“Our findings suggest that walking around 8,500 steps a day is a practical and affordable way to maintain significant weight loss in the long-term and prevent weight regain,” says the lead author, Marwan El Ghoch, MD, an associate professor of food science in the department of biomedical, metabolic, and neural sciences at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy. Dr. El Ghoch’s team will be presenting the findings this week at the 2026 European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul, Turkey.
Given that around 4 out of 5 people with overweight or obesity who initially lose weight tend to regain all or part of it within three to five years, identifying this strategy “would be of huge clinical value,” says El Ghoch.
People Who Maintained a Walking Habit Kept Lost Weight Off
To arrive at their findings, researchers analyzed 14 previously published trials involving adults with overweight or obesity. On average, participants were 53 years old and had a BMI of 31.
In all the trials combined, about 2,000 people were randomly selected to complete lifestyle modification programs. Another 1,800 people were in control groups, and were advised only to diet, given no advice, or were on waiting lists for treatment.
The lifestyle programs included instruction on dietary improvements, along with advice to walk more and count daily steps. Each program had a weight loss phase (about 8 months long on average) followed by a weight-maintenance phase (about 10 months), when the goal was to keep the weight off over time.
Researchers measured participants’ daily step counts three times: when the studies began and at the end of the weight loss and weight-maintenance phases.
At the start, the two groups had similar step counts (which suggests they had similar activity levels): about 7,300 steps a day in the lifestyle modification group, versus 7,200 steps a day in the control group.
The control group did not significantly increase their steps or lose weight during the trials. But adults in the lifestyle modification group increased daily steps to about 8,500 by the end of the weight loss phase. They also lost 4.39 percent of their body weight, or about 9 lb on average.
By the end of the weight-maintenance phase, they were still averaging around 8,200 daily steps and had kept off 7 of the 9 lb they’d lost.
Somewhat surprisingly, although high step counts were linked with better long-term weight maintenance, it didn’t seem to help with weight loss during that phase of the trials, says El Ghoch.
“One possible explanation is that during active weight loss, calorie reduction may have a stronger effect on the scale than walking does,” he says.
Walking May Help Offset a Slowed Metabolism
Although the analysis wasn’t designed to look at the “why” behind the findings, El Ghoch offers a few theories on how 8,500 daily steps may counteract some common reasons people regain weight.
Your metabolism may slow after weight loss. After losing weight, the body may burn fewer calories as it tries to conserve energy — a response sometimes called metabolic adaptation. Keeping activity levels up may offset some of that slowdown during weight maintenance, says El Ghoch.
Old habits can creep back in. Many people begin to regain weight when they return to the eating and activity patterns they had before the weight loss phase, he says. The people who continued to walk may not have fallen back into those patterns, he says.
Weight maintenance requires a long-term mindset, says El Ghoch. “The biggest mistake is that patients consider the end of weight loss phase as a ‘finish line’ rather than a permanent change for the whole life,” he says.
Is 8,500 Steps a Day Really Enough?
These findings are “reasonable and consistent” with what’s known about walking and weight loss, says Brian Wojeck, MD, MPH, an assistant professor, endocrinologist, and obesity specialist at Yale Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, who wasn’t involved in the review. But, in his view, 8,500 steps a day may not be enough physical activity to keep lost weight from coming back.
“I would recommend that most people should be shooting for more than 8,500 steps,” says Dr. Wojeck.
“The benefits extend beyond weight maintenance. Exercise can also help with insulin sensitivity, cardiometabolic health, muscle quality and strength, and bone health,” he says.
Adding more intensity or resistance training to activity may provide benefits that steps alone do not, says Wojeck.
That’s not to say that walking won’t help with weight maintenance, he says. “It’s a reasonable starting point, especially for people who aren’t currently doing much activity,” says Wojeck.
“Perfection is the enemy of progress. If you’re not walking now, try to move more. If you are walking, see if you can start to add steps or hills, or a different type of exercise to what you’re doing,” says Wojeck.
How to Add More Steps — and Build From There
You don’t have to walk all 8,500 steps (about 4 miles) at once, says El Ghoch. For most people, “stacking” additional movement onto daily routines is more achievable, he says.
El Ghoch offers these suggestions to start getting more steps.
- Park farther from the entrance or get off the bus one stop early, which may add about 800 to 1,000 steps.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator.
- Walk during phone calls. A 10-minute pacing call can add about 500 to 1,000 steps.
- When possible, take a five-minute walk every hour during the workday, which can add up to about 3,500 steps over eight hours, he says.
- Add intensity when you are ready by walking faster, walking uphill, or opting for a route with stairs.
Choose low-impact options if your joints hurt, says Wojeck. “Swimming, water aerobics, and the elliptical can be good starting points,” he says.