Fitness Tip Busted - 10,000 Steps Per Day is Huge for Weight Loss

TLDL – Steps per day is one variable of many that has an impact on weight loss. Similar to focusing too intently on caloric intake, focusing too intently on steps-per-day will leave you well short of your weight loss / health goals.

In my opinion, steps are the new calories.

That is not a compliment.

What do I mean?

For years, counting calories was pushed as a primary method to gauge and adjust food intake for weight loss or weight maintenance goals.

For dieters, they had tunnel vision for calories intake when selecting the food they ate.

Doctors would recommend low-calorie food without a second thought on what food they were actually recommending.

There was minimal focus on food quality and exercise when it came to weight loss.

That is how we ended up with synthetic, low fat-based diets that left people malnourished and yo-yo dieting causing rapid weight fluctuations.

If it wasn’t for this short-sighted approach to food, we would be significantly heathier today (hopefully).

Once the focus shifted to a more holistic, food quality approach, we have seen more people take back sovereignty of their health.

The same will apply to step count.

Step count is marker of activity just like calories are a marker of food intake.

It tells a story but not the whole story.

Just like you should keep an eye on calories-in if you are trying to lose weight or maintain weight (even if all you eat is meat and fruit), keeping an eye on step count will assist your weight loss / health goals in conjunction with workout intensity, sleep and nutrition.

It is possible to get a lot of steps in but paired with being sedentary the rest of the time, there will be no significant metabolic enhancements.

Walking is not bad. Do not take this as a suggestion to avoid walking.

This is merely a warning that it is not the panacea weight-loss tool some people are suggesting it can be.

As for me?

I try to get in as many steps as I can per day by taking breaks and walking around the office, neighborhood and always walking when I golf. Why? By back feels a hell of a lot better when I get my steps in.

Bipedal locomotion was an important step 😉 in our evolution. Best not to waste that capacity.