How many steps per day lead to maintaining our weight?

Sunday, February 23, 2020 · Mike Davis

Good morning

I am so grateful for finally getting to my 57th year, it seemed like it took forever! To celebrate I set a week of workout goals which I fell short of. My goal was to workout 6 of the 7 days and after yesterday’s brutal workout, I finished with having worked out 4 days. After yesterday’s running/resistance interval workout, I think it turned out for the best that I fell a couple days short. My new hip was barking quite loudly! Maybe not the smartest challenge and thankfully things worked out for the best. Before you start thinking I am a complete crazy person, I did have a check-up with my surgeon on Friday and he said I am progressing fine. All the aches in tightness are typical of the first year following full hip replacement. He certainly believes I am overdoing it, but not at the risk of damaging anything, just likely being a little more sore than typical. My choice.

I read a study this past week that I thought provided some great insight on how many steps will prevent weight gain.

Walking has continued to be the go-to for exercise for many Americans for cardiovascular health and weight loss prevention. With the advent of wearable devices this has brought about a mindset that walking a certain number of steps will help to lose or maintain our weight. I have heard many people comment on needing to get their 10,000 steps in for the day, and by in large this number seems to be the popular one marketed by the makers of fitness devices. Is it 10,000 steps? What would you guess?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200213160107.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fhealth_medicine%2Ffitness+%28Fitness+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

If you choose not to click on the study, the answer is: No amount of walking steps was found to prevent weight gain. Okay, that statement may not be altogether accurate. No doubt walking a considerable number of steps will eventually offer some benefit, but nowhere close to the amount the fitness tracker industry markets. Before you throw away your Fitbit, or quit walking, this study was focused on weight gain prevention only. Walking is a wonderful form of cardiovascular health exercise and can be a great part of an overall approach to health and fitness.

We need to really “think and act”, not be misled.

I spend much of my downtime reading what science discovers and while I understand the constant changes in findings, I still use the latest information to base NFLF training methods on. It is easy to be lazy and let marketing lead us to believe what will benefit selling more of their product, but if our goal is to make meaningful change, we need to follow the facts. A walk has value, but we need to realize the actual value and decide if it is matching up with all that we need? Some (some) cardiovascular value, but not a lot (if any) weight management value. “Think and Act!”

Anyhow, yesterday I did a quick video wrap for the week. Check it out: https://www.facebook.com/nofinishlinerun/

Let’s finish February strong!

Have a great week and God Bless!

Mike

Faith over Fear