Counting steps for weight loss

A few weeks ago, my wife got me a pedometer. A little Jawbone Up Move.

It's a pretty simple little thing, though I'm sure it can do more than I use it for, but it's raison d'etre is counting steps, so that's how I use it.

The thing is though, does that actually help with my diet?

Does counting steps help you lose weight?

That one is difficult to answer. I certainly think it has helped me, but it may not help you. It also has the potential to be a dangerously sharp double-edged sword...

Let's start by revisiting the thermodynamic diet fundamentals: the change in your weight is driven by the utilisable energy that you take in (I say utilisable as if you consumed 1 gallon of petrol, you wouldn't really get the use of those  31,500 calories, you'd probably just die), the energy you use to do work, and the energy that ends up as heat.

It follows, then, that the more work you do, the more energy gets used to do that (and more going as heat) and the more weight you'll lose (assuming you don't compensate by increasing what you eat).

So how does the pedometer fit in? Well, a quick search of the literature shows a good few studies that show that pedometer use can help with weight loss. Of course, a pedometer is just a tool, so it can't help you lose weight any more than a trowel or a treadmill; the important thing is how you use it...

How can a pedometer help you lose weight?

For me, it's mostly because I'm quite competitive with myself. I don't like failing at things. Even if those things are as completely arbitrary as walking 10,000 steps a day, if I have a way of tracking how many I've done, I'll want to do it.

And then do more.

A couple of weeks ago, it got to nearly bedtime and I was still comfortably shy of the 10,000. So I ran on the spot until I got there. It took about 15m, and I could feel the heart rate rising. All of that exercise - limited though it was - was something I wouldn't have done if I didn't have a pedometer.

The other benefit is that it provides a more tangible way of compensating for the occasional indulgence. Each step is supposed to use up about 0.05 calories. That makes 10,000 steps 500 calories, and 2000 calories is about 100 calories.

So, if you're usually going for 10,000 calories a day and you fancy a Cadbury's Crunchie, turn that 10,000 into 14,000 and you've paid for it.

Why a pedometer might not help you lose weight

Well, let's come back to that whole 10,000 steps being about 500 calories thing again. On the surface, that's all good, but how you account for it in your daily calorie target. Let's say you're an average man with a daily target of 2500 calories. You get a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps and think "great, that's 500 calories, I can have an extra 2 pints of bitter".

Well, you probably can't, as that 2500 calorie figure probably includes a good few thousand steps as part of your average daily activity already. If you then claim more calories for those 10,000 steps, you might be claiming them twice.

For me though, the biggest problem is all the extra steps above the 10,000. I'm finding that I'm now considering those as extra calories I can eat.

Before I had the pedometer, I considered my calorie allowance to perhaps be a bit higher, but I wouldn't even consider any exercise as allowing me to eat more. If I did more exercise, that was just a bonus that led to even more weight loss. Now though, I'm finding myself saying "well, I can have that pudding and I'll just walk an extra x steps"; some of which I may well have walked anyway.

It's a bit of a balancing act, but some of the data is interesting - more on that in a week or two - and it's quite nice to know that, in the 6 weeks or so I've had it, I've walked over half a million steps.

Quite a humbling figure...

Day 90 - 5250 calories

Breakfast
Milk (50)
Shortbread (650)
Almond croissant (350)

Lunch
Hake with vegetables (500)
Cheeseboard (1000)
Wine (450)
Afternoon tea cakes (500)

Dinner
Beer (300)
Wine (300)
Chicken and vegetable stir fry (300)
2x slices toast (200)
2x slices toast and jam (400)
Jaffa cake bar (100)
Glass of port (150)

Exercise
45m walking

Day 91 - 2800 calories

Breakfast
Leftover Weetabix (50)
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)

Lunch
Chicken curry (300)

Dinner
Venison burger and garlic mushrooms (250)
Beer (200)
Toast (100)
4x slices bread and jam (800)

Exercise
2x 1.5m planks
80m walking

Day 92 - 1950 calories

Breakfast
Ham (100)
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)

Lunch
Chicken curry (500)

Dinner
Bacon sandwich (250)

Exercise
2x 1.5m plank
2x 30 press ups
90m walking

Day 93 - 2600 calories

Breakfast
Ham sandwich (200)

Lunch
5x jam doughnuts (1150)

Dinner
Chicken curry (500)
3x pints beer (750)

Exercise
75m walking

Day 94 - 3450 calories

Breakfast and lunch
5x ham sandwich (600)

Dinner
3x pints beer (750)
Wine (400)
Steak and chips (1000)
Brownie (700)

Exercise
75m walking

Day 95 - 3100 calories

Breakfast
Cake (300)
Milk (100)

Lunch
Burger, bun, bacon, mushrooms and salad (700)

Dinner
Tuna and veggies (400)
Wine (800)
Cake (300)
Shreddies (500)

Exercise
60m walking