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".

In my previous life, when lived in London and had a job, social life, friends and a gym membership i used to do 10-14k every day without noticing it. How that i moved to the sticks i barely hit 4k if i don’t push myself, and every.single.aimless.walk.is.a.struggle

Usually I can hit around 10k steps a day with 2 daily dog walks, walking round the house, cleaning and gardening (large garden), and on 2 days a week I volunteer with a charity and then can easily cover an extra 5K steps.

I do most days but I also do a walking workout every day on YouTube, 3000 steps is about 22 mins, 5000 about 35 mins so easy to fit in to the day. I like Get Fit with Rick.

Despite lots of posters all doing more than 10k, I doubt that is the average in general.
I do 10k about 1 day a week, other days I try to make sure I do around 5000, but this is an actual walk as I do not have a step counter / fit bit or dog to get me out ! so My steps are only counted when I am out for a walk and if I happen to have my phone with me,.
I do not carry my phone around house it sits in one place so not sure how many random steps I do in a day - anyone have an average idea of general pottering at home is ?

I don't like counting steps, so boring and ruins enjoyment of a nice walk! If you want to be more generally active maybe you could start something that you like alongside a bit of walking. Dancing, squash, yoga, aerobics? I do not believe for a minute that people have to walk an amount stipulated by an ad campaign in order to be healthy! 😆

Yes. I go for a short 15 min walk every morning. 30 min walk every lunch time. Then between work, housework, other stuff I always get 10K. If I don't for any reason I do for a short additional walk/run in the early evening.

DD1 who (prepandemic) averaged 2h organised sport plus a couple of miles walking to school and back easily tops 20K steps a day. My DBro who is a farmer and on his feet all day does similar. My activity monitor converts my daily swim into steps which allows me (with a sendentary job) to easily get over 10K but at the moment I'm really struggling to hit that WFH. A lunchtime half hour walk plus the school run takes me to 6K. Yoga adds no steps at all however hard I'm working!

@AlternativePerspective well done for working so hard to build and keep up your fitness at such a challenging time. It is really inspirational.

I don't like counting steps, so boring and ruins enjoyment of a nice walk!

@optimistic40 it might spoil a nice walk if you were actually counting your steps but I doubt anyone does that. It has no impact on a walk if you have a step counter or pedometer app etc.

Haha, I know that! But suddenly every walk seems to be transformed into something to analyse as good enough or not

I've gone up from 300 to a thousand. It doesn't seem much but I have a hip condition that means I have extreme pain if I over do it, .if I do 10000 I can hardly walk for a couple of days.

I probably average about 500 a day. Terrible I know. But I have mobility issues. Dp takes the dog out most days and I sometimes manage to hobble him to the field to throw his ball.

I am a part time teacher with three

young children and a dog- I have to chill very hard to get less than 10,000. Average is 17,500 according to the app.
I can see how a sit down job would mean you have to go for a walk every day to get steps in though. It usually takes 90 mins to hit 10,000- I have small legs and take lots of small steps though.

Yes, but I’m finding I need to work for it now I am WFH. Pre-Covid I would average between 16-18,000 without even making an effort.

Pre covid I averaged 11,000 a day. Commute, walk kids to school, walking around at work (I teach) plus a short walk to the shops or to the park.
Now I'm half that.

I miss my incidental walks

I did 4000 steps today and I didn't leave the house!

Normally I average around 20000 - possibly a run in the morning, a dog walk and a school run or two. Kids are on holiday and I cba to go for a run this morning.

I do but I have a dog to walk twice a day. If somebody else walks the dog I get nowhere near tbh.

Some days yes.

School run x2 and nursery run x2 plus the rest often equates to 12/13k but I don't do this everyday as I work (currently from home) and on those days I only do x1 school and x1 nursery run.

Pre pandemic I walked to and from work so 10+ K was done on weekdays.

Arthritis literally had me off my feet for four months when I was first diagnosed and it felt like I'd never manage such a step count again but with medication I am alright.

Before I was made to work from home and the gyms were open I used to easy hit 10k but now I work from home unless I actually go out for a 3.5ish mile walk after work I'm lucky to hit 2k a day..,

Wfh is so bad for you steps wise

Never.
I went for a 1.5 hour walk with my friend and her Fitbit said we'd only done a few 1000.

I moreso aim for 70k steps a week. I will often do between 15 and 20k steps on a weekend day if I do a big walk or hike. An office bound day where I don't go for a walk could be as low as 2 or 3k, it all balances out. I think in general the biggest thing is just keep bloody moving and in all sorts of ways, could be cutting the grass, running up stairs, playing soccer with the kids, etc. I think the whole fitbit, steps think is a useful tool but not something to get too hung up. I do however think that a fair proportion of our exercise should be effortful, should leave us at least mildly out of breath. Ive been walking with a few friends and we could walk for hours and at their ambling pace would be only one step up from sitting on the couch

I average about 12k a day but it will be something like 20,000 x 3 on the days I go running and/or do a long walk, and about 5,000 on the other days.

I work in an office, drive to work and slob on the sofa every night. I barely manage 6K.

It's really hard! We walk a lot at weekends and then usually hit 10,000 but during the week hardly ever, unless a real concerted effort is made.

To note about height not making a difference as noted in an early reply, our walking 'group' is 3 x Women all about 5'6'' and 2 x Men both about 6'2''. We can all start our trackers at about the same time for the same walk and the girls will consistently reach 10,000 steps at the same time, and always a decent amount of distance/time before the men do. Shorter legs, more steps required to cover the same distance!