Why your daily steps matter more than your cardio
The movement you do outside the gym can burn more than your workouts. Here's why steps are a fat loss tool, and how many to aim for.
Ask most people how to burn more calories and they’ll say cardio. But for many people, the bigger lever is the movement they barely notice: walking, standing, taking the stairs, pacing on calls.
Movement outside the gym
Scientists call it non exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT. It’s everything that isn’t sleeping, eating or deliberate exercise.
In a well known 1999 study, researchers overfed 16 adults by 1,000 calories a day for eight weeks. Fat gain varied more than tenfold between people. The biggest predictor of who stayed leaner was how much their everyday, non exercise movement increased. Some people unconsciously moved a lot more. Others didn’t.
An hour at the gym is one hour. The other fifteen waking hours add up.
Why it matters when dieting
When you eat less, your body tends to move less, often without you noticing. You sit a bit more, fidget less, take the lift. This quietly shrinks your deficit and is one reason fat loss slows.
A daily steps target protects against that. It turns invisible movement into a number you can see and keep steady.
How much do steps burn?
It depends on your body weight and pace. As a rough guide, 10,000 steps is about 7 to 8 kilometres. For an 80 kg person, that’s very roughly 300 to 400 calories, of which perhaps 250 or so is extra over sitting still. Not huge in one day, but over a week it’s the same as a few hard cardio sessions, with almost no impact on your recovery for lifting.
How many steps to aim for
A 2022 analysis in The Lancet Public Health pooled data from 15 studies of nearly 50,000 adults. More daily steps were linked to a lower risk of death, with benefits levelling off at around 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day for adults under 60 and 6,000 to 8,000 for those 60 and over.
For fat loss, a sensible approach:
- Find your current average over a week.
- Add 1,000 to 2,000 a day and hold it for a couple of weeks.
- Build towards 8,000 to 10,000 if it fits your life.
Logpulse sets a starting target of 10,000 steps on a fat loss goal and 8,000 otherwise.
Easy ways to add steps
- Walk during phone calls
- A 10 minute walk after each meal
- Park further away, or get off the bus a stop early
- Take the stairs
- Walk to the shops for small errands
Logging steps
If you carry your iPhone or wear an Apple Watch, Logpulse can read your steps from Apple Health automatically. Otherwise just say “8k steps” when you log your day.
This is general information drawn from published research, not personal medical or dietary advice. If you have a health condition, are pregnant, or have a history of disordered eating, speak to your GP or an Accredited Practising Dietitian first. For support with eating concerns, the Butterfly Foundation helpline is 1800 33 4673.
Sources
- Levine JA, Eberhardt NL, Jensen MD. Role of nonexercise activity thermogenesis in resistance to fat gain in humans. Science. 1999;283(5399):212 to 214.
- Paluch AE, Bajpai S, Bassett DR, et al. Daily steps and all cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts. The Lancet Public Health. 2022;7(3):e219 to e228.