There's no single step count that guarantees weight loss, because you lose weight when you burn more calories than you eat. Steps help by adding to the calories you burn. Many people aim for 8,000 to 10,000 a day, and adding 2,000 to 3,000 steps to what you do now is a realistic place to start.
Walking is one of the easiest ways to burn more without feeling worn out. It doesn't make you as hungry as hard cardio, you can do it every day, and it won't get in the way of lifting.
How many calories do steps burn?
For most adults, a mile is about 2,000 steps, so 1,000 steps is roughly half a mile, or a 10-minute walk. Your body weight sets most of that number, since a heavier body takes more energy to move.
The table below uses the Compendium of Physical Activities, the standard reference researchers use for the energy cost of activities, for walking at about 3 miles an hour on flat ground:
| Body weight | 1 mile (about 2,000 steps) | 3,000 extra steps a day | 3,000 extra steps, per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 140 lb (64 kg) | About 75 calories | About 110 calories | About 780 calories |
| 180 lb (82 kg) | About 95 calories | About 145 calories | About 1,000 calories |
| 220 lb (100 kg) | About 115 calories | About 175 calories | About 1,200 calories |
These are estimates. Walking uphill, carrying a bag or walking faster burns more, and about a third of each number is what your body would burn sitting still anyway. At 180 lb, an extra 3,000 steps a day still adds up to about 1,000 calories a week.
To put that next to food: 145 calories is a little more than one tablespoon of olive oil, which has 119. Steps work best when you also track what you eat. A few thousand steps can cover a small deficit, and you can also cancel them out with one extra snack. Our Food Directory lists the calories in common foods if you want to compare.
What the research says about daily steps
Most step studies look at health outcomes, but you can use their targets for weight loss too.
A 2011 review of step studies found that healthy adults usually take somewhere between 4,000 and 18,000 steps a day, and that 10,000 is a reasonable target for healthy adults. Programs that set out to increase walking usually added about 2,000 to 2,500 steps a day, which is a realistic amount to add in one go.
A 2022 study in The Lancet Public Health pooled data from 15 groups of adults around the world. People who took more steps had a lower risk of dying early, up to a point. The benefit leveled off at about 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day for adults 60 and older, and about 8,000 to 10,000 for younger adults.
| Daily steps | What it usually looks like |
|---|---|
| Under 5,000 | Mostly sitting: desk job, driving, little walking |
| 5,000 to 7,500 | Some walking through the day, but no planned walks |
| 7,500 to 10,000 | A daily walk or an on-your-feet job |
| Over 10,000 | Planned walks plus an active day |
Does walking pace matter?
For calories, distance counts more than pace: a mile burns about the same either way, so a slower walk takes longer to burn the same amount. For heart health, a brisk pace helps. Researchers use about 100 steps a minute as the point where walking turns into moderate exercise, the kind that has you breathing harder but still able to talk.
The U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines suggest at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, such as brisk walking. Thirty minutes at 100 steps a minute is about 3,000 steps, so a brisk 30-minute walk five days a week covers the guideline on its own.
If you want more out of the same time, walking uphill raises your heart rate a lot more than flat ground does, without the pounding of running. Our incline walk example shows a 30-minute treadmill session built that way.
Why steps help when you're losing weight
Researchers call daily movement outside of exercise, like walking around, standing, cleaning and fidgeting, NEAT, short for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Research by James Levine and others found that NEAT varies a lot from person to person, and that for most people it burns more calories than their planned workouts do.
NEAT also tends to drop without you noticing when you eat less. You feel a little more tired, so you sit more and take the elevator. With a daily step count, you can see when your movement starts to slide and catch it early.
Walking also pairs well with lifting. It's easy to recover from, so it doesn't eat into your strength workouts, and your body keeps more muscle when you lose weight while lifting than when you diet alone.
How to add more steps
- Walk after meals. A 10-minute walk after lunch and dinner adds about 2,000 steps, and it's an easy habit to tie to something you already do.
- Take calls on your feet. A 20-minute phone call spent walking is around 2,000 steps you'd otherwise spend sitting.
- Park farther away. The far end of the parking lot, or one stop early on the bus, adds a few hundred steps each trip.
- Split it up. Several short walks add up the same as one long one, so you can fit them around your day.
- Add slowly. Going from 4,000 to 10,000 overnight is hard to keep up. Adding about 1,000 steps every week or two gives your feet and legs time to adjust.
Our 8-week walking plan example works that way. It starts around 5,000 steps a day and adds 1,000 every two weeks. If you lift too, the cardio and lifting week example shows how walks and strength workouts fit in the same week.
Steps and your calorie target
If your goal is weight loss, your calorie target does most of the work and your steps make it easier to reach. Our free Weight Loss Calculator estimates how long it takes to reach your goal weight at a few different paces, and how many calories a day to start with. For more on setting a target and logging food, see How to count calories to lose weight.
Most calculators build an activity level into your calorie target. If you pick "lightly active" and then add 5,000 steps a day, you may be more active than your target assumes. Track your weight for two or three weeks and adjust from what you see.
Common questions
Is 10,000 steps a day enough to lose weight?
It can be, if you're also eating a little less than you burn. On their own, 10,000 steps burn a few hundred calories more than a mostly seated day, which helps, but what you eat has the bigger effect.
Do steps on a treadmill count?
Yes. Treadmill walking, especially at an incline, counts the same as walking outside.
Is walking better than running for weight loss?
Running burns more calories per minute, and walking burns about the same per mile with far less wear on your joints. The better choice is the one you'll keep doing most days, and for many people that's walking.
How accurate is my phone or watch?
Step counts from phones and watches are usually close enough to track trends. Calorie estimates from wrist trackers are a lot less accurate, so it's better to look at your steps and your weight trend than at the calories your watch shows.
Can I lose weight by walking without changing what I eat?
Some people do, especially if they barely moved before. You may find you eat a little more when you move more, though, which cancels part of the deficit. If you track your food for a few weeks, you'll see whether that's happening.
Sources
- Tudor-Locke C. et al. How many steps/day are enough? For adults. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (2011).
- Paluch A.E. et al. Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts. The Lancet Public Health (2022).
- Ainsworth B.E. et al. 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities: a second update of codes and MET values. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (2011).
- Levine J.A. Nonexercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): environment and biology. American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism (2004).
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition (2018).
- Shcherbina A. et al. Accuracy in wrist-worn, sensor-based measurements of heart rate and energy expenditure in a diverse cohort. Journal of Personalized Medicine (2017).
