May 28, 2026, 12:04 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
Counting steps has become a widespread phenomenon. Whether young or old, everyone can track how many steps they take each day using their smartphone. Many people hope to lose weight and achieve a good figure through this. But it’s not that simple, as fitness expert Jörn Giersberg explains.
Counting Steps Helps Maintain Weight
Many guides recommend taking at least 10,000 steps a day to stay fit and healthy. This is generally a good benchmark, as we should move as much as possible in our daily lives. It protects us from ailments like back pain, as well as from obesity and cardiovascular diseases. However, this specific number of steps is not scientifically proven to ensure good health. But do more steps per day lead to a good figure? “Not really,” says sports scientist and personal trainer Jörn Giersberg. There are understandable reasons for this.
Counting steps can help people maintain their weight after a diet, as FITBOOK has previously reported. Researchers found in an analysis of 18 studies that around 8,500 steps per day were sufficient to maintain weight after a weight loss program.1
Why Walking Isn’t a Good Figure Maker
Such scientific findings quickly give the impression that more steps per day benefit our figure. But this is a misconception: Simply taking more steps per day won’t change body shape. Sports scientist and personal trainer Jörn Giersberg puts it bluntly: “You won’t get a good figure by walking 10,000 steps. You might become slim eventually, but you won’t have a butt in your pants. Losing weight alone isn’t necessarily the foundation for a good figure.” According to the expert, neither many steps nor cardio training in general are suitable for body sculpting.
Moreover, energy intake matters. Consuming significantly more calories than you burn, even with 10,000 steps, will lead to weight gain, not loss. Walking is among the least energy-consuming activities. Running, swimming, or brisk cycling burn significantly more in the same time. Still, it’s important to remember: Cardio training primarily reduces body fat percentage–muscle mass is hardly built. Too much cardio or cardio right after strength training can even hinder muscle growth.
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Expert Advice for a Good Figure
Just to clarify: Movement itself–and thus daily walking and striving for at least 10,000 steps per day–is healthy. But many steps alone aren’t an effective way to achieve a beautiful figure. There are much more effective methods, as Jörn Giersberg explains. “You should challenge yourself, not just move. This includes a training stimulus that must exceed a certain threshold to trigger adaptation in the body. And it’s not enough to just go for a walk–you need to subject the body to a strong load, then adaptation occurs in the form of muscles,” says the sports scientist.
Giersberg’s practical experience as a personal trainer shows this isn’t just theoretical knowledge. “I once had a client who went to the gym six times a week and did one and a half hours of cardio each time. Then we started training together–twice a week. So we reduced it from six to two times. She then did cardio once a week on her own. Overall, we halved the training from six to three sessions.” Only through this change did her training show results.
Strength Training Is More Effective Than Cardio for Shaping the Figure
As mentioned earlier, cardio training doesn’t build muscles. “But if you do strength training, you only need to set a strong stimulus twice a week and then have a high energy turnover for the rest of the week,” explains Jörn Giersberg. Muscles consume energy even when we’re sitting on the couch and not in the gym. “You can relax, sit at work, and don’t have to constantly take the stairs. On the contrary, it’s even better to take the elevator because muscles need rest during the recovery phase to regenerate and grow,” says the sports scientist.
His message is clear: “The goal should be to explain to people that they need less effort to get fit, achieve a good figure, and burn energy. And that there are also allowances in eating, and you can occasionally eat something not on the healthy menu.” But to do this, you need to engage with the topic of building muscles and properly conducting strength training. His clear tip: “Strength training is much better for the figure than many steps, and you can actually achieve more with less effort.”