How important is daily step count?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi,

Previously I have obsessed over my daily step count, becoming very anxious if at the end of each day I didn’t hit a specific number, due to fear of weight gain etc. I have moved away from worrying about it since listening to your podcast with Dr Herman Pontzer about energy expenditure, but I still sometimes feel like I have to go for a walk even when I don’t want to. I want to break this habit, so my question is that if on some days I don’t do a lot of steps, or to be more specific, my average daily step count was to drop from, let’s say, 10k to 5k, would that cause me to gain weight?

I’m ensuring I hit, if not exceed, the cardio guidelines in the gym each week, by the way.

Thanks for your help,

Andre

2

The average adult walks ~ 6-7k steps per day in their day-to-day life, with higher counts tending to come from planned physical activity, e.g. exercise. If walking represents your only physical activity, you might notice some weight gain due to appetite-satiety signaling and other hormonal changes secondary to insufficient activity…maybe, but this isn’t your situation at all so…I wouldn’t worry about it.

3

Great to hear! Thanks Jordan.