How many steps a day to lose weight?
Roughly 4,500 to 6,000 brisk steps a day, with less food. That’s the NHS’s 45 to 60 active minutes. Eating less can help you lose the weight. Moving more can help you keep it off.
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How many steps a day to lose weight?
There’s no official step count for weight loss. The NHS works in minutes. To lose weight, it says to eat and drink fewer calories than your body uses, and get active for 45 to 60 minutes a day.
You can break those minutes into shorter sessions.
For adults up to 60, a brisk walk is about 100 steps a minute or more. So 45 to 60 brisk minutes is roughly 4,500 to 6,000 steps.
Only the brisk ones count here. Brisk means you can still talk but cannot sing.
| Brisk walking | Steps, roughly | What it counts toward |
|---|---|---|
| 10 minutes | 1,000 | A daily walk the NHS says has lots of health benefits. |
| 30 minutes | 3,000 | Done 5 days a week, the NHS 150 minutes. |
| 45 minutes | 4,500 | The low end of the NHS 45 to 60 minutes a day. |
| 60 minutes | 6,000 | The top end of the NHS daily amount. |
Sources: NHS; NHS walking; Tudor-Locke 2021
Check last week’s daily steps on your phone. Then add 10 brisk minutes a day as your first move.
Can you lose weight walking 10,000 steps a day?
You may, if it’s more than you walk now and you don’t eat the difference back. On its own, though, the loss is small.
In 9 walking studies with step counters and no diet change, people (mostly women) lost about 1.3 kg over a typical 16 weeks. That’s about 0.05 kg a week. Longer programmes lost more.
Bigger targets didn’t fix it. First-year US college women told to walk 10,000, 12,500 or 15,000 steps a day all gained weight, about 1.4 to 1.8 kg over 24 weeks.
So treat steps as half the plan. For the food half, see the best diet to lose weight.
How much walking does it take to lose weight?
More minutes help. A review by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) found 150 to 250 minutes a week of moderate activity gives only modest weight loss.
More than 250 minutes was linked to clinically significant loss, meaning enough to matter for health. And 150 to 250 minutes worked better when people also ate a bit less.
- Below 150 minutes a weekBelow the NHS 150 minutes.
- 150 up to 250 minutes a weekACSM: only modest loss.
- Above 250 minutes a weekACSM: linked to clinically significant loss.
On a treadmill? Big amounts can work even without dieting. In one trial, overweight young adults did supervised exercise 5 days a week for 10 months, mostly walking or jogging on treadmills.
Sessions took 31 to 63 minutes. Those who did at least 90% of them lost about 4 to 5 kg on their usual diet.
Aim for the NHS’s steady pace of 0.5 to 1 kg a week. Weigh yourself regularly to see how it’s going.
Do steps help keep the weight off?
They can, and this is where your steps earn their place. The NHS says changing what you eat can help you lose weight, but moving more can help you keep the weight off.
The ACSM review linked keeping weight off with more than 250 minutes a week. That’s about 36 minutes a day, or roughly 3,600 brisk steps.
That link comes from watching people, not from trials. So treat it as a hint, not proof.
Small losses still count. Losing 5 to 10% of your body weight can improve your health. Keep up strength work too, to hold on to muscle while you lose weight.
A free walking plan to lose weight
Not very active but able to walk? The NHS says to increase your walking distance gradually. Here’s one simple way to climb to 45 minutes.
| Week | Brisk walking a day | Steps, roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1 and 2 | 10 minutes | 1,000 |
| Weeks 3 and 4 | 20 minutes | 2,000 |
| Weeks 5 and 6 | 30 minutes | 3,000 |
| Weeks 7 and 8 | 45 minutes | 4,500 |
Sources: NHS walking; Tudor-Locke 2021
Six NHS ways to fit in more walking
- Walk part of your journey to work.
- Walk to the shops.
- Take the stairs instead of the lift.
- Leave the car behind for short journeys.
- Do a regular walk with a friend.
- Go for a stroll with family or friends after dinner.
Source: NHS walking
Joints a problem? The NHS suggests exercise classes at your local pool, where the water supports your joints.
Over 65? The NHS minutes are the same. Add strength, balance and flexibility work on at least 2 days a week.
We found no study that sets a separate weight-loss step count by age.
Wondering if pace beats total steps? See walking pace vs step count.
When to speak to a GP
- You haven’t exercised for some time, or you have medical conditions or concerns. The NHS says to speak to your GP first.
- You have, or think you may have, an eating disorder, such as binge eating, or had one in the past. Or you have a special diet for your health. Talk to a GP before changing your lifestyle.
- Your BMI is in the overweight or obese range and you want help to lose weight, your waist is more than half your height, you have a family history of obesity, or you have pre-diabetes (blood sugar higher than normal but not yet diabetes), diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pain, high cholesterol, sleep apnoea (breathing that stops and starts while you sleep) or heart and circulation disease. See a GP.
- You get chest pain that comes and goes, or goes away quickly but you’re still worried. See a GP.
- Call 999 for sudden chest pain or discomfort that does not go away. It can feel like squeezing or pressure in your chest, burning or indigestion. Also call if pain spreads to your arm, neck, jaw, stomach or back, or comes with sweating, feeling sick, light-headed or short of breath.
Your GP can refer you to a weight management programme. See NHS weight loss programmes and waist-to-height ratio vs BMI.