More Thoughts on 10,000 Steps

By Martin Collis, PhD

"The length of my walking is the length of my writing," Charles Dickens said, no wonder 'Well' is more voluminous than most online webzines. My 10,000 steps are a daily stimulus to unlocking and unblocking the thoughts stored in the protein stacks of my mind. I love my little pedometer, which is with me every step of my way and dutifully records the 'walk of life.'

"Every step you take
I'll be watching you."
- Sting

The concept of a pedometer is not new and there were research models as far back as the 1920's. While in New York I found a matchbook from the 1950's, which featured a pedometer. I don't know how accurate it was, but you can't beat the price at $3.99.

The 10,000 steps concept originated in Japan as a business slogan for the promotion of walking and the use of pedometers. In the Jan/Feb. 2002 ACSM Health and Fitness Journal, Cara Sidman writes, "In Japanese, 'manpo' means 10,000 steps, and Yamasa produced a pedometer called the Manpo-kei (which literally translates to '10,000 step meter')." Early estimates suggested that 10,000 steps would roughly equate to the burning of 300 calories, which I felt was low. In order to check the accuracy of my pedometer, a Yamax Digiwalker, and find out the actual caloric cost of 10,000 steps, Speakwell went into the lab and with the help of graduate student, Ben Sporer, and technician, Holly Murray, conducted a simple experiment on the treadmill. The subjects were myself weighing in at 188 lbs. (85.5kg) and Trina Rickert at a trim 125 lbs. (57kg).

We found the following:

1. The pedometers were accurate in recording the number of steps we took.

Martin estimated his stride at 3.0 ft (0.91m) and Trina at 2.5 ft (0.76m). In fact both Martin and Trina's stride length averaged out to around 2.75 ft (0.84m).

2. Pedometer Actual

Obviously it is important to get a good estimate of stride length and Ben suggests the following technique. Using a 400m track, you do one lap for warm-up and then count the total number of strides on a second lap. Divide 1312.3 (the number of feet in 400m) by the number of strides in 400m to calculate your stride length in feet (make adjustments depending whether or not your pedometer is metric).

3. The most interesting statistic to me was the caloric cost of 10,000 steps. Energy expenditure was calculated using measured oxygen consumption and respiratory quotient, as well as with the energy expenditure table of McCardle, Katch and Katch for walking at 3.5 mph (5.6kmph).

Not perfect, Martin's pedometer reading was slightly high and Trina's significantly underestimated the caloric cost of her steps. But this is near enough for day to day living.

Rule of Thumb. Caloric Estimate for 10,000 Steps

One of the positive things about being heavy is that you burn more calories getting from A to B than the lightweights. My average heart rate for the walk was 72 beats per minute (bpm) and Trina's was 114 bpm as she worked a little harder with her shorter legs.

NOTE. When I jog my stride lengthens and, unless I adjust the pedometer, it will underestimate the distance traveled and calories burned.
Cara Sidman's ACSM Journal article expresses some concern about the lack of scientific validation of the 10,000 step concept. "It has not been scientifically shown to elicit health benefits for all people." Maybe not, but I would bet my house that if we could get all North Americans averaging 10,000 steps a day for a couple of years the incidence of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and many other chronic diseases would plummet. (I should note that I liked Cara's article, which is well researched and full of useful information about pedometers.)

If you don't own a pedometer you can estimate your steps on a walk by counting them for a minute and seeing how many minutes you walk.

If you'd like to own a pedometer which shows number of steps, distance and calories burned, we have them for sale at Speakwell. Just go to the order form on Well-Mart or call toll-free 1-866-721-6940 to place your order. THIS MAKES A GREAT GIFT, PARTICULARLY TO YOURSELF.

People often have no idea of how long it takes to walk off the calories of some typical popular food and drinks.

Watch out for the dressing and spreads, which sometimes accompany healthy sounding foods. Tim Hortons' donuts range from 220 - 380 calories, so why not have a "Tim's Own" Garden Vegetable Sandwich? The reason why not, is that the sandwich, in addition to shredded lettuce, tomato and cucumber, comes with a bunch of cream cheese and "special creamy dressing." (information from Nutrition Action)

I have a regular route, which I jog or walk on a daily basis. In any given week I probably see more than a hundred people walking their dogs and I am something of an anomaly exercising with no dog in tow. I would guess that dogs, and the fact that people walk them on a regular basis, do more for the health of Canadians and Americans than billions of dollars of medication. I used to think that Lassie was the only dog that saved lives, but there's millions of them. It's an odd culture where walking is an unusual activity. I was recently approached by security at the Toronto Airport wanting to know what I was doing walking round an empty parking lot. The security officer didn't seem very convinced by my 10,000 steps explanation, so I told him I had a heart condition and my doctor had told me to walk everyday. "O.K., carry on sir."