Do you really need 10,000 steps a day? Find out on today's QuickWits. Welcome to the Wits and Weights Podcast. I'm your host, Philip Pape, and this twice-a-week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self-mastery by getting stronger, optimizing your nutrition, and upgrading your body composition. We'll uncover science-backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle, and mindset with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry so you can look and feel your absolute best. Let's dive right in. I often talk about the value of step count, of walking, to increase your metabolic rate, to stay active, to improve your overall health, to reduce your resting heart rate. But there is this persistent myth, if you want to call it, that 10,000 steps is somehow a magic number. Now it's a nice round number, but I believe it goes back to a pedometer that a Japanese company sold back in the 60s that marketed the 10,000 step rule. But since then we have more evidence to suggest that somewhere around 7,500 steps is the sweet spot that distinguishes individuals with metabolic disease and shorter lives and poorer health with those who don't have those issues. And of course, you know, you're not going to go from 7499 to 7501 and all of a sudden be extremely healthier. The point is, many of us who are sitting around all day, who work from home, you might be getting as little as 3,000 steps. Now, the only way to know that, of course, is to track it. And I'm a big fan of tracking anything that you want to learn more about. And it's very easy to do that with a smartphone or with a wearable. That step count is one of those things that is pretty reasonably accurate, accurate, and it's good enough. So once you know how many steps you have, let's say it's 3,000, I like adding 2,000 steps a day for the next week. Now, 2,000 steps is going to burn on average for people about 100 calories. So it's a nice round number, it's a nice round number of calories, and it's it represents about a mile of walking, which most people can do in about 20 minutes. And then once you've got that nailed down for a week or two, you can add another 2,000 steps. I would aim for at least 6,000 every day, but optimally around 8 or 10. And so 10 isn't a bad number to shoot for. And in fact, during fat loss, I like to ramp that up to 12. But we're talking about sustainability. What makes sense for you and what can you do? So what I suggest doing is set a timer or reminder in your phone, time block it out to go on one walk at first, and then add another walk at some point. A good time to walk would be after a meal because you could stack it back to back. You eat your food, you eat your lunch, you go for a walk. You eat your dinner, you go for a walk. Or eat breakfast, go for a walk. That also helps with blood sugar regulation and it helps with digestion. There's a lot of great reasons to do that. While you're walking, you can have it stack, you can listen to a podcast, you can listen to music, you can think, or just observe and enjoy nature and soaking in the vitamin D. So, no, you don't have to get 10,000 steps. I would aim for at least six and optimally eight to ten and a little bit more during fat loss. There you go. Any questions? Uh, you know how to reach out to me with the links in the show notes, and please share this episode if you found it useful. Last thing, make sure to subscribe to Wits and Weights right now in your podcast app so you can catch tomorrow's episode 118, which is a QA episode. I'll catch you next time here on the Wits and Weights podcast. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Wits and Weights. If you found value in today's episode and know someone else who's looking to level up their wits or weights, please take a moment to share this episode with them. And make sure to hit the follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode. Until then, stay strong.