To think that 10,000 steps is a lot?

[Bluebelliphant]

I have been feeling quite pleased with myself as I've been easily smashing the recommended step amount of 2,000.

However I've just found out it's in fact 10,000. That seems a lot?

Do others manage that every day?

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay I was running on the spot for the 10 minutes, admittedly I did slow at points as the DCs were talking to me, but my heart rate was in peak for the duration

I did wonder if you were running. I was looking at how many steps I did on my run on Saturday and it’s probably about the same.

Don't get me wrong I'm not the fittest person in the world by a long stretch, but to get 2k in 10 mins I don't know how that's possible

House size makes a huge difference. Getting up, getting dressed, letting the chickens out, making breakfast, feeding and picking up after dogs and feeding rabbits (indoor rabbits) gives me fewer than 100 steps, while at my parents' huge house it would be closer to 1k!

It's about 10 steps max to the bathroom at my house. I work from home and will easily have done fewer than 1k steps during the day! however i take the dogs on long walks so do a brisk 1-2 hours of exercise a day which means I still manage 10k a day. But working a 9-5 desk job means I do have to spend a lot of extra time being active!

I’m a stay at home mum to DC with additional needs and on an average day I do 10000 - 15000 steps. With running around after them, school run, cleaning etc etc. I am quite active. My OH works and has a fairly active job we often get quite competitive about who does the most - him at work or me at home 🤣

Not sure why people are het up about 10k steps being "arbitrary"🤷‍♀️

It's an arbitrary figure for that works for me. My average day is c. 7k, so a 10k target gets me out for a proper walk at lunch or to a meeting.

@pyramidbutterflyfish I know right? It may be a made up number from a marketing campaign but it's still a good goal to get people up and moving, how it came about is really not relevant

2000 steps on my Garmin is 2200m as measured with the GPS on the same device. My Garmin doesn't like stop start and doesn't count steps until I have moved enough for it to have registered as moving. My friend's Fitbit continued all the time and her step count was relatively a lot higher even though we were together all day.

I did just under 7000 while out shopping with DD recently

I was beyond exhausted, my whole body was aching, and my legs felt like jelly. I was awake most of the night with very severe leg cramps, I nearly passed out with the pain and was sick.

So 10,000 for me is unattainable

I signed up to Team RH in February and bought a cheap wrist tracker (on wish.com, not a recognisable brand). I tested it against my phone, and on a proper walk, the phone and the wrist tracker are pretty similar. However, my phone tracker keeps freezing suddenly (reasonably new iphone), and the wrist tracker picks up some arm movements. However, it doesn't pick up eg sitting at my desk typing and drinking tea - they have to be big arm movements. Best housework tasks to up my steps are hoovering and putting the washing away. Team RH tells everyone to aim for 15,000 steps. People with physical disabilities or something like ME are allowed 5000, and people with very little free time and desk jobs are allowed 10,000.

I hit 15,000 by walking DS to nursery in the morning (2000 steps), pottering around the office, going for a lunchtime walk (4-5000 steps in about 45 mins), more office pottering, and then walking briskly along the bus route until I hit 13,000. If I left the office on 9000 steps, I probably walk for about half an hour, but it can be longer than that. Once I've got to about 13k I get on the bus to go the rest of the way home, walk from bus stop to house and try to do at least one household chore like tidying/hanging out washing. That gets me to 15k - that and getting up again as the children ask for drinks/pudding/help with putting the TV on/me to find some random crap etc etc. I find it harder at weekends because I have to drag the kids out with me, but both of them have got much better at walking since DH and I started this (they're 7 and nearly 5, so not toddlers - I think I would have really struggled doing this with toddlers).

I had to change my routine quite a lot to get 15k - I used to get a lift with DH to drop DS at nursery, and rarely walked at lunchtime, and never walked on the way home. I am lucky in that DH picks the kids up so if it takes me a bit longer to get home then that's ok, but also, at rush hour, I can walk for a good way as fast as the bus - I'll race one, and in the city centre I keep ahead of it easily. It only overtakes once we get out of the centre and onto quieter roads!

