“Costco Is My Gym Membership!”: Woman Shares How She Lost Weight

The commonly peddled tip for health is to walk about ten thousand steps every day. Some folks do that without even trying, but others have to go out of their way to find the time. A woman shared her low-effort, but quite effective weight loss strategy of just walking around Costco for roughly forty minutes every day.

However, she also appeared to be a frequent user of weight loss medication, which she readily admitted in the comments section. For the non-Americans, this is but another example of just how hostile the US is to the simple act of walking. We reached out to her via private message and will update the article when she gets back to us.

It’s almost a cliche at this point, that walking ten thousand steps, a nice round figure, is great for your health. But why this oddly specific number? Walking 10,000 steps, roughly five miles or eight kilometers, isn't just arbitrary pedometer propaganda. This number has its origins in 1960s Japan when a company created a pedometer called "Manpo-kei," which literally translates to "10,000 steps meter." While the number was partly a marketing tool, decades of research have since backed up the benefits of hitting this daily goal. Regular walking strengthens your cardiovascular system, helps manage weight, reduces the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease, improves bone density, and even boosts your mood and mental clarity. It's essentially a wonder drug with no side effects, no copay, and no prescription needed. While it does sound very achievable, some folks do actually struggle with even five thousand steps, both for health reasons, or because they happen to live in an area wholly designed for cars.

The beauty of walking is its accessibility. It's low-impact, meaning it's gentle on your joints compared to running or high-intensity workouts. It doesn't require a gym membership, special equipment beyond comfortable shoes, or any particular athletic ability. You can do it at any age, at your own pace, and you don't even need to change into spandex (though you certainly can if that's your thing). Walking also gives your brain a break, it's meditative, allows time for thinking or listening to podcasts, and gets you outside breathing fresh air instead of recirculated office HVAC fumes.

Your body was genuinely designed to move regularly throughout the day, not to sit in a car for 20 minutes to drive half a mile because there's a six-lane road and zero sidewalks between you and the nearest place that sells milk. And here's where the American walking experience becomes both fascinating and slightly absurd. Suburban sprawl, car-centric urban planning, and the absence of basic pedestrian infrastructure mean that "going for a walk" in much of America often translates to "driving somewhere to walk in circles." Sidewalks? Optional, apparently. Crosswalks? Good luck. A pleasant tree-lined street that connects your home to local shops and services? That's basically a fairy tale in most suburbs built after 1950. The result is that Americans have had to get creative, turning commercial spaces into their personal walking tracks.

Enter Costco, the accidental fitness center of suburban America. Those warehouse aisles are impressively long, and you'll easily rack up 2,000 steps or more just hunting down the free samples on a Saturday afternoon, debating whether you really need a 50-pound bag of quinoa, and navigating the deliberately maze-like layout designed to make you walk past everything they sell. The parking lot alone, which often resembles a small airport tarmac, could legitimately count as cardio. Add in pushing a cart that's approximately the size of a compact car, and you've got yourself a decent workout.

But Costco isn't alone in serving as America's unintentional fitness facility. Shopping malls, particularly in extreme weather regions, have become popular “walking destinations” for people of all ages. Mall walking programs are especially common among older adults who appreciate the climate-controlled environment, flat surfaces, and the ability to window shop while exercising. Target, Walmart, IKEA, these have all become de facto walking tracks. IKEA is particularly effective since the showroom path is designed to lead you through the entire store, meaning you can't not walk at least half a mile even if you're just there for Swedish meatballs.

Millions of Americans living in sprawling suburbs and car-dependent communities, intentional walking requires intentional planning. You have to decide you're going to walk, choose a location where walking is possible, often drive to that location, and then do your steps. It's not integrated into daily life; it's a separate activity that requires forethought.

The good news is that your body doesn't really care where you get your steps. Whether you're power-walking through the produce section at Trader Joe's, doing laps around your local mall, circling the Target parking lot because you forgot where you parked, or lucky enough to have an actual walkable downtown near you, the health benefits remain the same. Your heart doesn't distinguish between a scenic nature trail and the fluorescent-lit corridor between the pharmacy and the frozen food section.