Walking 10000 steps a day is regularly recommended for weight management and a plethora of other health benefits. I also recommend getting as many steps as possible and in this article I'll explain my though pattern behind this.
In this article
Why 10000 steps a day?
How far is 10000 steps in km
How long does 10000 steps take in a day
Do you have to walk 10000 steps all at once
Please remember this
How many calories does 10000 steps burn
Health benefits of walking 10,000 steps daily
Why 10000 steps a day?
The reason behind this number is to get you spending active time on your feet. We learned in this article the benefits of NEAT; aiming to get 10000 steps in a day is essentially a way to to increase this fat burning mechanism.
This number of steps is a daily goal, not something you should aim to achieve in one go. You can go out and go for a long walk and do all your steps in one go, but that's not the goal of this arbitrary number.
How far is 10000 steps in km
This will depend on your stride length, but a good estimate is between 5km and 7km. The bigger your steps, the further it will be.
But for the sake of this article, I want you to think about the average step that you take in a day, think about shuffling to and from you desk, or doing house hold tasks at home. You're not going to track the distance of the mundane activities, but they add up throughout the day.
If you have any type of new fitness tracker (apple watch, Garmin, Fitbit....) they should all calculate the distance you cover throughout the day.
How long does 10000 steps take in a day
Roughly 3 hours plus or minus 30 minutes depending on your stride length and walking pace.
Once again, let's keep assuming you are not walking at your fastest pace.
Remember that the goal is to achieve this throughout the day. If you think walking for three hours sounds boring I'm with you. It's the cumulative daily walking time we're after. More on that in the next point.
Do you have to walk 10000 steps all at once?
Absolutely not.
In fact, I regularly tell my clients it's actually a bad idea. Why?
If you were to set out every day to complete your 10000 steps in one go, you would have to put aside 2-3 hours in a row just to walk around.
I don't even do that. I don't have 2 hours every day to go on a walk. And even with a good podcast or playlist in my ears, doing this every day would render the process redundant and monotonous.
The goal is to chip away at that number in many brief efforts throughout the day.
If you work a desk job, you may have to look into walking part of your commute to and from work, taking small walking breaks during the work day, and maybe spending a little bit of time just walking around each day (20-30 minutes tops).
This article goes over 10 strategies you can use for this purpose.
Please, please don't do this
When you are starting out, DO NOT try to get to 10000 steps every day right away.
The average person walks 3000-4000 steps a day. Trying to double, or triple that from one day to the next is a great recipe for disappointment.
As we saw, it takes a long time to reach that number. So take your time getting there over a few weeks.
I recommend finding how many steps you take currently and then adding 500 steps each week. This gradual process will enable you to find what works and doesn't.
How many calories does 10000 steps burn?
The big thing to remember is it's not about the calories you burn. It's about the habits you develop.
If you want an answer for the calories it's roughly 200 calories per hours for a male that weights 190 pounds.
The reason I tell my clients to focus more on developing the habit of walking around throughout the day is the long term benefits that habit will have in their life.
There are many, many faster and more fun ways to burn 200 calories.
But getting enough sun light, spending more time with friends, being on your feet more frequently, taking time to yourself, are all benefits of walking daily and achieving your step count.
Don't stop there
Once you get to an average of 10000 daily steps, keep going!
The goal is to gradually become better. You don't have to limit yourself to 10000 if you find it gets too easy.
Using the weekend to go on longer, planned walks, rucks or hikes is a good way to increase you average step count and to make it more intense.
This may take you months, maybe years to get to, so take your time.
Happy walking!
Clem
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