This man walked 250,000 steps in a week – but would not recommend it
We could talk about the benefits of walking until the cows come home, but is there such thing as too many steps? When YouTuber Jack Massey Walsh took on a challenge to walk 250k steps in one week, he averaged around 35k a day – seven times more than the 5k the average woman walks daily, according to the Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise journal – splitting his walks into a two-hour morning walk, and a two-hour evening walk. He documented the week on YouTube, in a video that has now had 1.5 million views, and his results ‘shocked’ him.
How he measured progress
Speaking in the video, Jack shares one goal: to avoid ‘unhealthy’ weight loss, while maintaining muscle. ‘This is a pretty extreme challenge, and I don’t want to lose weight in an unhealthy way, so I want to eat what I do normally, but with an emphasis on slightly more protein, specifically 150 grams per day to help prevent me from losing muscle instead of fat,’ he explains. ‘I also started taking daily glucosamine to help my joints recover.’
He monitored his progress by weighing himself and taking measurements of different parts of his body at the start of the week, and again at the end. He also took ‘before and after photos’.
The results
He did manage to lose weight, but Jack expressed concerns that he had also lost muscle mass. ‘I seem to be narrower than when I first started, which I didn’t really expect. Does this mean I’ve lost a bit of muscle mass, maybe?’ he says. Specifically, Jack reveals that he lost 0.9kg (or 2lbs) over the week, 1cm on his arms, 3.5cm on his waist, 0.5cm on his calves and 2cm on his chest, and he gained 0.5cm on his thighs.
‘When we look at me from the side, I think I’ve lost a little bit of fat in my lower belly, which does make sense as I am 2lbs lighter,’ he adds. ‘And each body measurement is a little bit smaller, apart from my thigh which has grown by half a centimetre. But I wasn’t expecting to be able to see any difference, so this is really surprising.’
Don't try this at home
Despite seeing a difference, Jack is adamant he wouldn’t recommend walking so far. Although he describes ‘an amazing feeling of accomplishment’, he shares that by the end of the week, his feet are covered in blisters, and he has a swollen ankle. ‘My joints just couldn’t keep up,’ he admits. ‘It’s two days later and I’m still waiting for the swelling around my ankles to reduce.’
Instead, Jack advises ‘doing somewhere between 8k and 20k steps per day, depending on your personal circumstances’. ‘Once you’re in the routine, it doesn’t actually take as long as you would think it would take. And I really do feel that most people will feel better if they end up walking more,’ he affirms.
In fact, even 8k isn’t entirely necessary. One study found that walking 4.4k steps a day could reduce the risk of mortality by 41%, while other research demonstrates big advantages for longevity from as little as 500 steps. 500 steps daily were associated with a 7% decreased mortality risk from cardiovascular reasons, while 1k steps offered a 15% decrease from all causes. 2.5k daily steps was found to have considerable health benefits.
The bottom line
It's also worth noting that there’s no direct ‘X steps = 7 results’ equation; while Jack saw results, these won’t necessarily be the same for you. Your gender, how fast you walk, the type of terrain you walk on, how much muscle you have, and how much you weigh before you start walking will all influence your results.
The bottom line is to find a step count that works for you, without holding yourself to arbitrary numbers – any amount of NEAT exercise is better than none.
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