Woman who walked 20,000 steps every day for a month reveals exactly what happened to her body afterwards

A woman who challenged herself to walk 20,000 steps a day has revealed what happened to her body after 30 days.

Some healthcare professionals advise that a person try to aim for 10,000 steps a day, while others have said that there's a broader range.

According to Dr Mike Israetel, people can benefit from anywhere between 6,000 and 12,000 steps each day.

He explained: "6,000 to 12,000 steps per day for most people is totally cool, but a better way to put that is probably if you’re doing a lot fewer than five or 6,000 steps per day all the time and you don’t get a lot of physical activity otherwise, you could be living longer if you did more physical activity in most cases."

Meanwhile, other experts say that 7,000 steps a day can reduce your risk of cancer by 11 percent.

The number of steps we should be doing a day has long been a topic of debate (Getty Stock)

It's also been found that by just increasing your typical step count by 1,000 each day, 'correlated with a significant reduction of all-cause mortality of 15 percent', according to a 2023 study.

But what about walking a whopping 20,000 steps a day? Well, this is exactly what health and fitness influencer Ilva Ignatovica did.

In a video posted to her YouTube channel, Ilva reflected ahead of her final week of the 30-day challenge.

"I experienced some back pain and quickly realized that just because I walk so much does not mean I can skip stretching and strength workouts," she shared.

Whether it's going on a hike or doing more steps around your house, increasing your step count has many benefits (Getty Stock)

"On the other hand, I felt proud of my determination, grateful for the beautiful walks, and happy the two lost kilos," Ilva went on to share of the perks of her high step count.

As for how long it took her to do 20,000 steps, the content creator was spending around four hours a day walking around.

It's because of the time she needed to spend walking to achieve her goals that she wasn't able to do strength workouts as much as she'd done previously, Ilva explained.

People have commented on the three-year-old video, sharing their own experiences of increasing their step count and how it impacted their health.

Somebody wrote: "I did 20k per day for 6 weeks. 8k at 5am and 8k at 5pm, 7 days a week. The other 4k I got through my normal work day. Completely turned my health profile around."

"I reversed my pre diabetes... just by walking extra every day and avoiding sugary foods," added another.