Devlin Brown at the water cooler: Counting steps alone won’t lead to weight loss

Should I be counting steps in my futile efforts to lose stubborn weight?  

It’s entirely up to you. You can do what you want but if you don’t change what you’re doing you won’t lose weight.

This past weekend an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time visited. He is not South African but spent many years working in this country after starting his degree at Rhodes University 25 years ago. He has moved back to the country of his birth, a small, stable member of the AU that we barely read about in the news, so seeing him was a treat. 

He took an Uber from his hotel in Melrose Arch to meet me in the leafy suburbs of the northwest of Joburg. I am not sure if there’s a route in Joburg we didn’t paint red back in the early 2000s when we were young and had stars in our eyes. He knows this city backwards. 

His first words weren’t unexpected: “I cannot believe how bad this city looks. I thought Makhanda had collapsed, with literal trees growing out of potholes, but this is depressing. It’s not just the fact that no traffic lights work – everything is so degraded, from missing stop signs to unkept pavements. It’s tragic.”

It’s tragic indeed. Words from an African who doesn’t have delusions about the great Global North. He’s worked in Europe and the US and seen the worst those countries have to offer. 

You see, living here, we are compliant frogs in water. The politicians control the flame beneath us and we just quietly listen to their nonsense while slowly boiling away. If we speak up we’re gaslighted. My friend saw it, clear as day, because small increments, over time, make for big changes. 

He also noticed that I was physically a different person from when he last saw me. I noticed he was too. Little decisions, daily, over the years, have changed how we look, feel and behave.

At a sporting event a week ago, a woman came up to speak to my partner because her job is to teach people how to move, become stronger and get into shape. Exasperated, this woman explained how she’s just not losing weight. Despite her best efforts, which include the treadmill every morning, she said she keeps gaining weight. 

My partner interrogated her about her lifestyle. I drifted in and out of the conversation but I vividly remember her asking this question: “When are you going to decide to stop living in a calorie surplus?” Silence.

You can count your steps. You can count 2,000 or 12,000. It really doesn’t matter. You could become fitter, stronger or even happier. However, if your goal is to lose weight, fighting against a poor diet is a losing battle. 

Few of us are elite rugby players in our 20s, able to devour whichever high-glycaemic carbs we can find while binge drinking brandy and Coke to celebrate wins – and then show up year after year looking the same or even better. 

You said you have “stubborn weight”. What is stubborn weight? I just see stubborn people in denial about what it takes to lose weight. Outside medical conditions that could cause complications, there’s only one way to sustainably lose weight and that is to change your lifestyle completely. 

Does this mean you should count your calories in addition to your steps? Again, it’s entirely up to you. But you must understand that every drink you have, every snack you eat, every spoon of sugar you put into your tea adds up. 

I’m always a bit uncomfortable answering these questions because not everyone should lose weight. Life doesn’t revolve around losing weight. Losing weight when you don’t need to could be dangerous. However, if you are overweight, then losing weight is an investment in your health. If you’re in this category then be honest with yourself. Are you mindful of all the calories you ingest or is there a blind spot somewhere between comfort and pleasure?