This Man Walked 250,000 Steps in 1 Week – Here's How His Body Changed
While most of us are aiming to improve our fitness by upping our daily step count to an achievable number, YouTuber Jack Massey Welsh attempted to walk 35,000 steps a day for an entire week. The content creator set about his epic weekly goal of 250k steps by breaking it up into two daily walks, morning and evening, lasting a few hours.
Before the challenge he made sure to weigh himself and take measurements at different points of his body so that he could repeat the process a quarter of a million steps later.
'I was finding things very easy to begin with, but I definitely underestimated just how difficult this would be,' the content creator admitted.
When it came to his nutrition, Welsh explained, '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. I also started taking daily glucosamine to help my joints recover.'
He found that at the end of his week long challenge he'd acquired some blisters, a sore heel and a swollen ankle. However he admitted that the challenge was still worth the injuries, 'For me it was worth it for the experience alone.'
At the end of the week, when taking measurements and comparing his before and after photos, he shared, 'So strangely there is actually a visual difference. I seem to be narrower than when I first started, which I didn't really expect.
'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 2 lbs lighter,' he added. '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.' Welsh also noted a marked difference in the size of his calves.
Reflecting on the challenge, Welsh shared, 'Well do I recommend walking 250,000 steps in a week? Absolutely not. My joints just couldn't keep up, it's two days later and I'm still waiting for the swelling around my ankles to reduce.'
However he did recommend to choose a more realistic step count goal. 'Do I recommend doing somewhere between 8,000 and 20,000 steps per day, depending on your personal circumstances? Absolutely,' says Welsh. '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.'
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