It’s been claimed that individuals can lose a pound of fat a week just by taking 10,000 steps a day because of the potential to burn 3,500 calories from walking. As a general rule of thumb, a pound of fat contains around 3,500 calories. If you create an average caloric deficit of 500 calories over a 7-day period, that’s equal to 3,500 calories: good for a pound of weight loss per week.
Unfortunately, that 10,000/day = 3,500 calories/week calculation is based on estimations of a specific body type, so this may not apply to you.
To understand why, let’s break this claim down.
Weight
Any estimation of how many calories you burn from an exercise like walking or running is dependent on how heavy you are. Heavier people on average use more energy to move than lighter people. Most rough estimates revolve around 100 calories burned per mile for a 180-pound person. And 10,000 steps is roughly 5 miles. So assuming you weigh 180 pounds then yes, by simple mathematics, 100 calories x 5 miles equals 500 calories. Over the course of a week that becomes 3,500 calories.
But if you’re lighter or heavier, you will burn less/more calories while taking the same number of steps or walking the same distance.
If you were 120-pounds, in that same mile you would only burn 60 calories. Calculate that over the course of a week and that only becomes 2,100 calories, meaning that you are 1,400 calories short of reaching that 3,500 calorie goal.
Walking Speed and Distance
Even if you happen to be at that 180-pound range, the calories you burn from walking depend on the intensity, or speed, of your walk. The average walking speed is about 3 miles per hour, and according to the Mayo Clinic, the number of calories you’ll burn depends on your walking speed.
For a 180-pound person, a leisurely 30-minute walk at 2 mph yields a burn of 102 calories, but walk at a more moderate intensity (3.5 mph) in the same 30-minute walk and the calorie burn increases by 54% to 157 calories.
Why? It’s simple: the faster the pace the greater your heart rate, and the more you can burn covering the same distance. The sources that suggest you can average weight loss of a pound a week from walking typically assume you walk at the pace necessary to cover the estimated 5-mile distance.
If you deviate from either of the above conditions, your results may differ.
But even if you reach 10,000 steps, all of that effort can almost entirely be irrelevant if you aren’t careful: weight loss from walking largely assumes your caloric intake stays stable.
Setting and achieving a daily goal like 10,000 steps can be a great way to increase your activity level and create a healthy lifestyle. You can add walking as a warm-up before a strength training workout, or it can be a workout by itself.
But before you set any fitness goal like walking 10,000 steps, take a minute to understand what you’re embarking on.
Remember the old Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Make sure each step, from the first to the 10,000th to the 100,000th has a purpose.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
