How Many Steps a Day Help You Lose Weight?

LOOK UP WEIGHT loss tips, and you’ll notice “walk more” almost always cracks the top 10. And it’s true—walking is a digestible way to exercise more. But how much walking do you really need to do to lose weight?

It would be great if there were a set number. Then you could just figure out your route and get started. The truth is that when it comes to walking off weight, the equation is complicated. How much weight you stand to lose depends on so many things, including where and how you walk, what you eat, and how much you weigh right now.

That doesn’t mean you have to throw up your hands and sit back down. Here’s what to know about steps and weight loss.

Will 10,000 steps a day help me lose weight?

It’s definitely the number you hear mentioned most often—but that doesn’t make it magical.

The idea that you should take 10,000 steps a day is believed to have come from a Japanese company’s pedometer, which was called a 10,000-steps meter (particularly because the Japanese symbol for 10,000 looks like a person walking). It stuck, and everyone now thinks that this many steps a day is ideal for your health.

It’s true that more movement is generally better for your health (there are health and longevity benefits to not being sedentary), but 10,000 is a fairly arbitrary number.

Will I lose weight walking 5,000 steps a day?

It’s a good start—and emerging research does bear it out.

One small study from the University of Texas found that when active people took 5,000 or fewer steps in a day, they were less able to metabolize fat in an artery-healthy way the next day.

How many steps is considered active?

It might be better to move away from a total number of steps.

Every week, healthy adults should aim for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity and two days of muscle strengthening activity, according to the current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.

“Moderate-intensity physical activity” could include a walk, moving a good clip. And if you’re not there get in terms of capacity, keep in mind that it’s a goal, not an expectation to be immediately fulfilled.

Also consider the many health benefits walking can offer beyond weight loss, including reducing your risk of the following conditions, according to the Mayo Clinic:

• Heart disease
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Depression

Does walking for weight loss have any side effects?

It may increase your appetite.

Researchers from the University of Kentucky did a study that validated the idea that when people burn calories with exercise, their bodies want those calories back. In fact, they saw, people ate about 1,000 extra calories a week.

In a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise in 2020, they looked a little more deeply into the issue. People who exercised enough to burn about 1,500 calories a week ate about 1,000 extra calories. But people who exercised enough to burn 3,000 calories a week also ate about 1,000 extra calories. That left them in a 2,000-calorie deficit, and the people who exercised more also lost an average of about 4 pounds of body fat over the 12 weeks of the study, while those exercising less dropped an average of 1.4 pounds.

They didn’t look at steps per se, but another way to think about it is in terms of minutes: The 3,000-calorie group did about 40 to 60 minutes of exercise six times a week; the 1,500-calorie group did about 90 minutes twice a week. You can probably find a way to use your tracker to deduce your step count from your exercise time.

“We always compensate a little bit when exercising—we eat more, expend less metabolic energy—so to really lose weight, you’ll need to out-exercise this compensatory response, which is about 1,000 calories a week,” says lead author Kyle Flack, Ph.D., R.D. “So if we exercise to only burn an extra 1,000 calories, we won’t lose any weight because of this compensatory response. By burning 3,000 calories per week and compensating for 1,000, you’ll be in a 2,000-calorie energy deficit. After about three months, this results in real weight loss.”

Beyond calorie burning, Flack and the other researchers noticed something else in those who had exercised longer: The satiety hormone leptin went up. Exercise may somehow make people more sensitive to leptin, Flack says. Although it has yet to be determined what happens to that hormone and the compensatory response with more exercise.

Overall, steps are great for your health. If you’re looking for significant weight loss in addition to health benefits, Flack says, it’s also smart to pair a healthy diet with increased step counts.