How Many 'Steps' Do You Get Riding a Bicycle? | Pedal Chile | (2024)

How Many 'Steps' Do You Get Riding a Bicycle? | Pedal Chile | (1)

How Many 'Steps' Do You Get Riding a Bicycle?

According to the Compendium of Physical Activities:

  • Bicycling is equal to 220 steps per minute

  • 13,200 steps per hour

It would take 46 minutes of cycling to equal 10,000 steps.

How many ‘steps’ do you get riding an e-bike?

  • Riding an e-bike (electronic pedal assist) is equal to about 136 steps per minute

  • 8,160 steps per hour

It would take about 1 hour 14 minutes of riding an e-bike to get 10,000 steps.

10,000 'STEPS' & Bicycle Equivalent

13,200 steps / hour

Leisurely Cycling

13,200 steps / hour

19,800 steps / hour

Cycle Class

19,800 steps / hour

18,480 steps / hour

Mountain Biking

18,480 steps / hour

8,160 steps / hour

E-Bike

8,160 steps / hour

17,820 steps / hour

Vigorous Road Cycling

17,820 steps / hour

How many calories does 10,000 “steps” burn?

“The 10,000 steps/day walking is approximately equivalent to 300 and 400 kcal/day of energy expenditure (depending on walking speed and body size)”

For the average person, walking 10,000 steps equates to walking 4 to 5 miles (~8km). The typical leisure strolling pace of 2.5 to 3.5 mph (4 to 5 kph), the average person will burn about 325 to 375 calories.

  • General Rule of Thumb: 10,000 steps per day is equivalent to about 300 to 400 calories (depending on speed, body size, and intensity)

How many miles on a bike equals 10,000 steps?

  • If you’re cycling on relatively flat terrain with minimal wind, 10,000 steps would be equal to 15 to 18 miles.

How many steps equal a mile on a bike?

  • Approximately 605 steps ± 60 equals one mile of bike riding (flat ground).

What Is Better: 10,000 Steps or an Hour of Cycling?

If excluding personal preferences, the two are fairly equal but in different ways:

  • Cycling burns more calories than walking

    • Uphill cycling is very inefficient, meaning you will burn even more calories if your ride includes any hills

  • Brisk walking is weight-bearing, making it better for bone health

    • At walking speeds ≥ 3 mph (5kph) 10,000 steps a day will maintain bone health (bone mineral density)

history of the 10,000 steps

How Many 'Steps' Do You Get Riding a Bicycle? | Pedal Chile | (4)

A common goal of 10,000 steps has been pushed by the media and is often a default goal for many fitness "wearables.” So, where did this magic number of 10,000 steps come from?

Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard and lead author of a 2019 academic paper, decided to unravel the mystery. Dr. Lee’s conclusions:

  • Likely derives from the trade name of a 1965 pedometer

  • The pedometer was called, Manpo-kei, which translates to “10,000 steps meter” in Japanese

    • The Japanese character also looks similar to a person walking

Dr. Lee, however, isn’t the first person to cite the Japanese company as the ‘inventor’ of the 10,000 step rule.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. Yoshiro Hatano was publishing research papers that extolled the merits of 10,000 steps a day. In his view, the proper amount of physical activity to balance out food intake and to maintain a healthy weight was precisely 10,000 steps.

How did Dr. Yoshiro Hatano come to this conclusion?

Marketing…..

How Many 'Steps' Do You Get Riding a Bicycle? | Pedal Chile | (5)

Yoshiro began selling the pedometer in the 1960s and marketed it as “manpo-kei” or the 10,000-step meter. Yoshiro is noted for saying that the 10k steps was “ideal for marketing” the Manpo-Kei or pedometer.

Dr. Hatano picked an arbitrary number that was masked in advertising while using his cloak of authority (professor at the Kyushu University of Health and Welfare) to sell it to the masses.

“First, the 10,000 steps recommendation is not something that originates from the WHO, but rather is linked to the development and increasing popularity of pedometers in Japan in the 1960s”

So what is the ideal number???

There is none. A “one size fits all” number is a great sound bite but is unrealistic in the real world.

“walking ≥10,000 steps a day did not translate into meeting public health guidelines. These findings highlight the disparity between the number of steps believed to be needed per day and the recommended time-intensity guidelines to achieve positive health benefits”

A 2016 study, from JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association), conducted a 2-year study that researched whether wearable fitness devices lead to increased weight loss. The results:

“In this study, the addition of wearable technology to a behavioral intervention was less effective for 24-month weight loss”
  • Wearing fitness tracking devices lead to less weight loss compared to the participants who didn’t use any fitness tracking ‘wearables’

  • The group that didn’t use fitness tracking devices lost 13 pounds

  • The group that did wear the fitness devices lost only 7.7 pounds

While some people say that this is only one study, which of course is true. However, finding valid studies that are not ‘researched’ through the funding of large fitness/health companies is rather challenging.

