Over the past decade, smartphones have become ubiquitous, used not only to send text messages and catch up on the news, but also to monitor daily activity levels.
One of the most common, and arguably most meaningful, ways to track daily physical activity is step counting.
Counting steps isn’t just a fad: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investing a sizable portion of its funding Latest physical activity guidelines The relationship between recording daily steps and several chronic diseases.
Unfortunately, the guide says little about how to use step counting to aid weight management, which is crucial given the results High rates of overweight and obesity In the U.S
In the early 1980s, less than 14% of adults in the United States classified as obese. Today, more than 40 years later, the prevalence of obesity exceeds 40% of the adult populationcurrent trends indicate By 2030, nearly half of U.S. adults will be obese.
I am a Professor of Exercise Science At Kennesaw State University, our labs have been conducting Study the relationship between steps and some health outcomes.
Although The evidence is clear More and more adults are in a state of chronic energy excess, leading to weight gain. A key question is-why? What has changed so dramatically since 1980 that it could explain why obesity rates have tripled?
While Americans’ diet may be a key factor, numerous studies show that reduced physical activity is the primary cause of expanding waistlines, and step count is an excellent indicator of physical activity.
Counting steps may (or may not) lead to weight loss
Some recent studies have examined whether increasing step count can lead to weight loss over time.A large-scale study called a meta-analysis concluded that increasing physical activity through step counting is beneficial for achieve moderate weight loss.However, many, if not most, studies have examined Exercise weight loss report shows little effectthe results are variable and often disappointing.
This may be partly because the step goals used in many weight management studies are often set in an arbitrary way, such as a goal of 10,000 steps per day. Or, if they are personalized, they are based on initial behavioral characteristics, such as adding a given number of steps to the number of steps a person has already accumulated in a typical day. Step targets in studies are rarely, if ever, based on any physical characteristics of the participants.
My team’s research collected weight, body fat percentage, and average step count from a large sample of adults aged 19 to 40 years. Based on these data, we identified a method for determining specific step goals based on key body attributes (i.e., baseline weight and composition and desired body composition).
When it comes to health, it’s important to remember that weight doesn’t tell the whole story. In fact, body composition is a better predictor of health than weight. A person who weighs more than another person is likely to be healthier if he has more muscle mass and a lower body fat percentage than another person who weighs less but has a higher body fat percentage.
Parse numbers
We used our data to develop a model that predicts average daily steps per unit of fat mass based on body fat percentage. We believe this model can be used to determine how much walking people need to achieve to achieve a specific weight and body fat loss.
Take a man who weighs 175 pounds (80 kilograms), for example, 25% of which is fat. Our model shows that he takes an average of 10,900 steps per day. Consider another person who weighs 220 pounds (100 kilograms), 20% of which is fat. Although their lean body mass differs, both men have about 44 pounds (20 kilograms) of fat. Therefore, our model predicts that heavier people walk an average of 15,300 steps per day. In other words, heavier people have a lower body fat percentage and need to walk more to maintain a leaner body composition.
A person’s body fat percentage is just as important as their weight.That’s because how much muscle you have affects how hungry are you, and how many calories you burn. Muscle mass requires energy to maintain, and this demand leads to an increase in appetite, which means eating more calories. In this example, a heavier person may eat more than a lighter person to maintain his lean muscle mass, and he must walk more to maintain a lower body fat percentage.
If you want to lose body fat and thus lose weight, you basically have two options: eat less, or exercise more. Eating less means you’ll be hungry, which is uncomfortable, unpleasant and, for most people, unsustainable. On the other hand, exercising more allows you to eat until you’re full and reduce body fat, or even lose it.
So we wanted to know how much a well-fed person might need to move to offset the calories they consumed.
Count steps to lose weight
Currently, our model is for young people, but we are now also collecting data from middle-aged and older people. To use this model, you need to first determine your body composition, a service that more and more fitness centers and medical institutions are offering. To use our model, you must determine your body weight and fat mass in kilograms – to do this, simply divide your body weight in pounds by 2.2.
With this information, our model can provide step goals specific to a person’s current weight and body fat percentage, as well as their fat loss and weight loss goals.
For example, our model predicts that a woman who weighs 155 pounds (70 kg) and has 30% body fat currently accumulates an average of approximately 8,700 steps per day. If she wants to lose about 10 pounds and reach a body fat percentage of about 25 percent, she can look up the model and find that people who maintain this body composition accumulate an average of about 545 steps per kilogram of fat per day. Since her current fat level is about 46 pounds (21 kilograms), her goal is to accumulate 11,450 steps per day.
While this may seem like a substantial increase in daily steps at first glance, most people can rack up 1,000 steps in 10 minutes or less. Therefore, even at a comfortable pace, you won’t need more than 30 minutes of extra walking per day. Additionally, steps can be accumulated throughout the day, with longer or more frequent trips to the bathroom, vending machines, etc., or both.
While steps can certainly be accumulated through dedicated walking sessions, such as 15 minutes at lunch and another 15 minutes in the evening, steps can also be accumulated through shorter, more frequent activities.
Over the past 70 years, researchers have learned a lot about appetite and energy expenditure: No matter how active or inactive we are, appetite depends largely on our fat-free mass, the drive for food we must accumulate enough of physical activity to combat the calories we consume through diet if we want to maintain energy balance, or exceed our intake to lose weight.
Bob BreshProfessor of Exercise Science and Director of the Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Kennesaw State University
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