Lifestyle

10,000 Steps a Day: The Effortless Lifestyle Hack Everyone Is Talking About!

10,000 steps a day, but make it a lifestyle!

• written by Joy Onu
• 5 min read
• 27 Mar, 2025

Walking 10,000 steps has always been a thing, and now it’s making a huge comeback on all the apps, and with good reason. If your goal is to lose weight without visiting a gym, or you just need an effective lifestyle change, then taking 10,000 steps a day might be exactly what you need. Walking 10,000 steps has become a fitness recommendation from several fitness gurus, and while it might seem like a lot of steps to take in a day, the health benefits make it worth your while. 

Truth be told, the history of 10,000 steps dates back to the 1960s, when a Japanese company created a pedometer called ‘Manpo-kei’, which means 10,000 steps meter. This number was chosen because it was catchy and sold a particular lifestyle that would eventually sell the product. It was a trendy marketing idea at the time, so yes, 10,000 steps didn’t start as a dose of healthy living; it began as a marketing idea. 

While its history is jumbled up in the semantics of clickbait and marketing, modern research has proven that walking more daily has several health benefits. It doesn’t have to be 10,000 steps because 3000 steps per-day can get you that healthy lifestyle. 

What Happens To Your Body When You Walk 10,000 Steps per Day?

There are several benefits of walking 10,000 steps a day. Not only is it a good lifestyle hack, but it can also reap certain rewards for your physical and mental health. For starters, research has shown that aiming for this number of steps can help you reduce unhealthy lifestyles, such as being a couch potato all day without any movement whatsoever. With 10,000 steps per day, you can avoid what Eating Well has reported to be a sedentary lifestyle, which is linked to health issues like heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, type 2 diabetes, and even some types of cancers. According to studies, increasing your daily steps has benefits to your health, so you could start small and work your way up, just as long as you get those steps in. 

Does 10,000 Steps Per Day Help You Lose Weight?

When it comes to losing weight, walking 10,000 steps per day can help you on your weight loss journey. With walking, you can burn a significant amount of calories, which in turn contributes to a calorie deficit needed for weight loss. Various studies suggest that an average person burns around 300-500 calories by walking 10,000 steps, depending on factors like weight and speed. To put it simply, 10,000 steps per day can help you lose weight, but it is not the magic solution you think it is. 

Losing weight in itself is a complex matter, and every individual is different in terms of their success story. On one hand, someone could take on consistently walking 10,000 steps for a month and above and see results; on the other hand, most people would need to walk those steps along with changing their eating habits and partaking in other forms of exercise to see results. To lose weight, you will need to be consistent in taking up to 10,000 steps per day, let’s call it a lifestyle hack, and you need to pair it with a balanced diet eating habit, or even infusing intermittent fasting in there, and also other forms of low intensity exercises if you’re not one to go to the gym. 

If you’re new to walking 10,000 steps, it is important to start small, do not overwhelm yourself all at once. You can begin with 3000 steps and build your steps at your own pace. Consistency is key, but also don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day. It is also important to remember that while walking is a great lifestyle change, it is not guaranteed to give you those weight loss results. There have been a few people who have expressed not losing weight even while taking 10,000 steps. In situations like these, it is usually because of other health factors, which is why it is important to consult with your doctor, especially if you have any pre-existing health conditions. 

Walking 10,000 Steps Should Be a Lifestyle Goal

Without putting a number on it, it is important to ensure that walking is a lifestyle change you make in your life. Walking ensures that you’re not always sitting and you’re always moving your body, especially if your day-to-day life doesn’t require you to be on the move. Aiming for 10,000 steps has been proven to have health benefits, such as improving your mood, increasing your lifespan, and reducing the risk of certain diseases.

It helps to walk 10,000 steps but if you can’t achieve this goal, it helps to stay focused on walking any amount of steps at the very least, especially if you’ve been sitting all day. If you walk a 9-5 that doesn’t allow you the luxury of time to walk, you could invest in walking pads that are all the rage now, this could allow you to have some time to move in place at home after hours. You could also make it a point to take the stairs at work instead of elevators, or take a walk from one point to another whenever you can.

If you’ve become a 10,000 steps a day champion, that’s all well and good, but also remember to have rest days to give your body the time to recover on some days. You don’t want to go too hard, the point is to achieve a well-rounded, active, and healthy lifestyle.