CONDENSED VERSION & BOTTOM LINE

General physical activity guidelines and fitness trackers encourage adults to get 10,000 steps, most days of the week. As a result, many adults prefer to get their ‘quota’ of ‘steps’ from bike riding. This results in questions about what is the conversion from pedaling to walking steps. Generally speaking, riding a bike is equal to about 220 steps per minute or about 13,200 steps per hour.

How Many 'Steps' Do You Get Riding a Bicycle? | Pedal Chile | (6)

How Many 'Steps' Do You Get Riding a Bicycle? | Pedal Chile | (7)

Jesse isthe Director of Pedal Chileand lives inLa Patagonia. Jesse has a Master of Science in Health and Human Performance, a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology, and CPT. Hobbies: Mountain biking, reading, researching, weight-lifting, sampling yummy craft beers, snowboarding, hiking, & cycling

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Sources:

  1. Choi, B.C.K., Pak, A.W.P., Choi, J.C.L. and Choi, E.C.L. (2007). Achieving the daily step goal of 10,000 steps: The experience of a Canadian family attached to pedometers.Clinical & Investigative Medicine, 30(3), p.108.

  2. Crandall, T. (2015).10000 Steps History Dr. Yoshiro Hatano. [online] 10,000 Steps Daily.

  3. De co*cker, K., De Bourdeaudhuij, I., Brown, W. and Cardon, G. (2009). Moderators and mediators of pedometer use and step count increase in the “10,000 Steps Ghent” intervention.International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 6(1), p.3.

  4. Ewald B, Attia J, McElduff P. How many steps are enough? Dose-response curves for pedometer steps and multiple health markers in a community-based sample of older Australians. J Phys Act Health. 2014 Mar; 11(3): 509-18.

  5. Gow, A.J. (2013). Enhancing brain health: 10,000 steps at a time?Aging Health, 9(3), pp.239–241.

  6. Hatano, Y. (1993) Use of the pedometer for promoting daily walking exercise. Journal of the International Committee on Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 29, 4-8.

  7. Jakicic, J.M., Davis, K.K., Rogers, R.J., King, W.C., Marcus, M.D., Helsel, D., Rickman, A.D., Wahed, A.S. and Belle, S.H. (2016). Effect of Wearable Technology Combined With a Lifestyle Intervention on Long-term Weight Loss.JAMA, [online] 316(11), p.1161.

  8. Lee, I.-M., Shiroma, E.J., Kamada, M., Bassett, D.R., Matthews, C.E. and Buring, J.E. (2019). Association of Step Volume and Intensity With All-Cause Mortality in Older Women.JAMA Internal Medicine, [online] 179(8), pp.1105–1112.

  9. Tudor-Locke, C. and Bassett, D.R. (2004). How Many Steps/Day Are Enough?Sports Medicine, 34(1), pp.1–8.

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  12. White, D.K., Tudor-Locke, C., Felson, D.T., Gross, K.D., Niu, J., Nevitt, M., Lewis, C.E., Torner, J. and Neogi, T. (2013). Walking to Meet Physical Activity Guidelines in Knee Osteoarthritis: Is 10,000 Steps Enough?Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 94(4), pp.711–717.

How Many 'Steps' Do You Get Riding a Bicycle? | Pedal Chile  | (2024)

FAQs

What is 10 000 steps equivalent to biking? ›

A general rule of thumb is a moderate intensity biking for one hour is equivalent to 10,000 steps. You may notice that this method provides a relatively low number of steps compared to the 1st method, where biking for one hour bicycle ride with an average speed of 10mph is equivalent to 21,000 steps.

How many steps is a 30 minute bike ride? ›

Multiply the number of minutes of the activity by the number of equivalent steps per minute. For example, if you bicycled at a leisurely pace for 30 minutes, multiply 116 X 30 to come up with 3,480 steps.

How many miles on a bike is equivalent to walking? ›

Example: If you bike 5 miles on a road or paved trail, multiply 5 X 0.3 = 1.5 miles you can add to your daily total of miles walked.

Does exercise bike count as steps? ›

Does a 10-minute stationary bike a day have benefits? If so, what are they? Not as steps because your fitness tracker detect steps by the impact of your feet. But it does count toward doing a similar amount of exercise as 10000 steps.

How do you count steps when cycling? ›

To convert cycling or other exercises into steps a good rule of thumb is to use a conversion factor.
  1. 1 min Low intensity (gentle) = 85 steps. ...
  2. 1 min Moderate/Brisk intensity (comfortable) = 150 steps. ...
  3. 1 min High Intensity (tolerable intensity but not for a long period of time) = 200 steps.
Aug 9, 2017

Which is better walking or cycling? ›

Cycling can be better for burning more calories, and it helps increase your lower-body strength. On the other hand, walking may help with bone density and tends to cost less than cycling.

