I find myself scrolling through the Health app on my iPhone to see how many steps I’ve taken after a day at my desk. 3,000 steps? Not bad, not great. 250 steps? Yikes. I don’t need an expert to tell me that spending a whole day on the sofa binge-watching Bridgerton isn’t doing wonders for my body.

How many steps we should walk each day has been debated for decades – but, through it all, one number has reigned supreme: 10,000. So, what makes that number so magic? Not one to take things, shall we say, sitting down, I decided to put this figure to the test once and for all.

What’s the Deal with 10,000 Steps a Day?

The origins of this magic number go back to the 1960s when a company released a pedometer just before the Tokyo Olympic Games. The pedometer’s marketing campaign was all about the number and, when roughly translated, the name – Manpo-kei – means ‘10,000-steps meter’. Clearly, Manpo-kei’s marketing strategy was a success, because sixty years on, the number has stuck. Many fitness trackers – like Fitbits – tell you to aim for 10,000 steps a day and various studies have shown that walking 10,000 steps a day can reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer and dementia. Other studies say you don’t need to hit 10,000 steps a day and that walking 4,000 steps a day can reduce your risk of premature death. Phew, so even on my busiest home office days I’m still getting by.

The 10,000 Steps a Day Challenge

How on earth am I supposed to fit in that many steps alongside my job, my social life and my downtime? Because of this, walking 10,000 steps a day has always seemed like an impossible feat, especially since I work from home most of the week so my commute – which is walking from my bed to my desk – is minimal and therefore so are my steps.

Enter: the under-desk treadmill. Finally, all the hours I’d spent on TikTok had paid off and under-desk treadmills (also known as walking pads) were on my radar and I had the solution to my time problem. I didn’t hesitate before I jumped at the chance to try one out for this experiment and get walking during my working hours. I’d be racking up those steps in no time.

When the treadmill – loaned from JTX Fitness and £499 – arrived I was surprised by how big it was. “What have you got in there? It’s so heavy!” the courier exclaimed as he arrived at my front door with the packaged treadmill. He was right, the treadmill was heavy and much bigger than I’d expected.

I didn’t check the measurements of the walking pad – which, in hindsight, I really should have done – so it didn’t fit under my desk and I was forced to put it in the living room. This meant I wouldn’t be able to walk and work as I’d planned and would have to schedule walking time into my day.

I didn’t let this phase me, I told myself I could fit some walking time in over my lunch breaks and could spend some time in the mornings and evenings just using the treadmill while watching TV.

Week One

At the start of the experiment I underestimated how long it would take me to do 10,000 steps. I’m a fast walker – much to the annoyance of my friends who can’t keep up with me – so I thought it would only take me an hour to get to 10,000. Oh how wrong I was.

After my first hour long session in the morning on a work from home day I’d only managed 7,000 steps so I had to get back on the walking pad at lunch for about 35 minutes to finish off the rest.

Given I’m a speedy speederson when it comes to walking I do think I could have brought this time down if there were more speed settings on the treadmill. The JTX Movelight Walking Treadmill has six speed settings (0.5kph to 6kph) and the top setting is described on the website as a “light jogging pace” but for me this was just a fast walking pace. Again, as I said, I’m a fast walker and for the average person the six speed settings will be enough.

Week Two

These two weeks of challenge were the most amazing days since a long time ago. It definatly worth it.

On my work-from-home days I loved being able to just chuck on loungewear and trainers (honestly I can’t recommend Lululemon’s Chargefeel workout shoes enough) and head down to the living room and just start walking. This was such a time saver compared to getting dressed and going out for a proper walk and I could get thousands of steps in before I even started work and that really set me up for the day.

On the days I went into the office I didn’t need to use the walking pad at all. My commute to work is a 25 minute walk to the train station which is 3,000 steps and that just increased throughout the day as I was walking around the office (Stay away from the lift) and then walk for lunch and then walking back home at the end of the day.

Sometimes I would exceed the 10,000 goal if I had social plans in the evening or had a lot of meetings that required me to move around the office more than usual. Other times it was surprisingly hard to get my steps in than I thought. Like the night I went to a gig and thought ‘this’ll be an easy win’ but ended up dancing about at 11:45pm to try and reach the goal.

As expected my busy schedule proved tricky at times and I would stress about when I would fit in my 10,000 steps. The solution was often to ‘make time’ – get up an hour earlier than I usually would or sacrifice an hour of my chill out time in the evenings.

Week Four

I didn’t find walking 10,000 steps daily strenuous but doing it every day for a month took a toll on my energy levels. Some days my body was screaming at me to have a lie in and all I wanted to do was, well, do nothing at all.

But every day I got up and walked – whether I wanted to or not. Having the walking pad definitely made this a million times easier as I’m not sure I would have finished the challenge if I had to leave the house every day. Yes I’m a total homebody. No I don’t feel bad about it.

10,000 Steps a Day Benefits

Although for me this challenge wasn’t about losing weight I did hope my jeans would feel a little looser by the end of the month. Spoiler alert: they didn’t. Clearly low intensity walking on its own isn’t enough if losing weight is a hard thing with other methods.

But walking faster can make a difference. “Often overlooked as a form of exercise, walking quickly can help you build endurance, burn off excess calories and make your heart healthier,” says the NHS. “You don’t have to walk for hours. A 10 minute daily walk has lots of health benefits and counts towards your 150 minutes of weekly exercise as recommended in the physical activity guidelines for adults 19-64.”

“Things like increasing your walking speed or incline will increase the intensity of the exercise you’re doing, improve your cardiovascular fitness and allow you to burn more calories if weight loss is your goal,” says PT and founder of fitness app WeGLOW, Stef Williams. “Try to incorporate other forms of movement for a wider variety of health benefits.”

And: exercise is only half the story when it comes to weight loss and should be combined with a healthy balanced diet.

I didn’t see any difference on the scales – who even cares?? – but I did see an improvement in my fitness levels. By the end of the month I was definitely less out of breath after each walk and my bum was definitely firmer.

As for my mental health I found walking (especially on the treadmill where I could use the fastest setting) was a great stress reliever. With every step I felt like I was pushing through the anxiety that had built up throughout the day/week/month and clearing out the negative energy I was holding onto. I always felt…