Walking tool
Steps to Distance Calculator
How far is 10,000 steps for you? Enter your height and this calculator estimates your step length, then turns steps into distance, or a distance into steps, and shows how long the walk takes at your pace. It uses the same rule the Step Step app falls back on when Apple Health has no step length for you yet.
How this works
Step length from height
A step is one footfall, heel to heel, not a two-step stride. For most adults at an ordinary walking pace it is a little over 40 percent of their height. Step Step uses 42 percent as its fallback, so a 170 cm walker has a step of about 71 cm and covers a kilometre in roughly 1,400 steps.
step length = height × 0.42
Time from cadence
Walking time comes from cadence, the number of steps you take each minute. When you add a walk by hand, the app assumes 80 steps a minute for an easy walk, 100 for a normal one and 120 for a brisk one. Cadence research puts the start of moderate-intensity walking at about 100 steps a minute for most adults.
Getting a truer number
Your step length changes with speed, slope and footwear. For a personal figure, count your steps over a measured 100 metres and divide. Your iPhone also records walking step length in Apple Health as you go. Step Step uses the middle of your recent readings first, and only falls back to your height when there are too few.
References
- Tudor-Locke, C. et al. (2018). How fast is fast enough? Walking cadence (steps/min) as a practical estimate of intensity in adults: a narrative review. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 52(12), 776 to 788. Read the abstract
- Tudor-Locke, C. et al. (2019). Walking cadence (steps/min) and intensity in 21 to 40 year olds: CADENCE-adults. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16, 8. Read the abstract
For healthy adults. This is general information, not medical advice.