Walking 8,500 Steps a Day May Help Prevent Weight Regain, Study Finds
Key Takeaways:
- New research presented at ECO 2026 suggests that walking around 8,500 steps a day may help people maintain weight loss and reduce the risk of weight regain after dieting.
- Researchers found that people who increased and sustained their daily step count were more successful at keeping weight off over the long term.
- The study highlights walking as a simple, affordable, and accessible strategy that could support long-term obesity management.
Study explores the role of walking in long-term weight management
New research being presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2026) in Istanbul, Turkey, taking place from May 12–15, suggests that walking approximately 8,500 steps per day could help people avoid regaining weight after dieting.
The findings, which will also be published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, address one of the biggest challenges in obesity care – maintaining weight loss over time.
Although many weight loss programmes encourage people to increase their daily physical activity, including walking, researchers say there has been relatively limited evidence examining whether higher step counts genuinely help people lose weight during dieting or maintain that weight loss afterwards.
The new study aimed to clarify whether walking more each day could reduce the likelihood of weight regain and identify what level of daily activity may be most beneficial.
Preventing weight regain remains a major challenge
Professor Marwan El Ghoch, from the Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, highlighted the importance of addressing weight regain in obesity treatment.
“The most important – and greatest – challenge when treating obesity is preventing weight regain,” explained Professor El Ghoch.
“Around 80% of people with overweight or obesity who initially lose weight tend to put some or all of it back on again within three to five years.
“The identification of a strategy that would solve this problem and help people maintain their new weight would be of huge clinical value.”
Long-term weight maintenance is widely recognised as one of the most difficult aspects of obesity management. While many people can initially lose weight through dietary changes, sustaining those results often proves far more challenging due to complex biological, behavioural, and environmental factors.
Researchers conducted a large systematic review and meta-analysis
To explore the relationship between walking and long-term weight management, Professor El Ghoch and colleagues from Italy and Lebanon carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing research.
The researchers analysed 18 randomised controlled trials investigating walking and weight management strategies. Fourteen of those studies, involving a total of 3,758 adults, were included in the final meta-analysis.
Participants had an average age of 53 years and an average body mass index (BMI) of 31 kg/m², placing the average participant in the obesity category. The studies included participants from a range of countries, including the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Japan.
The trials compared two groups:
- 1,987 participants enrolled in lifestyle modification (LSM) programmes
- 1,771 participants assigned to control groups
The control groups either followed dieting programmes without additional support or received no treatment intervention.
Lifestyle programmes combined diet and increased walking
The lifestyle modification programmes combined dietary guidance with recommendations to increase walking and monitor daily step counts.
These interventions generally included two distinct phases:
- An initial weight loss phase
- A longer-term maintenance phase designed to help participants sustain weight loss
Researchers assessed participants’ daily step counts at multiple time points throughout the studies, including:
- At baseline
- After the weight loss phase
- After the maintenance phase
The average duration of the weight loss phase was 7.9 months, while the maintenance phase lasted an average of 10.3 months.
At the start of the studies, physical activity levels were similar in both groups. Participants in the lifestyle modification programmes averaged 7,280 steps per day, while participants in the control groups averaged 7,180 daily steps.
Higher step counts were associated with less weight regain
The researchers found that participants in the control groups did not significantly increase their daily walking levels and did not experience meaningful weight loss during the studies.
In contrast, participants enrolled in the lifestyle modification programmes increased their average daily step count to 8,454 steps by the end of the weight loss phase.
During this period, participants lost an average of 4.39% of their body weight, equivalent to approximately 4 kg.
Importantly, participants were largely able to maintain their higher levels of daily activity throughout the maintenance phase. By the end of the studies, they were still averaging 8,241 steps per day.
They also maintained most of their weight loss over the longer term, with an average sustained weight reduction of 3.28%, or roughly 3 kg.
Further analysis demonstrated a clear association between higher daily step counts and lower levels of weight regain.
Researchers found that people who increased their walking during the weight loss phase and sustained those higher activity levels afterwards were more successful at maintaining weight loss over time.
Walking appeared more important for weight maintenance than initial weight loss
Interestingly, the study found that walking more was not associated with greater weight loss during the initial dieting period itself.
Researchers suggested this may be because calorie reduction and dietary changes tend to have a stronger influence on short-term weight loss than physical activity alone.
However, physical activity appeared to play a more significant role in helping people sustain weight loss once it had been achieved.
This distinction is important because many obesity interventions focus heavily on initial weight reduction, despite evidence showing that long-term maintenance is often the more difficult challenge.
A simple and affordable intervention
Professor El Ghoch said the findings demonstrate that lifestyle modification programmes incorporating walking can support clinically meaningful long-term weight management.
He added:
“Participants should be always encouraged to increase their step count to approximately 8,500 a day during the weight loss phase and sustain this level of physical activity during the maintenance phase to help prevent them from regaining weight.
“Increasing the number of steps walked to 8,500 each day is a simple and affordable strategy to prevent weight regain.”
The researchers suggest that walking may represent a practical and accessible intervention that could be incorporated into obesity treatment programmes without the need for expensive equipment or specialist facilities.
As obesity rates continue to rise globally, strategies that are sustainable, low-cost, and easy to implement may become increasingly important in supporting long-term health outcomes.
