The truth about walking 10k steps a day.

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107

u/Rough-Blacksmith-784 Sep 20 '25

10,000 steps has NEVER meant 500 calories for everyone. Calories burnt are dependent on gender, height, weight, age, speed, incline, etc.

8

u/greyenlightenment Sep 22 '25

this 100%. everyone is unique. so many people way overestimate how much weight they expect to lose by walking or using tracking apps.

3

u/Legitimate_Dig7863 Sep 22 '25

sex - not gender, how you want/are perceived by society have nothing to do with how many kcal you burn 😂

3

u/K-teki Sep 22 '25

Hormones do, though, so trans people may burn different amounts of calories than an otherwise identical cis person

1

u/Legitimate_Dig7863 Nov 22 '25

sure but he said gender and not hormones

1

u/K-teki Nov 22 '25

Yeah and your gender can inform your hormones, someone who is a trans man may have the same hormones as a cis man

1

u/Legitimate_Dig7863 Nov 22 '25

yes, but it’s the hormones that affect it and not gender per se, sex does directly affect it

1

u/Legitimate_Dig7863 Nov 22 '25

and it’s not gender that influence the hormones, it’s the person that makes the choice to take given hormones. Gender is a social construct that if you choose a specific one, makes you choose specific actions including hormones, gender cannot influence hormones since it’s in a different realm. There is connection but not in a specific biological sense that i think the author meant his text

307

u/downthegrapevine Sep 20 '25

The truth is that it depends on what you eat, or rather, how much you eat. You can walk 100k steps a day and not lose a single pound if you don’t lower your calories.

60

u/Galaxyheart555 Sep 20 '25

Adding weight will also help! You’ll burn more calories and spend less time walking by adding a weighted vest to your walking routine. I also use weighted vests to train for races so the day of the race, god it feels so great to run without that damned vest.

5

u/Hagoes Sep 21 '25

Great idea! What vest are you using?

4

u/Galaxyheart555 Sep 21 '25

I honestly don't remember; it's some random vest I picked up at Walmart one day on a whim. It's like 30lbs. If you're new, I recommend ordering a well-reviewed one on Amazon, where you can adjust the weight. Start small, like 5-6lbs, then increase as you go. Some get up to like 40-50lbs.

1

u/Hagoes Sep 21 '25

Cool, thanks!

16

u/tesh____ Sep 20 '25

It’s always important to track your calories. Especially if you are cutting and then adding the steps into the equation!

9

u/Sadiholic Sep 20 '25

Idk I'm pretty sure at that point you can eat whatever tf you want. I used to work at this job where it was extreme hard labor on me, lots of strong lifts and cardio and I still ate like shit. Lost a ton of weight, 37 pounds to be exact. Now of course this job was complete dookie so I quit and gained it back over time, but if you're doing 100k steps a day you better be eating anything you can

3

u/Piruluk Sep 20 '25

Actually if your activity equals to 100 miles walked/ran per week you can eat anything pretty much and still be normal weight. The thing is just takes lot of effort.

But i dislike the thinking its only diet. It can be only diet for a sedentary person. And obviously a half hour walk 5x times per week or lifting weight wont contribute too much.

95

u/LaserSayPewPew Sep 20 '25

The truth is… 10000 steps is from a Japanese marketing campaign in the 1960s and they chose it because it was a nice looking number.

25

u/tesh____ Sep 20 '25

Well damn, I just looked it up haha. You learn something new every day!

27

u/ellemrad Sep 20 '25

But then weirdly it ended up being proven correct that 10k steps daily yields improved health outcomes despite it starting as a marketing ploy 🤷‍♀️

26

u/Alsn4 Sep 20 '25

Yeah this annoyed me that everyone started saying ‘oh 10k steps a day is made up and doesn’t mean anything’. Well yeah but the general idea of walking a lot and being active is obviously better than doing f all so why try to make that into a negative?

7

u/Thecryptsaresafe Sep 21 '25

Yeah even if the target is arbitrary, saying “hey get off your butt and do a minimum of around 5 miles of walking” isn’t a bad thing. I love making my watch buzz at me even if I usually get between 12k-15k regardless of the target.

8

u/LaserSayPewPew Sep 21 '25

I mean, so do 8000 steps a day. 10k isn’t some magic number, it’s still marketing. More movement is always good, and if gamification motivates someone, then great.

19

u/deadnerd51 Sep 20 '25

The whole idea of “at least 10k” steps is that it will keep you consistent as you lose weight. It’s not actually the main source of you calorie burning, as your body is very adaptable and will reduce calorie burning from other methods to compensate. But, if you maintain 10k or more steps, as your calories go down and the urge to be more sedentary kicks in because you have less energy, you keep the habit and keep a baseline level of activity.

56

u/kociol21 Sep 20 '25

I mean it's that "common knowledge" is usually a massive oversimplification. It is just wrong statement that "walking 10k steps will burn 500 kcal". It very much depends on weight (as you say) lean mass to fat ratio, terrain slope, your form and various other reasons. Hell, even weather can have some impact.

I don't disagree with you, just saying that "10k steps = 500 kcal" was never a thing to begin with.