Why does cycling not count as steps? ›

Because steps are counted based on arm movement (specifically the swinging of arms while walking/running) it's hard to track steps when your arm is more or less stationary on the bike handle. Because of this, your distance information will normally be incorrect as well.

Is riding a bike 3 miles the same as walking 3 miles? ›

Most fitness experts who have calculated calorie burn for both exercises base their numbers on time spent rather than distance traveled. In several studies conducted by reputable scientists, it was determined that, under equal conditions, bike riding was at least equal to walking.

Which is better for weight loss cycling or walking? ›

Moreover, since cycling burn more calories, it is better for weight loss. Even though walking may not be an ideal choice for weight loss, you can still lose weight by eating less in a day.

How many miles on a bike equals a mile? ›

In other words, 1 mile of running at a moderate level is equivalent to biking 2-3 miles at the same effort level.

Does cycling reduce belly fat? ›

Besides being a recreational activity, cycling is an excellent cardio workout that helps one shed weight and lose belly fat.

How many miles is healthy to bike a day? ›

There is no limit on how many miles you can bike on a given day. It depends on how to fit you are, what your workout routine is, and how far you ride. For beginners, 10 miles per day is OK. Forty-five miles is a reasonable limit if you're an experienced cyclist who can bike 25-30 miles per day.

Does my Iphone count cycling as steps? ›

Things like riding a bike won't count as steps but dancing or stepping in place would.

Is cycling good for older people? ›

Among these activities, bicycling has gained popularity among the elderly patients. Benefits include strengthening muscle groups used in maintaining balance and strength (ie, quadriceps), enjoyment, autonomy, and improved cardiovascular function.

Is cycling good for knee pain? ›

Cycling makes knee joint bend and stretch gently and helps to ease the movement of the joint. Cycling also improves the muscle strength around the knee joint, which ultimately protects the knee joint if there are any impact actions. So it's wise to say that cycling promotes knee joint health in many ways.

Is cycling good for arthritic knees? ›

Cycling is a fantastic activity, especially if you have arthritis, particularly knee osteoarthritis, as it places very little stress on your joints. It can be done outdoors, at a gym or at home.

Is cycling better than stairs? ›

Research currently has stair climbing in the No. #1 spot for calories burned beating running, swimming, cycling and walking*. In fact stair climbing burns 23% more calories than running, 250% more than swimming, 63% more than bicycling and 400% more than walking at 3.22 km/h.

Is bike better than stairs? ›

Calories Burned

According to Harvard Health Publications, a 155-pound person will burn about 260 calories riding a stationary bike at a moderate intensity for 30 minutes, while that same person would burn only 223 calories using a stair climber for 30 minutes.

Do car rides count as steps? ›

Vibrations that affect all or part of your body can also result in inaccurate step counts. For example, riding in a car, bus, train, or subway can create motions that are interpreted as steps. You can add hundreds of steps while driving your car for an hour or less.

Which is better for diabetics walking or cycling? ›

Research has shown that when cycling and walking were compared for individuals with type 2 diabetes, it was seen that cycling has less impact on the feet and lowers blood pressure levels more than walking. Thus, cycling can be used to control blood sugar spikes. Cycling also burns more calories than walking.

Is walking or biking better for legs? ›

“You're weight-bearing when you're walking, so you'll be training your bones to be stronger.” Both activities use nearly all of your muscles. But when biking, you're really working out your glutes and quadriceps (also muscles in the lower legs/feet, if clipped into the pedals).

What are the side effects of cycling? ›

Cycling has been associated with genital numbness, priapism, infertility, elevated PSA, erectile dysfunction (ED), lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), and prostatitis.

Is cycling good for varicose veins? ›

Any activity that gets you on your feet can make a difference, but cycling is an especially good choice for leg vein issues such as spider and varicose veins. This is true for several reasons: Cycling flexes your calves. Pedaling a bike stimulates blood flow through the legs, improving your strength and circulation.

Does cycling make your legs bigger or thinner? ›

The short answer for whether or not cycling is going to make your legs huge is – no. Of course, cycling improves your leg muscles, but as an aerobic exercise, it works your endurance muscle fibers, making them more resistant to fatigue while training, but not causing them to bulk up.

Is it better to walk a mile or bike a mile? ›

Cycling is more efficient than walking, so you'll probably work harder by walking briskly and probably exercise your heart, lungs and major muscles more. On the other hand, cycling is probably less hard on your hips, knees and ankles than walking.

