Man walked 250,000 steps in a week to see what it would do to his body and the results left him in shock

A 28-year-old man has told how he ‘shrinked’ the fat on his stomach and arms and built up leg muscle by taking on an extreme running challenge.

British YouTuber Jack Massey Welsh saw changes in his body after just a week of being on the streets for an astonishing amount of time.

Mr Welsh walked a total of 250,000 steps in just seven days, covering an average of 35,700 or 27 kilometers per day, which is more than a half marathon.

This is around ten times the 3,000 to 4,000 steps the average Brit is estimated to take every day, and three and a half times the 10,000 daily steps recommended by some experts.

Documenting the experience in a video that has been viewed more than 1.5 million times, Mr Welsh revealed the debilitating impact of the venture.

He suffered painfully painful feet, swollen ankles and a ‘black’ toenail, which appeared in the days after he completed the 250,000 steps.

But Mr Welsh was most surprised by the physical changes he noticed – which he never thought could be achieved simply by walking.

‘What a wonderful sense of achievement this was. A quarter of a million steps in one week. For me, it was worth it just for the experience,” he said.

Before taking on the challenge, Mr Welsh made no changes to his diet, apart from eating a little more protein to lose fat instead of muscle while running.

He also weighed himself and measured parts of his body, such as the circumference of his torso and legs, so he could compare any differences at the end.

On the first day, Mr Welsh started the challenge with a two-hour morning walk of 15,500 steps, then a walk of 14,000 steps before reaching his daily target after a short walk with his dog in the evening.

On his first day he said: ‘I’m tired, but I’m fine. It’s just one step after another.’

These words would come back to haunt Mr Welsh on day two as he was in pain from the previous day’s exertions.

‘I was already thinking about how overly confident I was on the first day. When I confidently said, “It’s just putting one step in front of the other, isn’t it?” because now it is not an easy task at all to take one step before another,” he said.

‘Literally every step hurts and is a chore.’

But Mr. Welsh noted that he quickly got into the swing of things and adjusted his routine to try to complete most of the steps goal during multi-hour morning walks.

Speaking on day four, he noted that muscle pain in his legs had subsided, but added that he had begun to experience other physical problems.

“It feels like the only limiting factor in this challenge now is just physical joint pain in my feet,” he said.

‘Because although I have the energy to easily take 30,000 steps today, every step hurts quite a bit and I’m starting to get blisters in a few places, so that’s slowing me down a bit.’

On day five he even needed a painkiller to help him walk due to the pain in his feet, which viewers saw as they were covered in blisters, and on day six he also suffered from what later turned out to be a swollen ankle .

But at the end of the challenge, he said he was hit with an “amazing sense of achievement” after counting down the last few steps to reach 250,000.

He also explained how his body had changed after just a week of extreme walking, including a change in his overall physique.

Comparing the before and after photos, he said, “It looks like I’m smaller than when I first started, which I didn’t really expect. Does this mean I might have lost some muscle mass?’

He also noted that he had lost some belly fat in his side profile, which he attributed to losing 2 pounds (0.9 kg) over the week.

Tape measurements revealed most areas, such as the circumference of his arms and torso which had also shrunk slightly, apart from his thighs which had grown 0.5 cm.

“I didn’t expect to see any difference, so this is really surprising,” he said.

Although it didn’t take place during the challenge itself, Mr Welsh also told viewers how the toenail on the big toe of his right foot had turned black two days after reaching the 250,000 target.

Finally, he said, “Do I recommend walking 250,000 steps a week? Absolutely not.’

‘My joints just couldn’t keep up. It’s now two days later and I’m still waiting for the swelling around my ankles to go down.’

However, he urged people to consider incorporating a more reasonable number of steps into their day.

‘Do I recommend taking between 8,000 and 20,000 steps per day, depending on your personal circumstances? Absolutely,” he said.

“I really think most people will feel better if they walk more.”

Although Brits have been encouraged to take 10,000 steps a day for years, several studies have shown that doing less can still have major benefits for your health.

The 10,000 steps per day goal, often hailed as the holy grail of regular fitness and the default goal for many fitness apps or devices, is a bit of a myth.

It was not based on a forensic investigation, but on a clever marketing ploy by a Japanese company that tried to sell pedometers with the number chosen because it was a memorable number some 60 years ago.

While some studies have since found some health benefits from taking 10,000 steps, many of these are also present at lower daily step counts.

Experts have previously told MailOnline that people should not get carried away with reaching a target of 10,000 steps and that benefits can be seen from just 4,000 steps a day.

The NHS itself does not recommend a specific step count for walking, but instead suggests a brisk walk of 10 minutes a day as this has many health benefits, with the activity counting towards the recommended 150 minutes of weekly exercise for adults.