You’ve probably heard that you should walk 10,000 steps per day for fitness and weight loss. How did they come up with this amount? Is this a fitness myth or is there any research that shows that it works?

Walking 10,000 steps per day for health and weight loss was popularized originally in Japan. Pedometer researcher Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke says the original figure was not based on medical research.

Several researchers have been playing catch-up on this, including Tudor-Locke.

Research studies show it isn’t a magic number, but it is a good indicator of how much activity a person is achieving in a day, and walking more steps per day is associated with being thinner.

Matching Exercise Recommendations

An inactive person takes 3,000 steps or less just in their daily activity of moving around the house. And, 10,000 steps equal approximately five miles of walking during the day. Unless you have an active job, such as a waitress or nurse, it would be difficult to log 10,000 steps just with daily activity.

Most people achieve it by one or more sustained walks or runs, the equivalent of 30-60 minutes or more of walking per day. That equals the minimum daily exercise recommendation by most health authorities to reduce health risks. A study of steps per day and weight, body mass index (BMI), and other indicators for men and women showed that the people who logged more pedometer steps per day weighed less, on average, and had a lower BMI.

Burning Enough Calories

The number of calories you burn by walking depends primarily on how much you weigh and secondarily on your speed of motion. We all burn calories just sitting and breathing, which you can estimate with our calories per day calculator.

Many pedometers estimate your walking step calories burned.

You can use our pedometer steps calorie calculator to estimate this for yourself. You will need to know your approximate steps per mile. Each 2,000-2,500 steps is about a mile. Walking a mile burns about 80 calories for a 150-pound person.

Depending on your weight, walking 10,000 steps burns between 250 and 600 calories. Most weight loss programs recommend burning 200-300 calories per day in moderate to vigorous exercise. If you walk 10,000 steps per day with 3000 of those steps at a brisk walking to jogging pace, you should be burning enough calories.

Still Gaining Weight? Add More Steps

If you are already logging 10,000 steps a day and not losing or maintaining your weight, then the key is to add another 2,000 steps per day (and/or eat fewer calories). If that still doesn’t work after a couple of weeks, add more steps or eat less.

Logging more steps becomes time-intensive at this level. Increasing your exercise intensityso more of your steps are brisk walking or jogging or eating fewer calories can be effective tactics to losing weight if you are already active.

A food and exercise diary can help you spot where to make improvements.

Start Counting Steps Today

• Walking Journals and Logs: Track your walking steps, exercise, and diet.
• Top Picks for Pedometers: Good choices for pedometers to count your steps per day.

Further Research

• How Many Steps Per Day Are Enough?: Is 10,000 steps the right number? A report on the research that backs up this magical number.
• How Many Steps Per Day Are Enough for Children?: Catrine Tudor-Locke Ph.D. and associates looked into how many steps per day were the right number for growing children.
• Add 2000 More Steps Per Day to Stop Weight Gain: According to Dr. James O. Hill of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, if you walk 2,000 more steps than you do now, you may be able to stop gaining weight. To start losing, add more steps.
• Walk Like the Amish: If we walked as much as the people in these Amish communities, we might have better health, according to research conducted by David R. Bassett, Jr. and associates of the University of Tennessee.
• Study Shows Pedometers Motivate to Increase Exercise: Does wearing a pedometer increase how much you walk? Studies have shown this effect.

_Sources:

_{Tudor-Locke, Catrine. “Steps to Better Cardiovascular Health: How Many Steps Does It Take to Achieve Good Health and How Confident Are We in This Number? ” Curr Cardio Risk Rep (2010) 4:271–276.}

Tudor-Locke C, Schuna JM, Han H, et al. Step-based physical activity metrics and Cardiometabolic risk. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. September 2016:1. doi:10.1249/mss.0000000000001100.