Steps are very important for your fitness journey - and sorry but I don’t mean the 90s pop band with whom I have a great affination - and yes that is a “tragedy”.

Sorry for the awful joke.

I mean walking. Or rather, I almost view it as physical meditation.

Steps are one of the single most important pillars to pin any fitness journey to for anyone. Simply because in terms of exercise especially, they are so easily accessible to everyone.

Although having said that, I have certainly noticed how much harder it is to get my steps in regularly since moving to Australia compared to living in the UK. Its a lot easier to walk in the rain than it is in the sun!

This is me most days here in Queensland.

Steps are a golden tool to help you in your fitness journey - especially if it is weight loss orientated - and so I am going to take you through as many ways as I can think of to help you increase those steps each and every day to help you conquer your goals.

The idea for this Blog Post came from a BBC article [1] I saw titled:

“Walking can boost your fitness and Mental Health says PHA (Public Health Agency)”

The article highlighted that in Northern Ireland two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese and that the average step count in Northern Ireland was 3000-4000 steps a day.

It also goes on to say that walking is often overlooked as a form of effective exercise, despite its ability to build stamina, burn excess calories and improve heart health.

The section that stood out to me the most was the comment by the NHS that said:

“walking is often overlooked as a form of effective exercise”

And I know this to be true. The number of times I have had to convince a client on the Strong & Confident Program that their daily steps are more important than their workouts, especially if they are wanting to lose weight is far too great. This is because the fitness industry and society will make you think that a workout burns more calories than it actually does compared to the daily habit of hitting that step target.

One thing the BBC article does miss out on is actually helping you figure out how to increase your steps so that you can improve your overall health and fitness. Which is exactly why I wanted to sit down and write this for you.

Now I am sure you have a million and one questions all about this topic - but don’t worry - I will of course take you through it all in the rest of this article.

Table of Contents for Creative Ways To Increase Your Steps Each Day:

Why Should You Increase Your Steps?
How Many Steps A Day To Lose Weight?
Can Walking Help Your Mental Health?
How To Increase Your Step Count at Home
How To Increase Your Step Count at Work

Why Should You Increase Your Steps?

I wanted to start by answering this question because without showing you the value of your steps each day it is far less likely you are going to nail the target you have set for yourself.

Let us start with your metabolism and how it is broken down.

Metabolism basically means the “amount of calories you burn each day” and it is a very hard thing to “break”. If you think that your metabolism is broken, and you don’t have hypothyroidism or another diagnosed metabolic condition by a doctor, then I come with good news.

Your Metabolism isn’t broken. It is more than likely you just aren’t understanding what goes into it and therefore what you can get out of it.

Our metabolism is a pretty static thing throughout our whole lives, even when as a woman, you go through pregnancy and menopause. Your Metabolism just doesn’t change.

As a study called Daily Energy Expenditure Through the Human Life Course [2] found out.

It looked at a cohort of people over their lifetime and analysed their metabolism from 8 days old to 95 years old and it found between the ages of 20 and 60 metabolism was stable.

You can see the trends in the graphs above. It should also be noted, there are some outliers from the trend, and if this is your lived experience then that needs to be noted.

READ MY BLOG THAT OUTLINES EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR METABOLISM:

IS YOUR METABOLISM BROKEN?

Now that you know your Metabolism is pretty stable from the age of 20 years old, what goes into it and how can you get the most out of it.

The two sections I really want you to take note of in the above image are:

EAT and NEAT

EAT: This is your Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and it is simply how many calories you burn when doing a prescribed movement. HIIT, a Group Fitness Session, a Monthly Issue Workout, a jog, a bike ride - anything that is “fitness”.

And it is worth just 5% of your Metabolism or “the number of calories you burn each day”.

NEAT: This is all other movements you do in your day. Standing on the tube to go to work, doing your grocery shop, cleaning the house, brushing your teeth, fidgeting at your desk, and yes, your daily steps.

This is worth a whopping 15% of your Metabolism or “the number of calories you burn each day”.

And is also the biggest portion of your Metabolism that is directly under your control.

In a weight loss scenario, this is crucially important to know and is a huge reason one of my 5 Awesome Rules for Fat Loss Life is 10,000 steps a day.

Not that you NEED to do 10,000 steps a day - but more on that later.

Understanding your Metabolism in this way is also why I frame movement for all of my clients and have called my online coaching program the Strong & Confident Program. You won’t lose weight by doing some workouts in the Gym. Workouts are designed to get a human strong, not smaller, and your Metabolism would agree with me.

There are many other reasons you should increase your step count each day which will be sprinkled in the rest of this article.

How Many Steps A Day To Lose Weight?

No.

It really isn’t.

And here is the good news: you don’t have to do Ultra Marathons to lose weight.

Earlier in this article, I mentioned the dreaded: 10,000 steps a day.

There are studies that back this up, but with a kicker, seldom spoken about when setting step targets.

