Exercise is great for the body and the mind. It can be an excellent tool for improving your cardiovascular system, mental health and has many short-term and long-term benefits. There are plenty of ways to exercise. You could go out for a bike ride, a jog, a long walk, or even a swim.
We often get asked how bike miles convert to steps. Obviously, they are completely different sports and forms of exercise, and this can be quite complicated to convert.
In this article, we’ll tell you how many steps convert to a bike mile and the amount of energy it takes to walk a mile compared to cycling a mile.
Why steps?
When it comes to staying fit and keeping, many healthy people will make recommendations to you. They will say to drink more water, count calories, reduce portion sizes, and go to the gym.
The most common recommendation many people will give you is to ensure you do 10,000 steps daily. Most people use a step counter like a FitBit or an Apple Watch to track this.
Why 10,000?
The 10,000 steps weren’t a calculated amount. It was actually a stroke of genius marketing by a Japanese company called Yamasa.
They created the first step tracker called the Manpo-Kei, which translated to 10,000 steps and was the daily challenge they wanted people to hit.
How many steps are in a mile?
To start, it’s important to understand how many steps are in a mile. Obviously, we’re all different. Some of us are taller and have longer legs, and others of us are shorter and have smaller legs.
We first have to break down a mile into the measurement for feet, which is 5280 feet.
Women
The stride length of a woman is estimated at 2.2 feet. So every time a woman takes a step, we’re estimating they are moving 2.2 feet forward. With this information, we can start doing some math.
5280 / 2.2 = 2400
This means we have 2400 steps in a mile for a woman, which will roughly take around 20 to 25 minutes to complete at an average walking pace.
Men
The stride length of a man is estimated at 2.5 feet per step. Every time a man takes a step, we assume that they’re moving 2.5 feet. This is estimated longer as men are typically taller and have longer legs. Now back to the calculator.
5280 / 2.5 = 2112
This means we have 2112 steps in a mile for a man. This will take roughly 20 minutes to complete if you are walking at an average pace.
Steps per mile Cycling
So with this information, we know walking for 20 minutes, we can achieve 2200 steps, which equates to 3mph. When cycling, we’re going a lot quicker than that. Let’s use road biking as an example and say we are averaging 15mph.
Cycling 15mph is five times quicker than walking. So we need to divide the steps up alongside the speed.
3mph / 15mph = 5
2200 / 5 = 440 steps
Using this calculation, we can confidently say that 440 steps are roughly a mile on the bike.
Cycling vs. Walking calories per mile
Although steps are an excellent way to judge the amount you are exercising, a much better way is finding out the calories you’re burning and the amount of energy your body has to use to complete the activity or the distance.
When walking, a man will burn roughly 300 calories, and a woman will burn roughly 250 calories per hour. If it takes 20 minutes to walk a mile, you can estimate that a man will burn 100 calories per mile and a woman will burn around 85 calories per mile.
When cycling at a light pace, a man will burn 500 calories an hour, and a woman around 400 calories an hour. If we estimate that we cycle at an average of 16mph on a road bike, it will take 4 minutes to complete and burn 35 calories per mile for men and roughly 30 for women. Although this is less, you’re going much faster meaning, meaning you’re covering miles quicker.
What’s better for exercise, cycling or walking?
Both walking and cycling are excellent forms of exercise. Cycling is very low impact, works lower and core muscles, can burn huge amounts of calories quickly, can help you explore your local area easily, and can give you the thrill of going fast.
It doesn’t come cheap with having to buy a bike and equipment. Walking is also low impact, it works a lot of the body lightly, is the most natural movement for a human, and you require nothing to do it.
They are both excellent forms of exercise, but if you’re looking to burn a lot of calories quickly, cycling is better than running. Suppose you are looking for a relaxing time and are not worried about the number of calories, then walking. It all comes down to personal preference over everything.
Conclusion
Cycling and walking are excellent ways to exercise, and we highly recommend doing them to help keep fit. We can roughly say for every mile that you are cycling, you can equate it to roughly 440 steps.
Read next: What is the Average Road Bike Speed?
Robbie Ferri has spent years working in a bike shop, has worked with industry leading brands on product creation, has been a semi pro athlete, and is a fully qualified strength and conditioning coach. He has broken World Records, bikepacked all over the World and raced ultra distance at a top-level.