Is it OK to ride bike everyday? ›

Cycling can help to protect you from serious diseases such as stroke, heart attack, some cancers, depression, diabetes, obesity and arthritis. Riding a bike is healthy, fun and a low-impact form of exercise for all ages. Cycling is easy to fit into your daily routine by riding to the shops, park, school or work.

What is the 75 rule in cycling? ›

The 75-percent rule states that during a given training week, at least 75 percent of your miles (or time) should be at or below 75 percent of your maximum heart rate (MHR).

What's better treadmill or bike? ›

The differences in fitness and aerobic improvements between using a treadmill or a bike are negligible. Either is a much better option than doing no exercise at all.

Is it better to eat before or after cycling? ›

Research suggests that it is better to eat before a bike ride rather than after. Post-ride nutrition is important for recovery, but not being adequately fueled for a long or strenuous ride can hinder performance and training capacity and potentially be dangerous for the rider [1,2].

How long should I ride a bike a day to lose weight? ›

In order to lose weight, the American Council on Exercise (ACE) says you'll need to cycle at a moderately intense level for at least 30 minutes at a time. To burn even more calories, you'll want to cycle for longer. ACE also suggests incorporating two activities into one cross-training session to boost weight loss.

What is the best recovery food after cycling? ›

Meal idea: lean protein such as eggs, chicken, tuna or tofu along with complex carbs such as whole grain pasta, rice, or sweet potato and some fat - try avocado. However, says Simpson, to really speed up recovery there is some evidence that it's better to eat little and often.

What is a good distance to bike for a beginner? ›

To give you an idea of distances and speed, the average cycling speed for a beginner is about 12mph. This means that in your first week, you'll be covering distances of up to 2 miles. After eight weeks, the 10-mile ride shouldn't feel daunting at all.

How long is a normal bike ride? ›

A good average for a ten mile bike ride is between 45 minutes and an hour. If you're a beginner, it's more likely to be closer to the hour mark. Over time your average speed for each of your rides will increase and so the time it takes to cycle 10 miles will be reduced.

Is riding a bike 30 minutes a day good exercise? ›

Exercising on the bike for at least 30 minutes a day will build up your cardiovascular and muscular endurance. By putting in consistent effort, you'll notice an improvement in your aerobic capacity, enabling you to bike longer or on more intense rides.

How many miles is a 30-minute bike ride? ›

A 30-minute bike ride is how many miles? If you are biking at a slow to moderate pace of 12 miles per hour, you will ride six miles in 30 minutes. A five-mile ride will take you only 25 minutes, just under the minimum recommendation of 30 minutes per day.

How many minutes are 10,000 steps? ›

Ten thousand steps equates to about eight kilometres, or an hour and 40 minutes walking, depending on your stride length and walking speed.

What is a good distance to cycle in 30 minutes? ›

At a moderate rate of exertion, 30 minutes of cycling at a rate conducive to maintaining health equates to covering about 15 km at an average speed of about 30 km/h.

Is cycling good for belly fat? ›

Yes, cycling can help lose belly fat, but it will take time. A recent study showed regular cycling may enhance overall fat loss and promote a healthy weight. To reduce overall belly girth, moderate-intensity aerobic exercises, such as cycling (either indoor or outdoor), are effective to lower belly fat.

Will cycling reduce belly? ›

Besides being a recreational activity, cycling is an excellent cardio workout that helps one shed weight and lose belly fat.

What happens to your body when you ride a bike everyday? ›

Cycling is mainly an aerobic activity, which means that your heart, blood vessels and lungs all get a workout. You will breathe deeper, perspire and experience increased body temperature, which will improve your overall fitness level. The health benefits of regular cycling include: increased cardiovascular fitness.

What is considered a good bike ride? ›

The ideal length for a bike ride is 20 miles.

How long should I cycle a day? ›

Cycle for at least 30 to 45 minutes a day to lose weight and get other health benefits. In addition, you should also add strength training exercises at least twice a week. You can meet your daily cycling distance outdoors or use stationary bikes at home or at the gym.

How many miles on a bike is equal to 1 mile running? ›

The general rule of thumb is a 1:3 or 1:2 run to bike ratio in miles. In other words, 1 mile of running at a moderate level is equivalent to biking 2-3 miles at the same effort level. Running is a high impact activity and requires the entire body to be moving.

How many steps is a 30 minute slow walk? ›

That's anywhere between 3,000 and 3.750 steps for that 30 minute walk. You can estimate about 3,300-3,500 steps as a good proxy for 30 minutes walking.

How many steps is a 20-minute walk? ›

A 20-minute walk is about 120 steps per minute, or 2,400 steps. You can break that up into three walks of 800 steps each.

How many steps equal 1 mile? ›

You can also estimate steps by knowing that 2,000 steps equals one mile. Measure your progress by the number of steps you are covering each day. Generally speaking you can count on 2,000 steps equaling one mile.

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