How to walk 10,000 steps a day

All the answers you need to build the most powerful movement habit known to humanity

"The only thing we all need to do is to realise that making time for movement in your life is not a luxury, and it's not self-indulgent: it's a necessity." Caroline Williams

At the absolute core of my health routine is regular movement—10,000 steps a day, to be precise. Yet, when you research the benefits of 10k steps a day, you realise it's an arbitrary figure linked to an old marketing campaign from a Japanese pedometer company!

It doesn't matter to me, though. If I walk 10,000 steps a day, I will be ok. If I have a setback or a slump, walking is the axle of my reset programme. It's intentional walking.

In my new book Lose Weight 4 Life, I talk about the science of walking and how I built my 10k a day walking habit. If you're thinking of starting a long-term fitness plan, here are a few tips to get you started.

How far is 10,000 steps?

It depends on the length of your stride but I work on the basis that 2,000 steps are about a mile. My stride changes if I walk the dog or stroll with friends and family.

Essentially, you're committing to walking 5 miles a day for the rest of your life. That's 1,825 thousand miles a year.

How long does it take?

I work on the basis I walk at three miles per hour, so you're looking at one hour forty minutes a day. There's a "but" here, though.

Most people walk about 4,000 steps a day just doing stuff. So my 10k requires me to organise my life to add 6,000 steps a day intentionally. That’s one hour of extra walking.

It's much easier than it looks, but you have to build up to it. And when I intentionally walk to get my steps in, I tend to walk a little faster at around 3.5 mph.

How many calories do you burn?

This one is wildly variable depending on speed, weight and landscape. If you weigh 15 stones and walk briskly at 3.5 miles per hour (a tiny bit faster than usual), you can expend about 360 calories each hour on the flat.

If there are hills, you'll lose more. So you can expect to lose 131,400 calories a year by walking briskly for an hour a day.

Count your steps before you commit

How 10k steps a day will impact your health and weight depends on your current walking arrangements. So try to measure your average number of steps before setting your first target. Most phones give you a reasonable estimate.

When I started my health journey, I was so unfit that 10k a day was too much to attempt. I found that I was only walking about 3,500 steps a day.

It didn’t take long to improve, though. I kept upping the daily target as I got lighter and fitter, eventually getting to 10k. I upped my target in 2,000 step chunks. You'll soon know when you've got more energy in the tank to do more.

Start small and work up

Nearly one in five people spend less than ten minutes a week walking briskly. Start small if you're out of shape and don't often walk. I recommend a time commitment rather than steps, as it’s the easiest option.

Just walk ten minutes a day, each day for a week. You'll be adding approximately 1,000 steps to your day.

It will surprise you how easy and pleasant this becomes. When it becomes routine, allow yourself two ten minute walks a day. After this, build out from there. You can't go wrong

Make it frictionless

I left my trainers by the front door before I went to bed each night so that I was ready to go first thing the next day. I’d get up, weigh myself, brew coffee, put my trainers on, and then walk. I’d often listen to audiobooks whilst pacing the streets and parks of South East London, and the time would fly by.

That’s it. Measure your current steps. Start easy, perhaps with a ten-minute walk. Slowly up your steps until you get to 10k.

Enjoy all the massive benefits this will give you including weight loss, more strength, clearer thinking and an uplifting demeanour.

---

RIP Andy Fletcher

Andy Fletcher has died, aged 60. He was a lovely man with a curious mind and very grounded.

Depeche Mode at the Barrowland Ballroom in 2017 was an enormous evening. I was with amazing friends and we were all up for a big night out. We walked into a pub that seemed to be the secret Depeche Mode Fan Club Scotland HQ.

20 kilt-wearing Mode fans all managed to smuggle their hip flasks into the gig. We all ran to the front. The energy nearly lifted the roof.

Afterwards (highly intoxicated), I was smuggled into the after-show party and met Andy; Fletch, to his many friends. He had a dry humour and was inquisitive about politics.

I said something dumb like “what have you been up to for the last 35 years since I last saw you at Birmingham Odeon in 1984?” We spent hours talking about politics, Essex and Kraftwerk. Anyway, I made an impression on him, and he on me!

My thoughts and prayers are with his family, the band and his many friends and fans.

---

Back in the gym

Last week, I had yet another setback with full-on flu, fever, night sweats, and lethargy. It’s thrown my Samaritans running targets for May, it screwed up my steps, and I got behind with work.

So, I was back in the gym on Monday, and I’m cranking my steps back up. In the end, you just have to start again. Never give in. Always reset after a setback.

I’m immensely grateful to Chris Pinner at Pinnacle Training in Bewdley. He’s doing a great job helping me get back in shape.

---

Reading

Aristotle goes to Hollywood. Aristotle's Poetics has been translated into a new book, "how to tell a story". If you don't want to click the link, here are the headlines: let your characters tell the story. The biggest failure is a weak ending. You're motoring if you can get people who love each other to fight each other.

Michael Reisz's "History of Nazism in small objects” seized my attention and reminded me of my early school days in Kidderminster. They were weird. Not a day went by without a fight or a minor piece of persecution going on in the playground.

Then there were the teachers. Mr Tennyson was six feet seven and a half inches tall. He'd regularly explain that he had to walk to the ground floor when administering the cane because he couldn’t get a big enough swing in his low-ceilinged second-floor office.

Mr Tennyson taught history and collected Nazi memorabilia. I have a distinct memory of him showing me a metal swastika. All of the above would be grounds for an Ofsted intervention these days, but it was all gloriously normal then.

We all know about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but Der Spiegel tells another less well-known story of Putin's brutality: "How the Russians are slaughtering civilians on the African Front"

Seven Varieties of Stupidity of which the worst, in my view, is rule-based stupidity. I was taught that rule books are for the guidance of the wise and the adherence of fools.

Pathways by Katie Columbus and Samaritans, Every day Samaritans respond to 10,000 calls for help. This is a lovely book created in collaboration with psychologists and Samaritans volunteers. It provides practical, creative ways to promote positivity in your life. This newsletter is all about positivity and I recommend Pathways to fellow PoP Club members.