Do you walk 10,000 steps a day?

[nordica]

I've dusted off the Fitbit recently and tried to get more active but I'm finding it's surprisingly hard to get anywhere near the recommended 10,000 steps a day goal. How many people actually do? How much/how long for do you have to walk to reach the goal?

I don't know if this is because I'm short and have shorter strides so can't cover as much in the same time as someone taller, or if it's because I'm unfit and my brisk walk isn't fast enough. Even when I go out for a 30-45 minute walk, at best I get to around 6000 steps a day. The other day I walked for over an hour and still didn't reach 10k steps for the day. My job is sedentary which doesn't help of course (and I'm working from home so there is very little walking to do as part of my usual day).

I remember thinking the same in the past, especially as people so often seem to say "oh 10k steps a day is easy, just go for a short walk".

I'm a dental nurse in a hospital and I average on 16K a day. I run around constantly because of stock room is at the opposite end of the clinic and I get the bus so walking to work etc. I have just started driving so I'm sure that will go down!

apropos of nothing, but the 10,000 steps as a target only became about because the one of the first pedometers could only register up to 9,999 steps.

I have mine set to 8000 steps and rarely make that . I have been doing exercise classes in the house but some like body pump don't involve moving about even though you are expending energy.

It takes a good long walk, maybe 1½ hours, to get 10000 steps

I couldn't work out why my husband had so many more steps than me. Turned out it's because he keeps his phone in his pocket. You do a surprising number of steps just pootling round the house.

Do I fuck

Yesterday I did 20k steps.

I walked the dog for 1hr45 before breakfast (11k) then took both big dog and puppy out for another walk (5k) then the puppy alone (3k) then some garden work covered the rest.

Your height is irrelevant a step is a step!

I find it v easy to hit 10k before breakfast most days but that is because of the dogs. Also we live in the country and have a big garden with chickens so I am constantly active when I'm not at work.

When I was working I regularity did 30,000 now problem not even 5,000 😀

I suppose if you want to achieve that amount the only thing is to go for a walk

A few years ago a walking friend of mine said he wanted to try to walk 1,000 miles in a year. I worked out a school run of 1.5 miles could achieve that

15k plus a day. Start doing the youtube walking videos. Can do 1k steps in about 15 mins max. Good luck

Did a 1hr 9 minutes walk the other day and only hit about 7500 steps.

I think brisk walking roughly works out as around 100 steps a minute, so you’d have to walk just over an hour and a half to get to 10,000 steps.

I do 15k plus. It's just a routine ive gotten into. I go for a walk for over an hour including the school run and that gets around 9-10k steps. If I do 10k steps in a day it feels like a lazier day to me now. I step when I'm watching something on the tv .

I'm pretty sure the 10k steps thing was just made up as a marketing gimmick. I don't think there's any evidence for it as a meaningful target. In fact I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that for women who live a generally sedentary lifestyle health benefits begin at around 2500 steps and plateau around 7000. But don't quote me on that!

10k steps is 5ish miles, depending on length of stride, so assuming a reasonably brisk 18 minute mile walking pace it takes about 1hr 30. You don't have to do it all in one go though.

I aim for it. I'm trying to lose weight and get fitter, and I'd started with a target of 3000 steps a day, upping this target every 3 to 4 weeks. I'm now at 6500 steps a day and meet it most days, and managed 20k steps yesterday. It's working, I've opted almost 2 stone, and eating less as my appetite seems to be resetting itself. But it can be a slog, though, on some days.

I have just started tracking my steps and trying to be more active. I'm hitting the 10k most days now but it does take an effort.

10k steps is about 5 miles, so 45-60min walk won't be enough. Also smaller stride means more steps, I do more than do because I have shorter legs.

Not now I work from home and have a toddler :( before then I could easily do that on a work day.

Yes I’ve made a big effort and now I (usually) do. For me the key is two walks a day. When you’re in your usual area unless you live on Dartmoor or something it’s pretty dull to do 90min plus alone so I tend to go out for a walk in the morning and one in the day or evening usually with a friend or family member.

Now I’m doing it I’m determined to keep it up, not because I think it’s a magic number or anything but because having that aim is what gets me off my arse for that second walk! In that sense having a target is good.

Yes, but do almost half around the house. Just normal day to day life is around 9k. When walking the dog, it’s 12k plus. My 8 year old does at least 15k, on a school day. She must run around like a maniac in her break time to achieve this!

Mean to say, I used to almost always hit it working out of the house, without even thinking. Journey to and from work plus short walk at the break. That was probably the same amount of time just divided up more so felt like nothing. This is what’s behind my recent efforts, realising the last year has turned me into a pudding 😔

And to answer the question about how... I walk for an hour before work which is three and a bit miles, and after work an errand like popping to the supermarket which is 15 minutes walk away. So there and back is the remainder.

Yes, most days. I try and walk for an hour in the morning and then again in the afternoon or evening.

I use Pokémon Go because you get rewarded for the amount of walking you do. It was originally a nice thing to do with DS. Now I do it by myself 😁. According to its calculations I have walked 681km since Jan 14 this year. I've lost a stone in that time.

The Footpath app is good too, it shows you on an interactive map where all of the footpaths are, so I have been exploring my local area. You can plot a route to follow and see how far it is in miles.

At an average pace of 3 miles an hour, it takes about 90 mins ish a day to walk 10,000 steps.

The weather is miserable here which puts me off going for a walk most days

My fitbit tells me that when I'm not at work, I'm incredibly static! On a work day o rack up 12000 without noticing, work in a school. At the weekends, unless I do intentional excersise, I'm often under 3k. There were days during the latest Lock down that I didn't break 2k steps! It's no wonder I put on a HUGE amount of weight during it!!!!

The problem with threads like this is you'll get competitive stepping!

People who do less are far more unlikely to post, so it'll be difficult to see what the norm is.

I read a while ago that most people do an average of 5.5k steps per day apparently, which is about 2.5 miles. 10k steps for me averages at around 4 - 4.5 miles. On good days I do this, on days where I am working from home I'll be lucky to hit 4k. I'm ok with this as long as I balance it out with good days.

Don't worry about what anyone else is doing, just concentrate on increasing your own distances .

I aim for an average of 70k over the week and WFH in a fairly sendentary job. To do this I try and for a 45min-60 min walk a day, plus a couple of evenings I do an extra walk or walk somewhere where I would have otherwise driven, just to get the steps. I also do one or two longer walks a week, like 2-2.5 hours to make up for days where my steps have been lower. If I’m like 7/8k by the evening I walk on the spot in front of the TV for half an hour or walk round the block witj a podcast until I hit it.

This week:
Yesterday 12k, 1 hour walk plus evening exercise activity (fun team game thing)
Tues - 7k, walk and went to the supermarket
Monday - 11k, 1 hour walk and walked round the block with podcast
Sunday - 3k lazy day haha
Saturday - 7k walk and walk on the spot
Friday - 17k long walk
Thursday - 17k long walk
Etc