The Study
One-Year Trajectory of Step Counts and Weight Loss in Adults With Overweight/Obesity: Retrospective Cohort Study
This study watched people over a year and noticed that those who slowly started walking more often also tended to lose weight. But it didn’t make anyone walk more—it just watched what happened. So we can’t say walking caused the weight loss, just that the two things often happened together.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
This study looked at how people’s walking habits changed over a year and how that affected their weight.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 559 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Even if two people walked the same total number of steps over the year, the one who gradually increased their steps was much more likely to lose weight.
- 2People who kept walking more every week lost weight 2.45 times more often than those who walked the same amount every day.
- 3People who walked less over time, or walked more then less, didn’t lose more weight.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Year
2025
Authors
Kenshiro Taguchi, Asuka Oyama, Jun'ichi Kotoku, Hiroshi Toki, Ryohei Yamamoto
Related Content
Claims (6)
Adults with overweight or obesity who gradually increase their daily steps over a year are 2.45 times more likely to lose at least 3% of their body weight than those who maintain the same step count, even if their average steps over the year are the same.
In adults with overweight or obesity, reducing daily steps over a year does not lead to greater weight loss than keeping step counts stable, even if they started with higher step counts.
In adults with overweight or obesity, changing step counts by increasing them then decreasing them over a year does not lead to more weight loss than keeping step counts steady.
Among adults with overweight or obesity, the number of steps taken each day over a year does not determine whether a person will lose at least 3% of their body weight, because people with the same average step count often lose very different amounts of weight.
In adults with overweight or obesity, changing daily step counts over one year does not change the chance of losing at least 3% of body weight.
People who take 9,000 more steps per day lose 1.1 to 1.4 kilograms of fat per month.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.