If focusing on your wellbeing was one of your New Year resolutions this year, perhaps you’ve added the goal of walking 10,000 steps a day to your list.
But is that enough to lose weight? We chatted to Aaron McNally who works as an instructor at The Muscle Clinic in Clontarf to find out.
Here are his top tips on how to reach your 10k steps goal and lose weight without overwhelming yourself.
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You actually need to be in a calorie deficit in order to lose weight
“[Walking 10,000 steps a day] is definitely a really good goal for people to hit and it will allow them to have more calories,” Aaron said. However, he stressed that nutrition is the main thing. “If you walk 10,000 steps and you're eating loads of calories, then it's not gonna do a lot for your weight.”
Walking 10,000 steps is the equivalent to four or five miles per day and if you keep consuming just your maintenance calories, you could burn up to 400 calories. “If someone who walks 10,000 steps was eating the same amount of calories as someone who wasn’t walking 10,000 steps, they’d be in a calorie deficit.” And that's how you lose weight.
It’s doesn’t have to be one big long walk per day – it’s the small things that count
“People think 10,000 steps a day have to be really a big long walk – it’s little things like that throughout your day that can add up and add up,” Aaron said. “So I'd always tell [my clients] to start off with the small things.” He recommends parking further away when you’re going in to shop, taking the steps rather than the elevator, or if you’re close enough at all, walking rather than driving in.
“If you're are working from home a lot, which a lot of people are doing at the minute, rather than sitting at your desk, take phone calls outside." And, if you can, get up from your work space and go for a short walk around the house. Standing desks are also a great thing to have, it’s “a good way to keep people on their feet and keep them a wee bit active”. Once you start with the little things, that will gradually build up.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew
You wouldn’t want to overwhelm yourself at the beginning. “A lot of people will come and they'll say they wanna do this, or ‘I wanna do the gym three, four times a week, I wanna change my nutrition’. And then they try and do a hundred percent commitment into it for about a week or two, and then it just stops.
“I'd rather someone come in and then be 80 per cent consistent, so we're allowing that 20 per cent wiggle room, whether that goes in the steps, the gym work, the nutrition. If you're giving me 80 per cent all of the time, I'd rather that than someone who comes in, uses a hundred percent for a week or two, and then they just stop.”
Start small
You don’t need to do 10,000 steps a day from the beginning. If you can make 3,000 steps, do that instead, then you’ll hit 5,000, then you’ll be able to go 7,000 and then gradually make 10,000, Aaron advises. It’s the same thing in the gym and nutrition, the instructor says. “I would tell someone to do one session a week, and keep coming back for three, four weeks - just [doing] one session per week. And then we can build on that from there.
“Rather than saying ‘i’m gonna eat really healthy’, just start making gradual changes, just pick one healthy option a day. Rather than frying something, put it in the oven. Going from olive oil to oil spray, things like that.” So just keep making little changes, and then gradually build them up to where you're comfortable - they will add up into a bigger change. “Most people would actually start to enjoy it,” the instructor said.
You need to actually want to make the change
“A lot of the time people say they want to make a change, but they might not actually mean it. And you get a lot around the New Year’s.” Aaron helps his clients by showing them the benefit of their effort. “What I would do if someone comes in and makes an effort for the first couple of days, and then they start to maybe feel like they’re less motivated, then I'll always go back, I'll take a note of what they said the first couple of days.”
He would bring them back to how good it felt when they achieved a goal and ask them how it felt compared to the present when their motivation is low. “That'll remind them why they were motivated in the first place. Then they want to feel that feeling again, feeling good. And then whenever they do that again, hopefully, that'll just keep them going, and keep them along.”
Up your water intake
Whether you’re working out or not, drinking enough water is good for you. It replaces the water expelled from your system when you’re sweating during the workout, but it also uses it up and makes your metabolism faster.
“Also, water makes you feel full, and that’s definitely a good thing if you’re trying to lose weight,” the instructor says, adding that three litres of water a day helps negate hunger feelings. “I definitely recommend my clients to always have a bottle of water nearby, especially if they’re working - always have a bottle of water on your desk.” As with everything else, you can gradually build upon your water intake.
Aaron McNally is an instructor at The Muscle Clinic in Clontarf and is a final year Sports Science student at DCU.
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