New York, Feb 14 (TIWN) Contrary to the common belief that walking 10,000 steps a day prevents weight gain, the researchers have found that it doesn't actually prevents weight gain rather it may decrease your sedentary time.

Carried out by researchers at Brigham Young University, the new study looked at 120 freshmen students during their first six months of college and split them in to three groups to investigate whether increasing the number of daily steps above 10,000 would prevent weight and fat gain.  While one group of students was asked to walk 10,000 steps a day for six days a week over a period of 24 weeks, another group was asked to walk 12,500 steps a day, and a third 15,000 steps a day. The participants were asked to wear pedometers 24 hours a day to track their steps.

The researchers also tracked the participant's caloric intake and weight.  The findings, published in the Journal of Obesity, showed that while the students walked approximately 9,600 steps per day on average before starting the study, those in the 10,000-step group managed to average 11,066 steps a day by the end of the study. Those in the 12,500-step group averaged 13,638 steps and those in the 15,000-step group averaged 14,557 steps a day.