A study called: Pattern of Daily Steps is Associated with Weight Loss: Secondary Analysis from the Step-Up Randomized Trial [3] found the following from 363 participants in this 18-month study:

“Results support the recommendation of accumulating 10,000 steps·day, with approximately 3,500 of these steps per day being performed at a moderate-to-vigorous intensity in bouts of at least 10 minutes, to enhance weight loss in response to a behavioural weight loss intervention. While these results have implications that inform public health recommendations for physical activity.”

Key things to highlight here are:

Firstly the participants were in a Calorie Deficit.

The second is they completed 3,500 steps at a vigorous intensity.

Third is that it took 18 months for the participants to achieve a greater than 10% of body weight loss and only 263 of them managed to stick with it.

The origins of 10,000 steps a day are quite odd really, it was invented as a target by a Japanese company that wanted to sell their pedometers - and then the figure just stuck - and it was popularised by FitBit.

Essentially there is no magic number of steps a day to lose weight - and all weight loss efforts are futile if you aren’t in a Calorie Deficit.

But increasing your NEAT is always going to help you burn more calories and increase your weight loss efforts - all else being equal.

For some of you, this would be 10,000 steps a day.

For others, an increase in your step count could simply be increasing to 5,000 or 8,000.

What I tell all my clients who are working on a Fat Loss phase is, to work on creative ways to increase their steps over the day, and then still target a walk at vigorous intensity - and the best way to judge that is to challenge yourself to walk fast enough to struggle to hold a conversation, or if you are outside in a colder climate, to a point where you don’t need to wear a jacket.

Let me tell you about my client Jason who lives in Wisconsin and is on the Strong and Confident Program.

Jason is a truck driver. He gets up at 2am and drives from Wisconsin all the way to Ohio to deliver bricks and other materials for buildings, and then he drives back.

His ability to get steps in is really tough. We are constantly working on his diet to make sure he is in a Calorie Deficit when he is on the road, and we have had to come up with some really creative ways to help him regularly hit his step target. Things like walking around the truck when waiting to load and unload. Doing Truck laps when he is at a rest stop.

He has now lost 10kg in three months. His starting weight was 124kg, or as he is American, 272lbs. And in the last screenshot below you can see he hit 252lbs recently.

Here is a snapshot of the hard work he put into increasing his steps from his feedback forms over the last few months of his training. You can see his increased focus on steps week on week and the outcomes associated with them just from what he is feeding back to me.

It really is an awesome insight.

FOR MORE READING ON THIS TOPIC HEAD HERE:

IS 10,000 STEPS A DAY ENOUGH TO LOSE WEIGHT AND BE HEALTHY?

Can Walking Help Your Mental Health?

It certainly can.

I am of the belief that a walk cures most things.

We know, at this point, that exercise benefits your mood, as it helps reduce stress levels, it increases dopamine in your system, releases endorphins and gives you a sense of productivity.

Walking also fits into this narrative very easily.

There is one other key benefit of walking that you don’t get from being in a gym.

Nature.

Being in nature is a great stress reliever as well. Getting Vitamin D on your skin, looking at trees, fresh air and all the good stuff that outside giving you is worth its weight in gold when it comes to improving your mental health.

Another added benefit to your mental health from walking is the fact you will sleep better. This comes from having increased activity levels, but also from your body being able to tell the difference between night and day. The more sunlight your body gets, the more it will help regulate your circadian rhythm which is responsible for the timing of your internal body clock.

I say to all my clients that a walk cures everything.

Stressed…go for a walk.

Anxious…go for a walk.

Angry…go for a walk.

Depressed…go for a walk (if you can).

Feeling pent up…go for a walk.

Feel like you need to move…go for a walk.

Walking demands you create space and time between whatever it is that is stressing you out, and your response to that stress. It allows you to process things not only mentally but physically too. Going for a walk is simply a way for you to iron out anything snags you have in your life.

And I think thats pretty cool - and something worth valuing in one’s life.

How To Increase Your Step Count at Home

Over the years I have trained many, many people who have office jobs and busy family lives.

Simply telling them to go for a vigorous walk at lunch was not possible.

Or, a walk when the children were in bed at night time, in East London, considering I train mainly women, was not a good idea either.

So we had to get creative - and I also had to educate them on what steps actually meant.

Your Apple Watch doesn’t just pick up steps when you walk, it picks up any intentional movement that also picks up your heart rate just a touch.

This means you can clock up your steps whenever you are doing any sort of task - because remember the goal isn’t to increase actual steps the goal is to increase your NEAT activity,

You can therefore increase your steps at home by:

Cleaning the house
Tidying up after your kids
Mowing the lawn (I have a two-acre yard, its like walking a marathon every time)
Squatting when you brush your teeth
Climbing the stairs in the ad breaks when you are watching Love Island

This reminds me of a very funny post I once did:

When I was working in London I had a couple of clients who refused to train with me if it clashed with Love Island - hence I decided to make them workout whilst they watched it.

As you can tell…I am not a Love Island fan…

Making your bed
Dancing in your living room
Having sex (hopefully lots of it)
Decorating
Doing some building work
Sawing some wood
Chopping some wood
Work upstairs so each time you need to eat you climb the staircase
Gardening
Chase your children
Play with your pets
Do calf raises whilst the kettle boils

Basically, anything goes in your house so long as it increases your activity level.

