Is walking in place as good as walking?

Walking in place, marching on the spot, stepping in place: the same simple move, and the easiest way to add steps when going out isn’t an option. Rain, a small flat, a phone call, an episode of a show. The question is whether it does the same job as a real walk.

The short answer

Close, but not quite. In a 2012 study, stepping in place burned about 258 calories an hour, against 304 for walking on a treadmill at 3 mph (4.8 km/h), so about 85% of a normal walk. Your phone or watch counts the steps. It is a good stand-in on days you can’t get out, and a real walk adds what walking in place can’t: covering ground, going somewhere, and being outside.

How it compares with walking

The study measured the energy use of 23 adults doing different things for a set time:

Activity	Calories per hour
Lying down, resting	79
Watching TV, sitting	81
Stepping in place during the TV ad breaks only	148
Stepping in place, continuously	258
Walking on a treadmill at 3 mph (4.8 km/h)	304

These are averages for adults around 28 years old, and body weight changes them a lot, so treat them as a comparison rather than as your own numbers.

The middle row is the interesting one. Stepping in place only during the ad breaks of an hour of TV nearly doubled the energy cost of watching, and added about 25 minutes of activity and around 2,100 steps to the hour, without missing any of the show.

Do the steps count?

Yes. A phone in your pocket or a watch on your wrist picks up the rhythm of stepping in place the same way it picks up walking, and the steps go into Apple Health or Health Connect like any others. A phone on the table counts nothing, so keep it in a pocket. Phones counting steps in pockets on a treadmill came within about 7% of the real number in a 2015 JAMA study, and walking in place is the same kind of movement without the forward travel.

How to make it harder

• Lift your knees higher, toward hip height.
• Swing your arms, or pump them as if walking fast.
• Speed up for a minute, then ease off, and repeat.
• Step side to side or forward and back between marches, to use more of the room.
• Use the stairs if you have them: up and down a flight is harder than any march on the flat.

When walking in place is the right choice

• Bad weather, ice or darkness, when going out isn’t safe. Our guide to walking in the cold covers the days when it is.
• While doing something else: a phone call, a video, the ad breaks.
• Small spaces, where a treadmill or a walking pad won’t fit.
• Topping up a day that fell short. A few minutes in the evening can close the gap to your target.

More ideas in how to get more steps in a day.

A reason to walk today

Most of us know we should walk more and still skip it, because “go for a walk” has no finish line. reTrek gives you one: pick a famous route, like the Camino de Santiago or the Inca Trail, and every walk moves you further along it, with a short film about the place waiting at each milestone. The walk you would have skipped becomes the one that gets you to the next milestone.

Everest Base Camp is free. Get reTrek.