Plan to walk 15,000 steps a day (and lose weight)

15,000 steps per day

15,000? But … wasn't it 10,000? Well no, the latest studies affirm that the key to staying healthy and fit is walking 15,000 steps a day, about 11 km. Do you want to know how to get them?

How many kilometers are 15,000 steps a day?

Dr. William Tigbe, leader of the International Journal of Obesity study on 15,000 steps, explains that they are equivalent to almost seven miles, or about 3.5 hours a day of slow walking. To make it easy and mount your calculations, take as a rough rule that 1 km is 1,500 steps at a leisurely pace. If you walk faster, your steps will go up.

Motivation is the key

Applications such as Runtastic, Accupedo, Endomondo or iPhone health data will help you to count what you walk and challenge yourself. Remember that then you have to always carry your mobile with you so that it counts all the steps. You can also choose an activity bracelet: Fitbit (photo), Apple Watch or any other brand.

From home to work

How much from your house to the station? Are you walking? With Google Maps it is easy to calculate. Here are two examples:

20 minutes from home to work, 1 km away: 1,500 steps each way
5 minutes from home to the subway or bus, 250 meters away: 375 steps each way

If you live in a town without public transport, try to drive less.

Get off one stop earlier

Metro or bus stations are usually about 500 meters apart. If you get off or get on one earlier you will get an extra 750 steps per trip.

Go 30 extra minutes

Find your moment, it can be in the morning, before dinner or even during work break for lunch. Walking 30 minutes a day for pure pleasure will help you get more steps a day and will help you de-stress.

30 minutes, 1.5 km distance: 2,250 steps

Walk back from work

If distance permits, try walking home from work a couple of days a week.

1 hour, 3 km distance: 3,500 steps

Don't use the elevator

We know it's lazy, but try to go up and down stairs whenever you can.

10 minutes: 2,300 steps

Housework counts too

Cleaning windows, floors, making the bed, vacuuming, ironing… it all adds up!

30 minutes of cleaning and order is about 1,600 steps

As well as standing

Believe it or not, every 15 minutes you are standing, you add about 800 steps to your daily balance.

Go to the toilet on another floor

Let's say that from your table to the sink on another floor there are 100 steps each way. If you go 3 times a day, you will have achieved 600 extra steps a day. Another trick in the workplace to add steps is to go to your partner's table instead of sending him an email or calling him on the phone.

Shopping

Note that a corridor in a medium-sized shopping center can be about 350 meters. If you go through it 5 times in search of your favorite purchases, you can have walked 2,600 steps.

Weekend

Take advantage of Saturday and Sunday to carry out activities that add steps to your counter: hiking or going to discover the city, for example. Calculate your steps with the simple 1 kilometer rule, 1,500 steps.

All of this is easier if …

Instead of a sedentary job in an office you have an occupation that requires you to move as a nurse, hairdresser or salesperson. If you have an active profession, we recommend that you calculate how much you walk one day with the help of a mobile application or with an activity bracelet.

Until recently, the latest studies said that walking 10,000 steps a day was the key to being healthy, losing weight, and even regulating blood glucose. However, a recent research published in the International Journal of Obesity reveals that if we also want to prevent cardiovascular disease, we would have to reach 15,000 daily steps.

Not all of us walk at the same pace, nor are our strides the same size, but to give you an idea, Dr. William Tigbe, the study leader, explains that 15,000 steps are equivalent to about 11 kilometers or about 3.5 hours a day. day walking at a leisurely pace.

Said like this, it seems like an almost unattainable goal, but you have to bear in mind that a sedentary person already takes about 5,000 steps a day, so with a little effort, you can increase that amount a lot.

In the photo gallery above we have given you ideas to achieve 15,000 steps a day, but do not get obsessed, the important thing is that you introduce the habit of walking more in your daily life. Do not try to go from 5,000 to 15,000 in one day, better do it gradually.

How much do you have to walk to lose weight?

It depends on the weight of each person and the pace at which you walk, but these are the approximate equivalents. We are going to take the 3.5 hours a day (210 minutes) recommended by the International Journal of Obesity study as a base and we calculate it for a woman of about 60 kilos.

Slow pace (3 km per hour) and flat: 525 calories Brisk
pace (6 km per hour) and flat: 798 calories