Q: It's said that walking 10,000 steps a day can help with weight loss. Is this claim scientifically sound?
A: The idea of walking 10,000 steps a day is deeply ingrained in people's minds, and it has become the daily exercise goal set by many fitness trackers and fitness apps. In fact, the idea of walking 10,000 steps a day is not suitable for everyone if they want to exercise or even lose weight.
The idea of walking 10,000 steps a day actually originated during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, when the government encouraged people to exercise, leading to the widespread popularity of pedometers across the country. A company launched a product called Manpo-kei, which means "10,000-step record" in Chinese. From then on, walking 10,000 steps a day became the standard for brisk walking.
Tudor Locke, a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Louisiana, pointed out through analysis that walking 10,000 steps a day is not suitable for everyone.
Professor Locke argues that in the 1960s, the average Japanese person consumed 2,632 calories, while today, Americans consume over 3,600 calories. This means that for most people hoping to improve their fitness through walking, 10,000 steps a day is no longer sufficient. By the standards of the past, if walking was solely for exercise, one would need to walk over 15,000 steps daily.
Through his research on people who do not exercise regularly, Professor Locke found that walking 5,000 steps a day is already a challenge for them. If people in a sub-healthy state who do not exercise regularly can walk 2,500 to 5,000 steps a day, it is a good achievement, because this will reduce the risk of death by 20% to 30%.
Therefore, don't just focus on how many steps you walk each day while ignoring other factors like diet; otherwise, walking 10,000 steps a day may not help you lose weight at all. Weight loss is only possible if you burn significantly more calories than you consume.
Therefore, if you are not in a sub-healthy state, walking 10,000 steps a day may not be enough to meet your healthy exercise needs, and you will need to increase your pace slightly to increase calorie consumption.
Woolf Eckerllon, a researcher who studies mortality rates in Europe, also pointed out that people should stand instead of sitting, walk instead of standing, jog instead of walking, and run instead of jogging.
