Why steps matter more than we think

Last week my podcast partner, and fellow proselytizer of The Abundance Model of Nutrition,Dean posted about the benefits of walking and steps and why, in many cases, it’s a bigger and better lever than running. As per social media, it was written in an inflammatory tone and simplified to fit the word count necessary. Yes, we are all guilty of oversimplification. In the spirit of healthy debate, our colleague Ariana posted what (I assumed to be) a response to his post stating that running is a more time efficient and a superior choice for fat loss and so therefore she saw prescribed step counts as pointless. So who’s right? Spoiler: they both are.

Sure running is more time efficient. If someone is crunched for time (and aren’t we all) then going after a few hundred calories from exercise would be much more time saving than the equivalent from walking steps. Yet, from my observations, that’s where the running advantage ends. Unless you just love running. Then ignore all of this and do what you love to do.

So why do I prescribe steps? Let’s start at the obvious: my bias. I hate running. I’ve always hated running. When we had to jog for sports I dreaded it. I have two speeds: berserk and asleep. I’m working on it still. In all aspects of my life. The thing is, a lot of people feel the same way as I do.

Next, I want to minimize reducing calories whenever possible. The great failing of the diet/nutrition industry is the propensity to use caloric intake as the big hammer, even when we need a drill. Yet a side effect of weight loss is metabolic adaptation, which makes the body more efficient and less apt to burn calories at rest. These adaptations have a direct response on NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) in particular. Since we can’t coach people to twitch or fiddle more we use steps. Steps are the proxy to increasing NEAT. If we are losing metabolic output due to decreased intake then the last thing I want to do is further throttle intake. I want to bring that output up. That’s where a step prescription is gold. As we hit weight loss plateaus we can take steps up rather than drop calories.

Steps are also an easy sell. We talk often in the nutrition sphere about making the hard thing easy. Telling someone to go for a run who hasn’t worked out in years, or maybe ever, is a pretty big jump from the couch. It’s not uncommon for me to see clients who are only getting in 2-3000 steps per day. Extremely sedentary. We don’t even need to do much. Just more. If I can take someone from 2,000 steps and get them to 4,000 with something as simple as getting up every 30 minutes and taking a walk around the office, it’s almost irresponsible not to.

Another reason I don’t recommend running (aside from the glaring fact that I know nothing about coaching gait cycle or mileage or intensity) is that I deal mostly with gen pop clients looking to lose weight. The majority are overweight or obese. The systemic load on their joints is much higher than someone in a lower weight range. While on one hand this would mean a larger caloric load from even a small run, it also throws up big red flags for potential injury. Running is the most injurious hobby among fitness enthusiasts (I’m guessing grappling has never been studied because we have close to a 100% injury rate) with estimates being between 27-57% of runners injured each year. Add in excess bodyweight and inexperienced application, and that’s just not a good cost-benefit. At least not for me.

So what about the argument that people who are already exercising shouldn’t have step goals? I can see the validity of the argument from a time standpoint and as most runs are done at a pace that really isn’t much different from a walk. Of course, when people are running a 13 or 14 minute mile we kind of negate the argument that it saves time but we will leave that prior point to it’s own accord. Where I diverge from this argument is in the presence of higher intensity work. While there is some debate on its prevalence, my observations over the past decade is that there seems to be an energy conservation effect among those who participate in activities like sprinting, hard cycling bouts, and Crossfit-style training. This energy conservation seems to affect the movement throughout the day of these athletes and therefore steps are the lever to pull to attempt to re-regulate that diminished NEAT.

Last, nobody justifies a cheeseburger after a long walk. I can’t say the same about endurance work. Most endurance athletes have a long run on Saturdays and/or Sundays. Often followed by a calorically dense meal, a couple (few) drinks and an untracked evening. Ultimately, this is my goal for everyone. To get to the place in their diet and training where they can crush a burger and fries and a couple pints every Saturday because they absolutely crush workouts and steps and, yes, even runs. But we have to earn that over time and be at a desired weight range and metabolic function. In the interim we may have to stop trying to earn calories through exercise. Unfortunately, again through observation, hunger is much more pronounced in endurance athletes than almost anyone else I work with. And the result often leads to weight gain or at least a cessation in loss. If fat loss is your goal, running is probably not your best option.

Not everything is physiological. If we approach coaching on the heels of what is most efficient we might be leaving the actual client out of the conversation. Walking is a holistic practice. It functions not just as an approach to increasing movement but also can be a tool for meditation. It can be a tool to think. It can be a chance to reset during a difficult day. As an aid to digestion after a meal. To get some vitamin D through sun exposure. You might work at a walking desk or finally read that book you’ve not been able to find time for. It’s the basic movement that brought us from simian to human. Deriding it seems silly.

Bottom line, the abundance model is about more. More food. More movement. More life. And yes, even more running. However, I want people to walk and I will always prescribe it in some manner due to the overwhelming benefits I’ve seen among hundreds if not thousands of clients over the years. All with almost no cost. If someone wants to run I will encourage the hell out of it. I will also encourage them to work with a running coach and start doing some resistance training (Complete Human Performance is generally where I send them and Ariana’s group for women is a terrific platform).

If we want to live in a world of abundance without an abundance of excess weight, we will need an abundance of work. That will likely include monitoring food intake, training hard, and increasing NEAT. If you’re a legit endurance athlete you might not have to pay attention to food at all. But you’re probably not. You’re probably not putting in 20-30 hours of work per week on the road or pool or bike. 5 hours a week of running ain’t gonna cut it. Sorry. So decide what you want and understand the challenges and the potential. But if you work with me, you’re most likely gonna walk.