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It’s a well known fact that in order to lose weight, you have to be in a calorie deficit. This can be achieved in a number of ways, from slightly lowering your food intake, to making healthier eating choices, or even making small changes to your diet in combination with increased exercise. Incorporating exercise into your daily routine can boost your calorie expenditure, ultimately making it easier to maintain a deficit if you continue to eat your regular amount of calories while burning more in addition. This can come in the form of intense weight lifting, HIIT cardio, or even yoga.
But exercise isn’t enjoyable for everyone, so it’s important to find little ways to increase your movement throughout the day which may be able to give you a leg up for weight loss without dedicating your busy day to working out. If you would rather simply increase your step count to create your calorie deficit for weight loss, a personal trainer weighs in on how many steps you should be aiming for, and the results you can expect in turn.
First and foremost it’s important to remember that nutrition plays a major role in weight loss, and you simply cannot out-exercise a bad diet. A holistic approach to wellness is going to be one which sees you getting plenty of sleep, staying hydrated, and eating well in combination with your workout plan, so if you expect to see results, these other areas must stay in check as well. Once those aspects have been controlled, you can turn your attention to your steps.
“If you really want to lose weight or body fat through walking at a moderate pace, then you should aim for around 10,000 to 12,500 steps per day. That amount of daily activity paired with a nutrient-dense diet will set you up for continued success on your weight loss journey,” says fitness and nutrition coach, Ashlee Van Buskirk.
If walking is your preferred workout of choice, you’ll need to increase the intensity of your typical stroll to promote calorie burn and improve your cardiovascular health. To do this, Van Buskirk suggests keeping in mind your pace and incline for ramping up your basic walk. “An elevated or brisk pace will increase your heart rate and help you burn more calories. Walking uphill will also add another layer to your walking workouts and contribute to greater weight loss too,” she says.
It’s worth noting that your regular walking throughout the day will likely not be enough to make a real impact on your appearance, and you will still have to carve out time in your day to hit your step goal, just like any other form of exercise.
Walking is a great way to increase your daily calorie burn, but there are other factors to keep in mind when assessing the ease of weight loss. “From your body composition and genetics to your daily routine, responsibilities, and lifestyle, we are all very different from one another,” says Van Buskirk. “While the 10,000-12,500 steps per day is a good goal to make for your weight loss efforts, that doesn't mean you need to reach it every single day. Instead, find a number that works for your lifestyle and keeps you sane. That approach will be much more sustainable for your physical and mental health.”
Keeping in this range is a great place to start as you ramp up your energy output for weight loss, but remember you may have to adjust and increase your steps as time goes on and your body grows used to walking as a form of exercise instead of simply getting you from point A to point B.
Finding a form of exercise that doesn’t feel like a chore is one of the most effective ways to see visible weight loss results. While a more traditional route would be weight training or running, walking is also a perfectly valuable form of exercise which can allow you to achieve progress by simply increasing your daily step goal to 10,000-12,500 steps.
While it may take adjustment and you still need to be following a well-rounded diet in order to lose weight in a healthy way, boosting your step count is an easy and effective plan for walking off extra weight without ever stepping foot in the gym.
