Counting steps could be more effective than counting calories, read on to understand why you should count steps.
For years we’ve been obsessed with counting calories, tracking how much energy we intake and trying to make a calorie deficit in order to lose or maintain weight. The reason we do this is because we need to do one of two things or ideally both to lose weight, they are;
- Consume Less (count calories)
- Do more (count steps)
The big difference between these two is that it’s much easier to count steps than to count calories, mainly because you don’t need to count them. Any simple Pedometer will count your steps throughout the day. Pedometers have been around for many years and it’s only recently they’ve become more popular with the rise of fitness technology such as FitBit, an adaptation of the Pedometer. These types of wearable fitness trackers are now extremely common and can provide mountains of data on your daily activity.
However, you don’t need a FitBit to start counting steps, just a simple Pedometer and a way of tracking your steps, this could be via an online training software or programme or could simply be a pen & paper. Download my pedometer tracking sheet below.
Why Count Steps?
We are motivated by things we can achieve and reaching goals, especially a self-set goal. It’s internally motivating and this makes it much more likely that we will achieve our goals, target or whatever we have set ourselves. Providing the goal was realistic and achievable we will be continually motivated to achieving more, in this example that means we will be doing more and burning more calories.
Fancy a Challenge?
Challenge yourself to increase your steps with my Step It up June Steeps Challenge or start anytime with my 28 Day Step Challenge.
How many Steps should I be doing?
As a general rule of thumb, if you’re looking to increase activity levels, you should start by seeing what you are already doing. You need a baseline to start from or it will be difficult to choose an achievable goal for your step target.
Once you have a weeks worth of steps, you’ll be able to see an average, you’ll want to increase this by a decent amount, doing as much as you can to increase your daily activity level and daily step count. Such as taking the stairs, walking to work and just finding more excuses to walk like, parking further away from the store entrance when you go to do your weekly shop! Every little really does help (as Tesco might say!)
See the general guide below but if you are already doing an average of 5 to 6 thousand steps a day you should be definitely aiming for 10,000 steps.
You should purchase the one that’s going to suit both your needs and how you use technology. If you prefer the old school pen and paper then just buy a simple Pedometer and write down your steps each day.
So to get started you’re going to need a way of tracking your steps.
Check out my list on Amazon for some cost effective devices for tracking your steps – See List
How active are you based on your current step count?
- Under 5000 steps/day may be used as a “sedentary lifestyle index”
- 5,000-7,499 steps/day is typical of daily activity excluding sports/exercise and might be considered “low active.” The average American walks 5900 to 6900 steps per day, so the majority are “low active.”
- 7,500-9,999 steps/day likely includes some exercise or walking (and/or a job that requires more walking) and might be considered “somewhat active.”
- 10,000 steps/day indicates the point that should be used to classify individuals as “active”.
- Individuals who take more than 12,500 steps/day are likely to be classified as “highly active”.
Data from How Many Pedometer Steps Per Day are Enough? via About.com