“I have to get my steps in”
This phrase has become common since the introduction of Fitbits and the like, but a daily step count was never something people worried about in the past.
We all led more active lives back then of course.
Along with these devices came the received wisdom that 10,000 steps a day was the ideal target to aim for – although this number has been questioned plenty of times since – so naturally, people started to wonder how many calories this would burn.
I can give you a simple answer, which is that walking 10k steps will burn approximately 300 to 400 calories.
However, a simple answer doesn’t tell the whole story, because factors such as your weight, your speed, where you are walking, and even your gender can all play a part in how many or few calories are burned.
To dig a little bit deeper into this subject, read on.
Walking is Good For Your Health
First and foremost, however many steps you do, you should recognise that walking is good for you.
It doesn’t matter about the finer details, just do some walking, get the blood flowing, and get your legs moving. It’s true that the more steps you do the more benefits you will see, especially if your goal is to lose weight, but the most important thing is to do some walking.
Regardless of your age or gender, regular walks have been shown to help prevent cardiovascular disease. For those with diabetes walking is one of the best things you can do, especially if you have type 2 diabetes as it helps lower blood sugar levels.
It’s a surprisingly good way to deal with anxiety too.
The amygdala is the part of the brain most often responsible for feelings of anxiety, but it can only focus on one thing at a time. So when you go off on a walk your focus is on the very simple task of walking, thus making it more difficult for anxious thoughts to permeate.
It has been shown to reduce mortality rates among the older generations too, but no matter how old you are, the muscles you use when walking are being exercised and strengthened every time you do it.
So don’t get too caught up in how many steps you take per day, just make sure you take some.
Factors Effecting Calorie Burn
As I said, the general guidelines are that 10,000 steps will burn around 300-400 calories. This is because the average person will burn 30-40 calories per 1,000 steps.
The issue with these numbers is that there is no such thing as an ‘average’ person, and even if there were, the steps they are taking, where they take them, how they are broken up and so many other factors effect the true calorie burn.
Here are a few factors that will make a difference:
- Weight – People who weigh more need to expend more energy to move themselves around. So if you weigh 18 stone, walking 10,000 steps a day will have a dramatic impact on number of calories you burn compared to someone who weighs 10 stone.
- Speed – You don’t need to be a sports scientist to realise that moving quickly is more demanding than moving slowly. So 10k steps at pace will burn more calories than 10k steps at a stroll.
- Terrain – Walking on some surface is harder than others. Ever tried running in sand? It’s hard right? You might not notice a huge difference walking on gravel vs grass, but there is one. The incline or decline has a big impact too. Even a slight incline can be a tougher challenge than a flat surface, whereas walking down hill is much easier and will burn fewer calories.
- Duration – If your 10k steps are made in 10 lots of 1,000 you are not going to be pushing your body as hard as doing 10,000 steps all in one go. In the same way a person might be able to do 1 push up every hour for 10 hours but not do 10 push ups in a row, doing more of your steps in the same walk will be more of a challenge.
- Age – Younger people tend to have a better metabolism than older people, so can burn calories at a slighter faster rate.
- Gender – You probably know that men require and average of 2,500 calories per day whereas women are advised to eat more like 2,000. This is because men typically burn more calories than women, so your gender will have an impact too.
Not only do these factors all impact how many calories you burn, but when you put them together, they can compound. So an 18 stone man doing 10,000 steps at pace up a hill is going to burn an awful lot more calories than an 18 stone woman doing 10,000 steps strolling along a level surface.
The good news is that these are all things you can play around with to make your 10,000 steps easier or harder depending on your goals and your abilities.
Walking for Weight Loss
It’s totally possible to lose weight from walking, you just need to do the right amount and type of walking for your goals.
This is all about starting in the right place and gradually increasing the difficulty or duration of the steps you do each day. I can’t answer that question for you because I don’t know your situation, but I would say it’s better to start with something easily achievable and build on it.
This way, you won’t immediately wear yourself out and become demotivated.
Have an idea of your calorie intake per day – a food diary can help here – and then work out how many calories you need to burn in order to be at a deficit and therefore lose weight. There are a lot of calorie burn calculators online which can help you here.
You input you age, weight, gender, steps taken etc. (some of them are quite detailed) and then it tells you how many calories you have burned. It won’t be exact, nothing can be 100% accurate, but it’s as close as you will get.
If you have some sort of tech like a Fitbit, it’s probably a good idea to compare and contrast then find settle somewhere in the middle of the two figures.
If you want to lose more weight faster y0u can walk on tougher surfaces, at higher speeds, or for longer. You could even begin to inject short bursts of jogging into your walks to increase your heart rate, or carry extra weight.
You will need to control your eating too of course, but if you get the balance right there is no reason why walking cannot be used as a weight loss tool.