True or not?

20,000 steps within what period? A month?

I used to wear a pedometer to record steps, and walked for between 90 and 120 minutes a day to reach a weekly goal of 10,000 steps. That certainly helped with my weight loss, as walking is a really good way of burning calories.

It would be interesting to know what statistics he based that on. Also how he manages to get 20,000 steps into 15 minutes - I did a 30 minute walk today and I'm doubtful that it came remotely near 20,000 steps.

But in terms of the general statement that he's making (that you only need to do 15 minutes of walking), I think it's all a matter of what you want to achieve and where you are starting from. 15 minutes walk might be significantly more exercise than you did before (for example) but I reckon that it would take a lot longer to lose significant amounts of weight than if you do go to the gym or do a vigorous home-exercise routine. Sign me up for the 'take with a pinch of salt' queue!

Edit: Having checked on Google for more validation, the quota of steps should read 2,000. I'm still somewhat doubtful though! He is also reported to state that they looked between a 'naturally' thin individual and an overweight individual, which I think throws the balance of what they are looking at as I read it to mean that the thinner individual is someone who might not be actively exercising, in comparison to the overweight individual. (But, naturally, I could be wrong.)

There's also no indication that a 15 minute a day walk is what makes that person thin, or a lack of 15 minute a day walk made the other person over weight. No causation, just a (very tenuous) correlation.

I don't walk 15 minutes a day, neither does my husband. I'm squarely in the "healthy" range, he's leaning towards the low end. But I run 35-50 miles a week, and he does 4 hours of martial arts a day. We both pay more attention to the food going into us than the steps we take.

I'm guessing either it's a misquote of some questionable and misunderstood statistics, or that guy makes a living deluding people that they can look like supermodels with minimal effort.

If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got. Make tiny changes, see tiny changes.

Maybe I'm wrong, but "obese people" are not that way by nature...they are that way because they consumed more calories than they expended over a long period of time.

Someone who is "naturally thin" may still be just as out of shape as the person who is obese.

I agree that adding a bit of extra movement into your day is a great way to start getting into a habit of making exercise part of your day, but I think that this article/quote has left out a LOT of important information regarding nutrition, exercise etc. and seems a litlte bit gimmicky in the wording.

I think you put one too many decimals, 15 min walk is closer to 1000 to 1500 steps. I walked 5 miles yesterday and I was just under 9000 steps on my fitbit.

For reference, here's the full quote and accompanying link:

'But you don’t have to go to the gym, run on a track or pump iron. Walking is one of the best forms of exercise — and don’t forget
that you’re already exercising with every movement you make during the day.

When I was developing my Weight Loss programme, I asked ­researchers to check on the precise amount of exercise people were ­taking. They found that the difference between an overweight person and a naturally thin person was just 2,000 steps a day.

That’s a 15-minute walk.

So going to the gym is fine, but I think it’s far better just to build a bit of exercise into your life. Anything that warms you up, gets you breathing deeply and makes your heart beat faster will definitely change your mood. And a by-product is that you’ll also be fitter, which is good for your health.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1343807/Paul-McKennas-new-book-shows-make-happiness-habit.html

Again, when you look at that from the perspective of an average for a large number of people, there is some logic to it. However, in the real world, almost no one who tries that approach achieves permanent success.

Look at what you see people logging on this site as "exercise"--and then complaining because they aren't losing (or even loosing).

That's like the other saying that a calorie deficit of 100 calories a day would lead to an 11 lb fat loss in a year. Why doesn't that happen to everyone?

Because while the abstract numbers seem simple, the reality of our lives and the interplay of metabolism, food intake, and total body movement is much more complex than people realize. In the vast majority of cases, these small changes in ordinary activity are not effective because they are offset by other subtle changes in the long term.

The "proof" is evident: millions of fat people. If it were that simple and easy, everyone would be thin.

Not true