Featured Image Credit: JackSucksAtLife/YouTube
We all know staying active is the key to a long and healthy life, among other things.
Sitting down for too long can be detrimental to your mental and physical health, heck, even standing for days on end can have its own dramatic impacts.
But what happens when you take walking to an extreme?
YouTuber JackSucksAtLife tested what happens when you walk 250,000 steps in a week.
Advert
That’s roughly 35,700 steps per day which is more than triple the recommended 10k steps a day.
Jack started off feeling confident but quickly realised he had 'definitely underestimated how difficult it would be.'
To keep his body in check, the YouTuber stuck to a diet with 150g of protein daily to preserve his muscle mass and also took glucosamine to help his joints recover.
On day one, he split his walking into two sessions, each lasting about 2.5 hours.
By the end of the day, he had clocked 38,965 steps, burned 2,058 calories, and weighed in at 170.2 lbs.
As the week went on, Jack struggled to fit in his bi-daily walks in the daylight. With November limited in daylight hours, Jack decided to reveal his 'secret weapon' to help him out - a treadmill.
"It was starting to get dark by about 4pm each day which makes 35,000 steps difficult to fit in," he explained. "But if I can do those steps from the comfort of my living room, I don't need to worry about that."
Unfortunately, it broke after just 22 minutes so didn't really get the job done.
Despite experiencing 'pre-existing pain and exhaustion,' Jack powered through with twice-daily walks and kept on track.
And on day seven, he completed his feat, dramatically taking his final four steps before reaching 250,000.
"This ridiculous challenge was complete and what an amazing feeling of accomplishment this was," Jack remarked. "One-quarter of a million steps in one week."
Visually, Jack noticed his body looking 'narrower,' especially in his lower abdomen, though he pointed out that fat loss takes a few weeks to show fully.
"I seem to be narrower than when I first started which I didn't really expect."
His final weigh-in showed 168.4 lbs, down from 170.2 lbs at the start. And his body measurements also decreased by about 2cm, except for his thigh which grew slightly by half a centimetre.
Most interestingly (and grossly), he showed that his big toenail had turned black on day nine. An unpleasant reminder of the toll this amount of steps can do to your body.
Jack achieved an impressive total of 254,126 steps, accounting for 'any inaccuracies' with his Apple Watch.
This included a total walking time of 35 hours and 30 minutes, a total distance of 209.42km, 18,230 calories consumed and 12,801 calories lost.
At the end of the video, Jack advised against anyone trying a similar challenge. Though he encouraged viewers to aim for 8,000 to 20,000 steps a day which will help people to 'feel better.'
