Easy steps to losing weight

2 mins to read

Step count is becoming a more popular measure of exercise for people trying to manage their weight. Find out how to boost your step count on your way better health.

Weight management

Why measure step count?
Using step count as a measure of exercise is a helpful and practical guide for walkers and runners to determine if they are on the right track towards weight management and cardiovascular health.

To see if your activity levels measure up, it’s helpful to have a goal. Taking 10,000 steps is often mentioned as a reasonable daily step goal for weight control and cardiovascular health.

This is best measured with a pedometer, an inexpensive device that attaches to your clothes at the waist, recording the downward impact of every step you take. Pedometers can help to measure the distance traveled, kilojoules used and total steps taken during a walk, or over the course of a whole the day.

The feedback they give you increases your awareness of your daily step count and exercise levels and can be a great motivational tool. It also helps you focus on the accumulation of steps across the whole day, placing importance on both planned and incidental activity.

The research
An Australian study reported in the British Medical Journal found that walking, running or jogging a total of 10,000 steps per day improves a person's insulin sensitivity – a key hormonal factor in weight control.

The subjects were given a pedometer and were monitored over five years. A higher step count was associated with greater improvement in body mass index, reduced abdominal fat (measured by waist to hip ratio) and better insulin sensitivity.

Insulin sensitivity is a marker of your body’s ability to process and respond to blood glucose (blood sugar).The higher your sensitivity to insulin, the less insulin your body needs to produce to control blood sugar levels. And because insulin is a fat storage hormone, improving insulin sensitivity can help you to manage body fat levels.

According to the authors, these findings confirm that a higher daily step count helps contribute to weight loss while also helping to decrease weight gain and improve insulin sensitivity.

Practical tips to increase your step count
A pedometer will measure any form of activity that involves vertical movement at your hip, such as walking, climbing stairs, running, and incidental exercise such as gardening.

This movement can be continuous, or be accumulated over the course of the day. To increase your step count it helps to have an attitude where you look for opportunities to incorporate more incidental movement into your day instead of looking at it as an inconvenience.

Increase your daily step count

Take the stairs whenever possible instead of lifts or escalators
Walk to your co-workers office to deliver a message instead of using email
Go for a short walk during your lunch break
Mow the lawn and/or wash your car instead of paying someone else to do it
Get off public transport a stop early and walk the rest of the way.
Park your car at the far end of the parking lot
Stand and move around when talking on the phone
Catch up with friends while going for a walk together instead of going for a coffee
Avoid using the remote control on the TV, video or stereo.
Include active hobbies in your life, such as gardening and dancing
Aim to include 3000 – 4000 continuous steps each day, which equates to a planned 3-4 kilometer walk