Walking 20,000 steps a day, while challenging, offers a significant boost to physical and mental well-being. Studies show this activity can improve heart health, aid weight loss, regulate blood sugar, and enhance mood.
20000 steps is approximately 8 miles. If you are walking at a brisk pace, you will lose approximately two pounds per month. If you continue walking at this pace, after 12 months, you will have lost 24 pounds.
Overall, walking 20k steps daily for 6 months has helped me maintain a lean physique while allowing me to eat more. It's also helped me better manage my blood sugar, improved my cardio fitness, and kept my energy and mood high — even if it's also generated some minor lower back pain and anxiety.
Lind's walking journey began during the COVID-19 pandemic when her mental health was at an all-time low due to isolation. It wasn't long until she noticed a "huge improvement" in her mood, energy levels and confidence. Now, four years on, she is the proud CEO of her own walking club called Hot Girl Walk®.
You're not in a calorie deficit
'Simply put, if you're not losing weight through walking, it's likely that you're consuming more calories than you are burning through physical activity.
While the popular goal of 10,000 steps a day is considered the gold standard for fitness, doubling that number to 20,000 steps unlocks a whole range of benefits. From accelerating weight loss to boosting sleep quality, energy levels, and stamina, walking 20,000 steps has multiple benefits.
Physical activity, such as walking, is important for weight control because it helps you burn calories. If you add 30 minutes of brisk walking to your daily habits, you could burn about 150 more calories a day. Of course, the more you walk and the quicker your pace, the more calories you'll burn.
For example, regular brisk walking can help you: Maintain a healthy weight and lose body fat. Prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer and type 2 diabetes. Improve cardiovascular fitness.
Many fitness and health experts consider any form of sustained physical activity that gets your heart rate up and makes you breathe harder to be a form of exercise. So yes, walking 20,000 steps a day definitely counts as physical activity.
Suzanne Wylie, GP and medical advisor at IQ Doctor, says a little upwards of 10,000 is fine. “Generally, 12,000 to 15,000 steps a day is considered healthy and achievable. This amount can enhance cardiovascular fitness and contribute to overall physical wellbeing without placing undue stress on the body.”
The distance covered by 20,000 steps can vary depending on the length of each step. On average, a step is considered to be around 0.7 to 0.8 meters for adults. So, 20,000 steps would be approximately 15 kilometers.
Moderate pace (3-4 MPH): 3-4 hours of steady strides. Brisk pace (4-5 MPH): 2.5-2 hours—you're basically flying!
While walking 30,000 steps a day is an impressive feat, it's not sustainable for most people in the long run. You might find moments of joy, clarity, and even physical improvements, but there's a tipping point. Your body needs rest, recovery, and the occasional break from the grind.
There are 7,700kcals (kcal=calorie) worth of energy in 1kg of fat. That means in order to burn 1kg of fat, you must have a calorie deficit of 7,700. Considering the average daily intake can be anywhere from 1,800-2,400kcals, it takes some time to burn that fat.
The number of calories burned by walking 20,000 steps can vary depending on several factors, such as your weight, age, gender, and walking speed. However, as a rough estimate, walking 20,000 steps can burn between 800-1,500 calories, depending on these factors.
How many steps in a kilometer? It takes about 1,300 to 1,500 steps to walk a kilometer. The exact number depends on your stride length. If we take the average step length (which is around 67 cm for women and 76 cm for men), then one kilometer contains 1,316 male steps and 1,493 female steps.
In 2004 Tudor-Locke and Bassett [11] introduced the concept of a graduated step index for healthy adults: 1) < 5,000 steps/day ('sedentary'); 2) 5,000-7,499 steps/day ('low active'); 3) 7,500-9,999 steps/day ('somewhat active'); 4) ≥10,000-12,499 steps/day ('active'); and 5) ≥12,500 steps/day ('highly active').
Popular fitness trackers and pedometers encourage people to take 10,000 steps per day, and one 2016 study agrees that 10,000 steps are ideal. This works out to roughly 5 miles of walking. People interested in walking for weight loss should consistently hit at least 10,000 steps each day.
Walking is simple, free and one of the easiest ways to get more active, lose weight and become healthier. Sometimes overlooked as a form of exercise, walking briskly can help you build stamina, burn excess calories and make your heart healthier.
But in general, if you pair walking with maintaining a calorie deficit, Smith says you can expect to see results within four to six weeks.
“There is no 'maximal' limit for walking or any exercise for that matter,” says Randy Cohn, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine doctor at Northwell Health Orthopaedic Institute in Garden City, New York. The benefits of walking long distances could make the effort worthwhile.
There are tons of benefits of exercise for physical, mental, and emotional health. But when it comes to running vs. walking, there's not much of a difference: both running and walking improve your overall health, and neither exercise is inherently better than the other. When deciding whether running vs.
How much weight you can lose from walking depends on your current weight, diet and activity level. We recommend losing no more than 1 to 2 pounds per week for sustainable weight loss, which means you could potentially lose 5 to 10 pounds in 5 weeks.