Study: 8,500 steps may prevent weight regain

Professor Marwan El Ghoch and colleagues reported in May that adults with overweight or obesity who walked about 8,500 steps a day during and after a weight-loss program were less likely to regain weight later. The finding came from a systematic review and meta-analysis presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The researchers said the signal was strongest for weight-loss maintenance, not for extra weight loss during the active dieting phase. The analysis was based on previously published trials rather than a new head-to-head experiment. ### Where did the 8,500-step figure come from? Fourteen randomized controlled trials involving 3,758 adults were included in the meta-analysis, according to the researchers’ conference summary. Those participants had an average age of 53 and an average body mass index of 31, with studies drawn from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan. The trials compared 1,987 people in lifestyle-modification programs against 1,771 people who were dieting alone or receiving no treatment. (medicalxpress.com) The lifestyle programs combined dietary advice with guidance to walk more and track steps. Daily steps were measured at baseline, at the end of the weight-loss phase, which lasted about 7.9 months on average, and again at the end of the maintenance phase, which lasted about 10.3 months on average. ### What happened to people who walked more? Participants in the lifestyle-modification groups started near 7,280 steps a day and increased their activity during treatment, while control groups stayed around 7,180 to 7,200 steps a day, the researchers said. (medicalxpress.com) The lifestyle groups lost weight during the intervention, while the control groups did not show weight loss at those checkpoints. ABC News, citing the study, reported that over roughly 1.5 years of follow-up, participants maintained about 1% of weight loss for every additional 1,000 daily steps. (medicalxpress.com) The same report said the average daily total linked with the longest maintenance was about 8,500 steps, though researchers said that level should not be read as a universal prescription. ### Did the study say 8,500 steps causes weight maintenance? (medicalxpress.com) The study was a systematic review and meta-analysis of earlier trials, so it shows an association rather than proof that the step count itself caused the better outcome. ABC News said the pooled data were population-level and that researchers described the findings as hypothesis-generating. Dr. Tara Narula, an ABC News medical contributor, said the result should push researchers to do more work rather than be treated as a fixed prescription for everyone. (abcnews.com) Professor El Ghoch said in the conference materials that preventing regain is the central challenge in obesity treatment, with about 80% of people who lose weight putting some or all of it back on within three to five years. He said identifying a strategy that helps people maintain a lower weight would have clinical value. ### How should readers understand this next to the 10,000-step rule? The 8,500-step figure in this analysis was not presented as a replacement public-health rule for everyone. (abcnews.com) The researchers tied it to adults with overweight or obesity who were already in structured programs that also included calorie reduction and behavioral support. ABC News reported that walking more was not strongly linked to additional weight loss during the active dieting period, suggesting the main role of higher step counts in this dataset was after the initial loss. (medicalxpress.com) MedicalXpress, carrying the conference release, said the researchers concluded that participants should be encouraged to raise their daily steps to about 8,500 during weight loss and sustain that level during maintenance. That recommendation came from the study authors and has not yet been tested as a standalone intervention in a new randomized trial designed specifically around that threshold. ### What comes next from here? (abcnews.com) ECO 2026 is running in Istanbul from May 12 through May 15, where the findings were scheduled for presentation. The published paper is available in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, and the next step for the evidence base is likely to be further trials testing whether a targeted step goal can improve long-term maintenance in specific patient groups. (e3.eurekalert.org) (medicalxpress.com)