How do you do 10,000 steps a day when working in desk job?

I find it really hard. At weekends I do 10000+ but weekdays I make an effort to walk for an hour in the evening (which has to fit around cooking dinner, helping the kids with their stuff etc) and even then I'm often only around 6000.

One thing we've discussed at work is away-from-screen meetings where you take your phone out with you and walk and talk. In practice, very few of my meetings are suitable for that and most of my work ties me to the laptop.

Just the walking when I commute and toddling around does it for me. But I’m in London and can’t drive to work.

I was wondering this last week as well. We've just come back from a week in the Lakes, lots of walking so my step count was higher. I managed over 10,000 steps most days, but this was as a result of going for proper walks, and we were out all day. Home again this week, and I've probably averaged less than 1,000 a day. Can't use my commute to walk, as it's a half hour drive and there's no where further away to park due to the location. By the time I get home and we have dinner etc it's time to drive my son to his job, and definitely no time to fit in walking. I tried getting up earlier on Monday to walk on the treadmill for half an hour but even that only resulted in 4,000 steps. Just can't see how I'd fit it in.

Break it up...half hour walk in the morning, half hour at lunch, half hour in the evening. If you are talking to someone on the phone - Talk and walk. Take the stairs not the lift, park in the far end of the carpark, go to the supersize supermarket. Meet a friend for a walk, not a coffee.

I do, on average 12,000. Walk to & from work, walk around the shops or park on dinner break & sometimes have a walk in the evening.

I go for a run before work, walk at lunchtime and quick walk after work. I have a stand up desk and try to walk a bit whilst on the phone. I very rarely sit down until dinner. Average about 12500 steps.

Walk children to school in morning and go for a walk in evening. Sometimes fit in a bit over lunch even if just laps outside house.
Note I do not walk 10000 steps a day but when I do this is how I achieve it

Make sure your step Walker is accurate! My husband and I did exactly the same one day and there was 6,000 steps in the difference! His was obviously the higher one 😂

PS great charity

I changed my target to x number of active minutes per day - by active. I mean, enough to get my heart rate going! I don’t think me walking for an arbitrary number of steps is particularly helpful, and I either don’t have time to walk long enough to hit 10,000 or I end up going so slowly that I might as well be sat down! Whereas saying 20 mins before work, 20 mins at lunchtime, 20 mins in the evening doing something that gets my heart rate up is easier to achieve. And could include hard work in the garden/house if you have certain jobs to do.

If you live in a city, it’s easy. I used to walk to work in London, an hour each way. Mind you, I didn’t have kids then, so my time was my own.

Nowadays, WFH, I can still do 10,000 steps but I have to plan a bit more. I go out at 8am for an hour when my daughter is in nursery. This would usually have been my commute time if in the office. Then I go out later in the day to collect her, again on foot; and if I’ve managed to move about enough during the day (stairs, walking round the house), I’m at about the right number.

So while a traditional potter's wheel might be going too far grin is there some way of doing some under-desk 'stepping'? Like a baby treadmill?

Yes it’s a thing! Search for ‘mini exercise bike’. Goes under your desk and you pedal it.

I get 10,000 a day in a desk job by doing the school/nursery run on foot and going out for either a walk or a run at lunchtimes.

I do an hour walk before work which does about 7500 steps.

Are you wfh? If not you need to walk part of your commute if possible. Get off a couple of stops earlier or park a distance away.

If you're wfh you need to walk in the morning, lunch and evening basically. I get mine in doing the nursery run! Or the alternative is to do something like couch to 5k, running will get your steps in more efficiently.

I find it impossible. I leave the house at 7am, have a commute along a road I couldn’t park on to walk the remainder into the office and only have a half hour lunch break, so nowhere near long enough to get 10k steps in. I do a bit of a walk at night, but again, nowhere near enough, esp on the evenings I’m ferrying DS to something.

I have worked at an office I commuted to by train and walking, so it was a doddle then - but it all depends on your commute. Otherwise you have to set your alarm for much earlier - which might be impractical, esp if you’ve got kids to get out of the door etc.

Get one of the step counters that posters have that has them convinced they do 2,000 steps "pottering" around making breakfast.

Though in all seriousness, the step counters can vary massively so a step goal, while still something to aim for isn't a set target. Aim to have 20 mons brisk walk several times a day.

If you commute by car then it’ll take you at least an hour of planned walking on top of general pottering around. The only question is when?

I wfh (for now) and do a 'commute' of 2k of so each morning. takes me 20 minutes.
another walk or run in the evening.
don't have a car so walk or cycle to the shop. it all counts.

I do ‘Get Fit with Rick’ walking workouts on YouTube.

I get mine in when I run. As PP have said if you don't naturally do the 10,000 steps then you have to go out of your way to do so. A colleague of mine gets up an hour early to go for a morning walk. Walk at lunch, walk at night.

Get off the bus / tube / tram one stop earlier in the morning and walk the difference; same in the afternoon, walk from work to one stop further away.

I'm watching a Moroccan potter giving it some welly on his his traditional potter's wheel on the Food Network right now. Ainsley Harriot had a go and it's definitely hard work and counts as steps!

So while a traditional potter's wheel might be going too far is there some way of doing some under-desk 'stepping'? Like a baby treadmill?

Sorry if this is the most ridiculous idea anyone's ever come up with in the history of Mumsnet.

I tend to find most the time that if I go for a 30 minute walk, that’s 3000 steps, 60 mins = 6000 steps etc so would need to do 1 hour 40 mins of walking a day as a guide maybe?
Walk in the morning, lunch and evening like others said. Also set an alarm (my Fitbit has one built in) for 10 to every hour, at that alarm try and go to the bathroom, get a glass of water etc. All adds up.

When I had a Fitbit ("lost" it during lockdown & gained loads of fat so must find it again....) I used to set alarm every hour at work and go for a quick walk around the building. Also, a standing desk helps, where you can march while on phone etc

Usually I can do about 7000 in my lunch break and then I have a walk to my local Tesco and back on the evening which does the rest.
If I walk to Morrisons, half an hour away, and come back then I will do 10,000.
To my mum's and back is about 8000 steps.
I usually listen to a radio 4 program on BBC Sounds or an audio book to keep my from getting bored.
It's not too bad once you get used to it.