How many calories do you burn in 10,000 steps?

[anorak]

I just counted the steps to ds's school - 1,000. So if I walk both ways that's 4,000, a good start. I've been battling an ankle injury for ages, and it's just better enough for me to attempt some decent walking.

So does anyone know how much you actually burn off in 10,000 steps? And how many steps does it take to lose 1lb in weight?

A good rule of thumb is covering a mile, whether walking or running burns 100 calories for a 10 stone person.

The slimming groups use a basic guide that a reduction of 3500 calories per week will cause a 1lb weight loss so conversely, burning that amount with extra exercise will have the same effect.

The exercise route is better than the diet one though as your body is not likely to think it is being starved, so drop the metabolic rate accordingly. Again the reverse happens, exercise increases the metabolic rate, thus improving calorie burn.

This means that you don't have to panic and think you need to walk 35 miles a week to burn 1lb, you don't but it does get quite complicated !

The most important thing to remember is not to over-compensate by eating/drinking more because you've exercised - a mistake many people make.

Sorry can't stay to do the rest of the maths, dd is desperate for the next chapter of her book.

HTH a bit, if not let me know !

Twink, does that 100 calories per 10 stone pro-rata itself (ie if you are 8 stone, is it 80 calories per mile)?

And again, the 3500 calories per week to lose a lb, is that based on 10 stone, and is that sort of pro-rata'able?

You seem to be very clued up on this, is there an estimate of how many miles 10,000 steps is? (I once tried to measure something I knew was 3 miles, and it came out as 4000 steps, but the next day it came out as 1500!)

I don't think that the correlation is that direct MeanBean but I'll try and find out more details over the weekend.

Since I got into exercise I've always been around the 10 stone mark so latched onto it.

One thing both you and Anorak (previously a 7 letter word begining with the 10th letter of the alphabet ?) could try is to grab a friend then:

Mark a 'start' line
Walk about 10 paces behind the line, then start walking at your 'normal' pace, this helps you to relax without trying to stride

When you reach the start line, get your friend to count 10 of your steps and mark the end point as your front foot hit the 10th one. Then measure the distance covered, divide by 10 and this is your average step length. I find it easier to work in metric so aim for 1600m to be 1 mile. Most people I know have a step/stride length of between 0.5-0.7 metres but it obviously varies according to height & fitness.

If you are walking up a steep hill, you will probably shorten your stride (but it's harder anyway so that's ok) whereas walking downhill you're more likely to keep the same stride length as on the flat. If you run your downhill stride will probably cover more distance per step IYSWIM.

It's definitely something like that, meanbean. When we were using posh gym treadmills, my son and I had to program in our weight first before starting. We both used the same program after that, so did exactly the same amount of exercise, but at the end it said that he had used up loads more calories than me! I'm 8 stone and he's 11.5 stone.

To get back to Anorak's original question, there is some good stuff here which will help.

Not found a method of scaling for lower weights yet I'm afraid.

OK - another question! How many Weightwatchers points per 10,000 steps?

Thank you Twink, and everyone else who posted here. Still battling to do 2,000 -4,000 at the moment, due to ankle flaring up. But I'm sure I do plenty of steps when I'm cooking and shopping. I have beend dieting for a few weeks, haven't really lost any weight but my flab is turning to muscle so I live in hope!