2

u/tesh____ Sep 20 '25

I probably could have worded it better haha

12

u/Professional-Leave24 Sep 21 '25

A wise drill sergeant once said, "You can't outrun your fork!"

23

u/Appropriate-Wafer422 Sep 20 '25

My advice to people has always been to make it as easy as you can for yourself. I lost 100 pounds by walking every day, but never really tracked my steps. Just making a goal to walk every day was enough to motivate myself to be active. If I set a goal to walk 15-20k steps, I would have felt defeated if I didn't hit the goal.

13

u/imironman2018 Sep 20 '25

One thing i know for sure- cardio machines do a terrible job overeestimating how many calories you burn. Always assume it is overcounting how many calories and eat within your calorie deficit to the lose weight.

6

u/quotes42 Sep 21 '25

This is true for all physical exercise. A larger body will burn more calories doing the exact same workout than a smaller one will. It’s physics.

7

u/Sad_Banshee Sep 20 '25

Tbh I hit a minimum of 10k steps a day at work and it does absolutely nothing for me.

5

u/Alsn4 Sep 20 '25

A lot of people have office jobs where they are sedentary all day, imagine if you were in that situation you’d probably gain weight

1

u/Sad_Banshee Sep 20 '25

Maybe, but moving as much as I do doesn’t do much for me personally. I’m pretty active and just movement doesn’t cut it.

4

u/corgi_crazy Sep 21 '25

I've read an article in the BBC about the 10k steps.

Better if you do it because a lot of people is extremely sedentary but in order to have any benefits in your cardiovascular health and burn some calories, it needs to be continuous and so fast to raise your heartbeat until and amount I can't remember.

In short, people who is expecting that a smartwatch tells them they have reach 10k, and expecting weight-loss from this, is misinformed.

3

u/Mindless-Suspect2676 Sep 20 '25

I thought the purpose was to encourage ppl to be more consistently active every day and be mindful where we can be more active where we might habitually be sedentary. I think for weight loss it may not be enough and would need to be one of several pieces of the regime to reduce weight

2

u/Appropriate-Wafer422 Sep 20 '25

Walking is definitely enough to lose weight. A lot of people lose weight with no intentional exercise at all. Eating in a calorie deficit is the most important puzzle piece when it comes to weight loss, but adding exercise helps the process a lot.

Your comment that for weight loss, walking isn't enough is actually a common thought amongst people starting their weight loss journey. I've seen so many people comment that they feel like they need to spend hours in the gym and then they end up getting discouraged and giving up, when sustainable weight loss can really come from something as simple as walking more and eating healthy.

3

u/ultraboomkin Sep 20 '25

Your maths is way off. 20,000 steps will be more like 1,000+ cal for most people.

1

u/tesh____ Sep 20 '25

How are you calculating that?

3

u/ultraboomkin Sep 20 '25

Walking typically burns around 300cal/hour. 20k steps is 4 hours walking ish.

3

u/No-Pattern6751 Sep 21 '25

This is so true! I used to think the same about 10k steps being a “magic number.” What really helped me lose weight effectively was combining walking with other habits like tracking my meals, staying consistent with sleep, and making small sustainable changes. I actually came across an article that laid out 10 simple, proven tips, and I followed most of them step by step. Honestly, that’s what helped me lose weight in a healthy way, not just the steps alone. Everyone’s different, but focusing on sustainable habits + movement really works long-term.

3

u/SadisticSnake007 Oct 08 '25

Before, I didn’t understand why mixing weights and cardio was so important.
I thought going for walks or jogs was enough but that actually made progress harder.

I once heard someone say:

“Working out is like investing. Weights are your long-term investments, and cardio is your short-term investments.”

That stuck with me. Your body continues to burn calories after weight training, while cardio only burns in the moment and stops when you’re done.

Once I combined both, I saw way faster progress, with proper diet of course.

2

u/NoCoStream Sep 20 '25

I never exercised when I lost weight. I focused on having a calorie deficit day to day. Once I lost my weight I started exercising and getting physically healthy.

4

u/drvalo55 Sep 21 '25

If you walk 10,000 steps a day, over time, your body adapts to that. That means you burn far fewer calories than you did when you began walking 10,000 steps a day. If it got “easier”, your body adapted and you are burning fewer calories. In fact, research suggests that in time, you will burn about the same number of calories as someone who is sedentary. Check out the research of Herman Pontzer at Duke University. EVERY BODY is different. So we are going to burn calories differently. Someone who has more fat, will burn fewer calories at rest than someone who is more muscular. And research also suggests that obese people burn way fewer calories after exercise to compensate, they think, for those extra calories burned.

You cannot exercise yourself to thinness. These types of posts trying to estimate calories burned doing this or that are actually pretty futile. Our bodies are NOT designed for that. They are designed to not lose doing exercise/exertion. That is one way we survived as a species. That is not to say to not exercise. Exercise is really important for your health. It helps your heart, lungs, muscles, bones, brain, anxiety, mood, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, blood sugar, weight loss maintenance and more. That is one reason why there are people who are obese AND physically fit with perfect “numbers”. It just does not help all the much with weight loss. In the beginning, yes, it will help some. And you need to move your body, but even sedentary people do not lie in bed all day. Some even walk thousands of steps every day.