I know my tracker isn't 100% accurate, but it gives me a benchmark. I am definitely much more active than I used to be - and I walk faster than I did, so it doesn't take as long. I haven't really stuck to the diet, but I have been pretty dedicated to the steps, and my thighs are much thinner and more toned, and my bum is perkier and smaller. I put on a denim skirt that used to be uncomfortably tight the other day and it was way looser despite me not losing much weight.

Do you have an underlying medical condition zuliecat ? Even if you think you don't it may well be worth going to the doctors with those symptoms. Unless there is a medical reason then pretty much anyone should be able to manage a wander round the shops in town and indeed build up to 10k steps per day with no ill effects.

DH and I car share. I've had him drop me off at his work and I walk to mine from there and back everyday which is about an hour's walking. Plus I go out on my lunch, even if I don't need anything. I usually manage around 8-10k but don't really track pottering about the house or the office.

@zukiecat are you elderly or gave a medical condition? if not, being that exhausted after 7000 steps is a huge red flag. get yourself checked out!!!!!!

i have not read the whole thread however i run 4 times a week and consider my self relatively fit and get to 10k easily on days i run however the 3 days i dont i get nowhere near office based job drive to work etc

To answer those who have asked, yes I do have some medical conditions, Pernicious Anaemia, Asthma, Sciatica being some of them

I suffer horrendous cramps anyway and am on medication for that too

Sorry, I should have mentioned this in my post

I’ve just gone back to work after maternity leave and I went for at least 2 walks per day, half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon - my Fitbit registered my days at 7-8k. I don’t agree 10k is easily attainable!

Wrist trackers wildly overestimate steps, sorry.

DSis has one and a pedometer; when she goes on a walk they count the same, when she is pottering at home the pedometer registers very little but the Fitbit gives her loads of steps that she just isn't doing.

It's quite easy to tell from this thread who has a Fitbit or similar and who only has a pedometer. The "I get 8000 steps before 11am just doing my housework" ones - um yeah no, no you don't, sorry.

I don’t get the 10k angst either. It’s a goal not a cap and there does seem to be some evidence that getting 10k done has health benefits.

At the very least if you’re doing 10k just from pottering around all day, then you probably aren’t spending large amounts of the day just sitting down.

From a public health point of view it seems to be reasonably effective in getting more people moving around a bit more.

@NotMyPuppy two short strolls is really not a lot though! We need exercise to stay healthy, and being sedentary 23 hours a day is fairly scary 23 hours: 24 hours minus two times 30 minutes)

I average between 15-18000 a day

As said before, regardless of inaccuracies, moving and racking up 10k steps still has to be better for you than not doing it at all

@yura

I have no idea where you got sedentary for 23 hours a day from. Sorry if I wasn’t clear: twice a day I would go for a dedicated walk, in addition to spending however long pacing up and down the room at home to keep my baby settled, up and down the stairs for nappy changes/laundry loads etc, going to the supermarket and traipsing round - like a lot of (I would guess most) people with a baby, I barely sat down. Those walks were in addition to daily life. A lot of people don’t have a spare hour or two per day just to go for a stroll like I did.

I must say I’m jealous of your children if they allowed you to be “sedentary” at all times that you weren’t out walking with them!

My fitbit seems fairly accurate- it registers roughly the same as my old pedometer. I think it depends how much you wave your arms, a friend who is a teacher gave up on hers as it measured when she was scribbling on the blackboard.

I manage 10,000 most days. But I run at least three days a week. On Thursdays I often do 30,000 as I do two school runs, two Rainbows runs, walking group and a run with running club.

Last week I did 168,000 over the week (though I did a half marathon yesterday so that was a lot).

I use my phone to track steps. It doesn't register any movement in the house. I think maybe it works on gps and as I'm in the same location.

I work from home and do the School run in the car (too far to walk) and struggle to reach a decent amount of steps.

Today I walked into town, around town, and back and it was 5,000.

I really struggle to get to 10,000 I just can't achieve it.