One mile is equal to a little more than 52 flights of stairs. But walking on a flat surface is half as much exercise as climbing stairs. Slowly going up stairs burns two to three times as many calories as walking quickly on a flat surface in the same amount of time.
About 2,000 steps are taken when walking a mile. Ten steps make up a normal set of stairs. Going up a flight is about the same as walking 38 steps on a flat surface, but it takes more effort to go up than to walk 38 steps on a flat surface. A Harvard study found that men who climbed an average of eight flights of stairs a day died less often than men who walked an average of 1.3 miles a day.