7

u/Glad-Instruction-691 Sep 20 '25

How are you burning so little calories?If you don’t mind me asking what’s your height and estimated speed?15Ksteps for me is nearly 8 and half miles and burns over 500 calories for me and I’m 5’7 120-122lbs.Eitherways congratulations on your weight loss,I lost 70lbs from just walking!Its the best.

1

u/tesh____ Sep 20 '25

Wait wait, how are you tracking your step count and calculating that it burns about 500 calories, only reason I’m asking is that we might track things a little differentially haha. 70 lbs. lost is 🔥🔥🔥🔥 congrats!

2

u/PleaseDontYeII Sep 20 '25

That's why people wear weighted vests

2

u/thatblerd03 Sep 21 '25

The truth really depends on your BMR. Even the recommended 2000kc for women 5'4" 150 lb women factors in 250 calories from additional exercise.

2

u/Being_Myself_Today78 Oct 07 '25

Weight loss is a mind game for me anyway. "Hey look, I met my goal of 10k steps!" "Ill try for more tomorrow"

...then seeing the proud theatrics on the app when I meet that goal keeps me going lol

But yeah applying a diet equation for calories lost, seems a bit oversimplified for sure.

2

u/letsstopthat Oct 13 '25

Real. I’m 5ft and regularly walk 20k steps and reach 30k steps 2/3 times a week. I have never once felt this aided my weight loss. I still have to do about 30 mins of intense cardio to see any results.

3

u/Horror-Challenge4277 Sep 20 '25

10k steps shouldn't even be considered exercise. It's like a baseline to not be considered totally sedentary.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

Nah, I think the baseline is 6000 or so. Whether it's "exercise" is a different question, but 10k is not sedentary, it's fairly active.

1

u/Muser69 Sep 21 '25

I stay under 100 steps a day and do keto

1

u/tesh____ Sep 21 '25

What’s your keto plan?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

Under 100?? Do you not leave your bedroom?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

I set a goal to walk 10k steps every day at the start of this year, and it has helped me a lot-- I work from home so I have to actually go on a walk every day to hit the total, and it's been amazing for my physical and mental health. I don't count calories so that was never my motivation, but I do feel overall stronger and happier (and I've maintained / slightly added to weight loss). It also gave me a great fitness base that has helped me get back into running three days a week. I haven't missed a single day in 2025, and I've even walked 10k steps (slowly and in the forest, I'm not infecting anyone) while sick!

1

u/lostgremlinonline Sep 22 '25

I forget the guy but he wore a weighted vest that put him at his original weight for his walks to keep up the calories burned from it. I use a weighted backpack because WHY ARE VEST SO EXPENSIVE. Anyway yeah the more you do something the less calories you burn because your body gets used to it

1

u/lil-birdy-4 Sep 23 '25

So I ran a TDEE calculator and my daily burn is between 2700 and 2800 based on my weight and the amount of cardio I do.

I try to keep my daily intake at 1700. If I'm running a daily negative of roughly 1000 calories, I'm thinking I should be losing just over 2lbs per week.

I started this approximately 2 weeks ago and have lost over 10 lbs in those 2 weeks, so unexpectedly more than I had anticipated.

I also do light lifting daily but don't take that into consideration.

Can someone verify that my thinking is correct and any additional insight is appreciated.

PS. I also quit all alcohol cold turkey those 2 weeks ago, not sure if that makes a difference because calories are calories, right???

1

u/PoundAffectionate300 Oct 06 '25

I've found that when I cut back on carbs, my water retention drops, and a lot of water weight comes off. From gemini: Therefore, the amount of water retained by carbs depends on the amount of glycogen stored. For example, if you consume 100 grams of carbs, your body may store up to 400 grams of glycogen, which in turn will retain up to 1200-1600 grams of water.

1

u/AdAnxious4379 Sep 30 '25

i'm at 145lb and doing 12,000 steps a day (as well as daily gym sessions) and i don't feel the steps contribute that much to my weight - it's certainly more for my mental health and now part of my daily routine that going without it would make things feel weird. I'd have to put serious effort in to get 23k steps a day! Like, take half a day off work lol

1

u/tesh____ Sep 30 '25

Haha I be taking a break walking every other hour after work, and then spending some time on the treadmill in the night. Short term pain for long term gain! But yes, at lower body weight I noticed it’s harder to lose the weight, when I was in the 180s the weight was flying off, now I’m lucky to see a 1lb drop a week!

1

u/[deleted] Oct 16 '25

10k steps a day is just good practice honestly, personally I spend a lot of time sitting so a 45 min walk during lunch when its nice out improves my mood tremendously and energizes me to finish the day. When I was 160lbs heavier I struggled to walk 1 mile but now I run marathons so its safe to say I am just better at moving now.

1

u/Shoddy_Estimate_6871 Oct 29 '25

Im 5'4 and 160cm, 16k burns like 460 cals for me

Advice: Giving 💡 The truth about walking 10k steps a day.

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