Friend not accepting she’s NOT doing 28,000 steps per day

[CyclingAddict]

Just can’t convince her! Showed her that her app is picking up arm movement ..got her to move her arm whilst seated 😳 but she still insists she’s nearly up to 30,000 every day!

Just read on here that someone is doing 10,000 steps per day but this is really hard to achieve!

How do people squeeze it in alongside work/parenting/household stuff? I manage 5,000 steps in an active role ..nowhere near the recommended 🤨

IMO the ‘ten thousand’ advice is counter productive, in that it can make people think that if they’re never going to manage 10k, it’s not worth bothering at all.

IIRC Dr Michael Mosley said that if everybody would walk for even 15 minutes a day, it would make quite a difference.
I’m sure we all know people who literally never walk anywhere except to and from the car. I certainly do.

Do you find they say the same distance as on the OS map/ any signed distances? Mine always comes out as longer, but I would prefer to think my step counter is more accurate than the signposts 😆

I can register several thousand steps at a music gig, just by jiggling around.

I often walk at 5am before getting DC up. 3 mile loop, plus a walk on my lunchbreaj. Easy.

Weekends usually 20000

In all honesty does it really matter?

I agree with @PandaCwtch your step counting must be going wrong somewhere. I get around 4500 steps in 45 mins walking, and I'm not young or particularly fast.

I think I managed 28,000 when i was sightseeing in paris and walking around nearly all day.
I only manage 10,000 on days when I run so to get over 10,000 every day is pretty good going IMO.

I do 10-12,000 steps nearly every day by exercising and going for a lunchtime walk.

I can easily double that on days when I go into London for work.

but for 30000 I need to be on a city break and doing some major touristing or go on a hike.

An hour dog walk a day plus 2x school run (about 4 miles in total) gets me around 10k

I have done just shy of 16,000 so far today. I’m currently on garden leave, and have done the school run 3x today on foot (double drop off as one child in early for a club). I went for a walk at lunchtime to a local coffee shop and the park. I tend to get 20-25k steps on a city break kind of holiday, e.g. last summer in Rome. Anything higher is hard to get as requires near continuous walking, and legs and feet very tired by end of day.

I walk 16,000 steps a day, but that’s because I walk for 2 hours every day and I walk quite fast. So 28,000 is A LOT. But, if she believes it, just let her.

“Did ya aye”, is the appropriate response I think 😂

I'd think yours isn't picking up and hers is picking up too much. Im probably average activity wise, take toddler out and walk the DC to school and walking around tidying up etc averages about 10-12k, on work days (job on feet) I'm at about 18k usually.
The only time I've got around 30k has been a day walking coastal paths or full day out sightseeing/walking on holidays etc.
DH works from home and on work days gets around 3k so 5k seems low if not sitting down a lot.

I've just gone back over my step counter, and it looks like 28.000 steps is about 14 miles. That's an unlikely amount of walking to be doing day in day out unless she's a postie or a shepherd. Or walking the Camino...

I was going to write my own thread about this OP!!!

I have an active role as a primary teacher. I'm on my feet all day, walking around my classroom, doing jobs around school before and after the kids come in, then when I'm on playground duty and walking all of that time. I go for a 2km walk I my lunch break and often walk my kids to clubs or to the shop once I get home and it always around 6k. It seemed so low that I downloaded another app and had the two pedometers running side by side and they both said the same thing. I need to go for an hour long walk AFTER all of that to get to 10k!! It's exhausting and sad how hard it is when people on mumsnet seem to get their 10k steps in just by pottering around!

I gave up with my fitness tracker after it clocked 15 steps while I was on the toilet and about 30 steps before i got out of bed. I also work in a supermarket so can easily spend 7 hours a day walking around and still wouldn't clock 28k, even with a watch that was over estimating

10,000 is around 5 miles, so 30k without actively trying to increase them like walking or running seems unlikely.
Devices can vary, Fitbit is quite generous.

and as you said, it measures arm movements not steps, so if she’s waving her arm around, or swings her arm a lot then that will add to the count.

What do you mean run around after the kids? Can you give some pointers as I dunno what I'm doing wrong.

I walk or take the bus (rather than drive) so for example it’s only a 15-20 min walk to DD preschool, after walking there and back twice a day I will have done at least 8000 steps.

I had to go a few extra places yesterday and did 17000. There will be days when I do 5000 or less but every day sounds a bit on the low side.

Edited to say that this is with iPhone in pocket so definitely not recording arm movements. I’ve tested it out before and I’m happy with the level of accuracy.

I'm a hiker and very rarely hit 30k. Even after walking many miles.
20k ish I do fairly often but it's quite a lot

If you walk for 45 mins and only clock 2000 steps, something is not tracking correctly. I only need to do x2 30ish min walks a day to hit 10k steps, alongside normal pottering around the house. My job is sedentary.

Why do you care?

I have a Fitbit and definitely get extra steps when I am delivering training as I use my arms a lot. Ironing gives me steps and I’m standing on the spot although it sometimes records it as a swim! I’ve been walking more lately and a good hour walk gives me 5-6k depending on where I am walking so if 45 mins is only giving you 2k then there is something wrong with your device or how you have set it up. A busy day involving walking from the car park to the office and back a couple of times and all the other walking around gives me 10k but 28k in the situation you have describes is not very likely.

This reminds me of a friend of mine that used to say she did 45k steps a day. She was undoubtedly in a very active job (running a livery yard). But what she couldn't compute were a lot of those steps were actually whilst she was riding horses. The days I ride my step count shoots up due to the steps the actual horse is taking.

I find it really easy to get about 7000 steps in but to get to 10000 I have to go "for a walk". 20 mins of brisk walking (just over a mile) is about 2600 steps for me. I'm surprised so many people are fitting in 4 miles of walking just running around after the kids (unless you're including a dog walk / multiple school runs on foot etc)

I have days where I'm doing well over 20000 steps but it isn't done just by pottering around. An average day is about 15000, I have dogs they need walking, I walk to the shop or anywhere local I have to go rather than drive. My 20000+ days are the days I run.

I'm recovering from surgery at the moment so my steps are at about 10,000 a day. That's 2 shorter than normal dog walks and whatever throughout the day. Being active is important to me so I prioritise it. I've currently got 'surface vein clots' in my leg thanks to my surgery and my clad is super painful but I'm still limping around with the dogs, getting out and moving keeps me sane.

I have a garmin watch, don't know if that makes a difference.

There’s no ‘recommended’ amount of steps. 10k is a totally arbitrary number made up by a Japanese dude for an ad campaign.