitness tracker goals are set to. USA Today reported that adults who apply that 150 minutes per week rule to their own lives usually walk around 7, 500 steps per day. Even Fitbit, a fitness tracking device known for counting steps, doesn't necessarily recommend 10, 000 as the be-all-end-all step number.

According to Fitbit's website, someone who is naturally more active may want to aim for a goal even higher than 10, 000. If you're just starting out, you may want to aim lower.

Should You Walk 10,000 Steps Per Day For Weight Loss?

Fitbit says you should track your normal step count for a week and use that as your baseline. Then, add 1, 000 steps to your baseline to be your step goal for the next week.

You can add another 1, 000 steps each week until you hit the number that works for you. If you're trying to maintain weight loss, you may want to walk less, but if you want to lose more weight, you can aim for a higher step count.

I didn't know any of that until I finished this experiment, but it does explain some of the challenges I faced during my experiment, especially in the first week.

Let's Walk 10,000 Steps A Day

Previously, I had been using the Health app on my iPhone to track my steps. But for this experiment, I invested in a $30 wristband activity tracker from Target. The bandcounted my steps, miles walked, connected to an app on my phone, and even tracked my sleep patterns.

I failed to reach my 10, 000-step goal twice in the first week. The first failure happened on day one of the experiment, when I was moving across the country. I had to take two flights to reach my new destination and I figured that walking around in the airport to get to my various gates would help me easily hit 10, 000 steps.

However, a time change meant I lost two hours in my day and I also couldn't do much walking during the four hours I was in the air. It turns out that my gates weren't as far apart as I'd planned for either.

Things I Learned From Walking 10,000 Steps A Day

By the time I landed, I was only at 4, 100 steps and I was beginning to realize just how difficult the goal of 10, 000 steps would be.

I managed to get in another couple thousand just by walking around my new apartment and unpacking, but I was simply too tired from traveling to put much more effort in. I ended the day with 6, 083 steps. It was literal miles ahead of my average, but still under what I needed to get.

The second failure came on the fifth day. I hit 7, 600 by the end of the day, but had an unusual amount of work to do.

I Walked 10,000 Steps A Day For A Month — Here's What Happened

As a writer, I need to use both my hands to type, and my step counter only tracks my steps when my arm is moving. I wasn't able to make it happen that time because I prioritized my writing deadline over my step counting.

For the remainder of the first week, I credit hitting 10, 000 to my new apartment and the entire moving process. I had multiple trips to Target, running back and forth to move things out of the car, and cleaning the place from top to bottom. It wasn't a usual week of activity for me, but it helped me succeed in getting my steps almost every day as I started out on this journey.

Once my moving tasks were complete, I was forced to come up with activities to add to my usual schedule in order to get my steps in. I couldn't just count on an extended Target trip to help me out.

How Many Steps A Day: Weight Loss, Fitness Level, Tips For More S

I started taking my small dog on multiple walks around the block per day. Walking to the end of my street and back was around 1, 000 steps. She's little so she couldn't go for much longer than that at a time. But the idea of taking her on 10 walks a day sounded ludicrous, so I focused on getting 2, 000 to 3, 000 steps a day from two to three walks.

I also bit the bullet and joined a gym. The first day I went to the gym, I was amazed at how much easier it was to knock out the steps. Instead of having to spread them out over a full day, I was racking up thousands in under an hour.

I did the elliptical for 30 minutes in the morning and was already at 4, 600 steps by 10:30 a.m. It helped that I was doing this on a Saturday, when I had more time in my day to spend walking. I visited the local farmer's market later on and reached my 10, 000 steps by 5 pm.

Steps A Day: The Key To A Healthy Body And Mind

In addition to begrudgingly dragging myself to the gym a couple of times this week, I also walked or jogged alone in my room at night before bed to hit my goal.Usually, I would end my day with about 6, 000 to 8, 000 steps, so I would take every last minute until midnight walking while watching a TV show to ensure that I hit 10, 000.

Frankly, I didn't want to be awake until midnight every night, and reaching my goal was exhausting. Sometimes, I had other work I wanted to get done, but always had to push it to the next morning and prioritize the steps. Oftentimes, I had to start working at 5 am after staying up until midnight, just to complete the work I put off because I was jogging in my room.

I realize this is sort of cheating on the notion of actual steps, but it was a workout for my legs and abs, so I'll call it a win. Martha Sorren

The Last Word: Do You Really Need To Take 10,000 Steps A Day?

At one point, I had to read a book for one of my writing assignments. I tried walking in place while reading, but that made it really hard to focus. Instead, I put the pedometer on my ankle and mimed a bicycle motion in the air to get steps while I read.

It was around this time that I also began squeezing in steps whenever I could, like while I was brushing my teeth or waiting for my food to finish microwaving. Every little bit counted.

My two failures this week were when I (for pressing work reasons or because I had people over) couldn't rely on my nightly bedtime jog to complete my steps. It was definitely a crutch for me, and I wanted to try to find a way to get my steps out of the way earlier in the day to free up my night.

This Is What 10,000 Steps A Day Really Looks Like

Not only did I go to the gym in the morning and walk my dog, but also I walked to and from the college football game which was about an hour of activity.

I hit my 10, 000-step goal by 2:30 p.m. Later, a trip to the mall and then downtown for drinks allowed me to hit 18, 000 steps, the highest number I would reach throughout the entire experiment.

Emboldened by the idea that a longer walk than the ones I was taking my dog on could yield better results, I implemented extra walks into the rest of my week.

Should You Really Walk 10,000 Steps A Day?

A trip to the coffee shop here, and an errand to a gift shop there, or even the occasional walk to the grocery store — they added up. I still needed to walk the rest out in my