And yes, it may feel superfluous. It might feel a little weird, and a little forced. But the more you do it, the more normal it will feel, and the more you do it, the more likely you are to see the fruits of your labour, which will likely make you more and more motivated to continue.

And remember, if my fiancee was able to get 10,000 steps in a day when she was in a hotel room isolating as she returned to Australia during the covid-19 pandemic then I am sure there are many ways in which you can explore your entire home to increase your step count.

How To Increase Your Step Count at Work

You could set off a fake fire alarm…

But I don’t personally recommend it as you might get into trouble with the authorities.

This is quite a hard topic to approach because every job has different demands, and a nurse for example, probably won’t need to read this section. However, a lawyer or an administrator might need to. A truck driver has far less opportunity to increase their steps at work compared to a teacher.

What I will do is approach this section from the point of view of a generic “office worker” and hopefully some of it might give you some ideas to then adapt and take into your own professional life.

And remember, its not just about steps on your watch…its’s about increasing NEAT activity.

Park your car further away from the office
Stand on Public Transport during your commute
Offer to the morning coffee run
Make all the tea and coffee in the office all day for your co-workers
Drink lots of water so you have to make more journeys to the toilet (I recommend 2-3 litres a day)
Eat lots of fibrous food and remember Elmo…

Fidget at your desk
Walk on your lunch break
Have walking meetings
Always stand up when you are on the phone
Take the stairs, not the lift
Collect your own printouts
Hand out the days post
Greet your colleagues by saying hello each morning around the office
Go for a walk as opposed to grabbing a snack
Get a walking pad in your office
Get a standing desk
Get a foot cycling thingy like this:

As you can see, there are lots of opportunities in and around your office to help increase your steps at work. One thing I know very well from having worked in corporate and many different office setups, from being a City Banker to working in world-class stadiums, is that the first barrier to some of these changes is your co-worker’s judgement on what you are doing, and the second thing is really what is most important.

Focussed activity equals more productivity. I fully appreciate that the argument to your boss to allow you to work out during your work hours will likely fall on deaf ears - more fool your boss when you look at the science involved with this.

There was a study [3] in Denmark 15 randomized trials took place in the workplace. It totalled 3500 employees across 10-52 weeks and gave the employee one hour of training a week. The training - matched something known as Intelligent Physical Exercise Training (which is a fancy term for a personalised training session with a Personal Trainer) as well as meeting other physical activity guidelines.

Its conclusions are rather epic. So epic in fact, I decided to give you the whole conclusion verbatim:

“Physical exercise training at work as IPET benefits the worker in terms of decreasing health risk indicators, improving physical capacity and functions as well as perceived health. Also, the employer may benefit from allowing the employees work time for such training through decreased sickness absenteeism and presenteeism in terms of improved or maintained productivity and workability. Finally, on the societal level exercise can be “more than medicine” since exercise in a specific manner can maintain the individual's ordinary daily physical functions and ability to move (walk, run). This is becoming more and more important among the ageing workers and in a public health perspective.”

Now because despite the evidence on display, your boss isn’t going to give you a free pass to head to the gym for an hour a week, it still shows that physical exercise, any physical exercise, even to the level of walking more, will make you more productive. It will decrease your sickness, it will improve your mood and it will give you more energy to focus on your tasks at hand.

So despite what your co-workers might think, despite how odd it feels pedalling under your desk, it will all feel better when you have far less stress relating to your job, when you feel more socially included with your co-workers and when you are being more productive.

So if going for a walk at lunch takes you some way towards that…then it can’t be a bad thing, and you are also increasing your steps whilst at work.

What a win-win.

A Final Word…

I truly hope you found this article helpful. I have spent the best part of the last decade of my life helping people reframe and reimagine what fitness means to them and how they view their relationship with fitness.

Whether that is their relationship with food, exercise or themselves, I have helped 1000s of people focus on getting stronger in their mind, body and soul to help them have more increased confidence and self-esteem.

I do this in a variety of ways:

My Blog - www.thegymstarter.com/blog
My Training Program - The Strong and Confident Program
My Books - 27 Ways To Faster Fat Loss

As well as the usual social media channels.

If you would like to find out more about getting stronger then please drop me an email by using the form below:

Have a great day,

Thanks for reading

Coach Adam,

References:

Connolly, M.-L. (2023) Walking more can boost fitness and Mental Health, says Pha, BBC News. BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-65163071 (Accessed: April 10, 2023).
Daily Energy Expenditure Through the Human Life Course | Science (no date). Available at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe5017 (Accessed: April 10, 2023).
Author links open overlay panelGisela Sjøgaard and AbstractBackgroundPhysical activity (PA) includes muscle activity during exercise (2016) Exercise is more than medicine: The working age population’s well-being and productivity, Journal of Sport and Health Science. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254616300096 (Accessed: 17 May 2023).