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?

Don’t worry about the step number. Hi for a 30 min brisk walk - brisk meaning you are slightly out of breath - every day and forget about the numbers.

The 10k steps thing has been shown to be absolute bullshit and there is minimal benefit to pottering slowly around the house to ‘achieve’ Your 10k steps.

You could walk to work

I have just mentally gone through my family and friends and can't come up with many who could actually walk to work. I know a few people who work in our village but the vast majority have quite a trek to work.

It is a lot for people with sedentary jobs who don’t walk to work - like me! I commute by train and then work in an office job from 9-5, and even if I go for a walk at lunchtime and a run in the evening, I don’t get to 10,000. It’s one of the reasons the population is becoming increasingly unhealthy - for lots of us, our lives aren’t set up for regular activity, and it can have a really detrimental impact.

My suggestion is to use to the target to motivate you to walk where you can, and then do more on days off to try and get closer to the total.

I was the fittest I've been for years whith a toddler. Did every nap time with them in a 4 x 4 buggy determinedly pushing it outside in all weathers. I was mad, but fit!

I do think trackers can be way out. Yesterday I walked the dog, worked as a waitress from 10-5, we were run off our feet all day and apparently I only did 5k steps, where as the chef who only walking in the same square meter had done 9k. My Fitbit used to track 9-10k on those days, now my Apple Watch is far far less, I don't know what's right??

You could walk to work, and you can take your child with you for a walk, in a buggy or let them walk too.

My journey to work is 24 miles across the fells! But yes, I'll just walk it.

Has it not occurred to you that people have lives that are different to yours? Not everyone can walk to work, not everyone has the time to go out when they don't get home until 7pm and have children to feed, bathe and put to bed.

Plus isn't exercise supposed to be brisk enough to get your heart rate up? It's not going to happen if you have to wander along at the pace of a toddler.

Mominatrix, maybe they are being active, just not walking in the woods at night . They might be cycling, swimming, going to a circuits or HIIT class, hanging out in a climbing gym of an evening, all sorts besides logging steps on a phone. Not hard to imagine

It was just a suggestion, no need to be defensive.

Also, you are helping your toddler to build a healthy habit for later in life.

Also, you are helping your toddler to build a healthy habit for later in life.

I think there are much more enjoyable ways of exercising than tracking your steps on your phone, or forcing yourself to walk around a housing estate in the pitch black!

I don't have toddlers anymore! Lots of us don't! Some have no kids, some are grandparents. All sorts! People live all different sorts of lives, different from oneself. Is this such a huge leap of imagination?

Walking is so much more than just exercise.

It’s a good way of getting somewhere, it’s good for your mental health and it’s socially beneficial.

But if you can’t/ don’t want to do it for any reason then that’s fine, it’s your life.

@princesskatethefirst I expect the chef is wracking up steps stirring and chopping. I try to make sure I stir things with the other hand. Also as said before carrying things messes with step count

The 10k steps thing has been shown to be absolute bullshit and there is minimal benefit to pottering slowly around the house to ‘achieve’ Your 10k steps.

I’ve been looking since I started reading this thread and it turns out it probably isn’t. There might be an unanswered question about how you get your 10,000, and the research is a bit sparse, but 10,000k does seem to have a positive effect on physiological health. What that means in terms of long term outcomes is difficult to say, but the idea it’s absolute bullshit might turn out to be absolute bullshit.

I do think trackers can be way out. Yesterday I walked the dog, worked as a waitress from 10-5, we were run off our feet all day and apparently I only did 5k steps, where as the chef who only walking in the same square meter had done 9k. My Fitbit used to track 9-10k on those days, now my Apple Watch is far far less, I don't know what's right??

Going on this thread it appears to be the fitbit.

Does anyone genuinely believe they clock up several km just by getting breakfast together or putting away clothes?

Any activity where you're a fitbit on your arm will clock arm movements. You're not doing 2km emptying the dishwasher!!! Apply a bit of logic like princesskatethefirst has. A chef most likely will do move her arms an incredible amount but won't have genuinely have walked 10k or raised her heart rate. Therefore the recorded 9-10k makes no odds health wise.

3,000 steps doing in brisk walk that raises the heart rate is far more beneficial than the supposed easily gained 7,000 gained steps on 'lazy' days some posters seem to genuinely believe they are doing. (Hint: you're not)

I've been obsessed by achieving my steps since I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes four years back. I have a Nokia watch and related ap on my phone - I prefer it to the fitbitz etc cos it just looks like a normal watch.

I'm in a desk job and drive to work- without doing any dedicated walking I would only get 3-4k. I need to do a half hour lunch time walk then an hour or so on the treadmill at home to get over 10k

Thomas Jefferson's step counter registered an English mile as 2066.5 steps

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5488109/

[throwing out random facts]

I have the step tracker on my phone and I'd say its pretty accurate. It gives distance walked which I have then traced on Google Maps and its roughly correct, less than 100m out. The fitbit seems to completely over estimate steps if my sister's is anything to go by - we both went for a walk together, my phone said I'd done 4500 and she'd done 6250 steps!

Years ago,my ex laughed when I said I probably did do 10,000 steps a day as I had an office based job. So I got a pedometer and on average I was doing 12,000 steps - 15,000 steps a day. I did walk to work but it was ten mins there and back. I was up and down all day from one end of a huge office to the other.

So if I was doing more than 10,000 a day then, I must do a lot more now. I walk 12 miles a day altogether during the week, plus my kids never let me sit down for a second. 2,000 sounds like pottering round at home all day without going out at all.

Mind you, I do have very short legs - maybe I have to do twice as many steps as most people for the same distance

I need to do my usual stuff PLUS an hour and a bit extra walking or 40 mins running to get anywhere near 10k. So even if it's a 'bullshit' measure it is encouraging me to take a good hour's exercise a day.

I don't think 10k is that much but it is sometimes hard to achieve if you have a desk job 9-5 Mon-Fri. On those days I make an effort to go out on my lunch break or for a long walk when I get home, so like others have said. Even if it is all crap, trying to hit those 10,000 steps does mean I am getting off my arse more than I normally would.

I think phones can miss steps, unless you're physically holding it in your hand I don't see how it's getting a good read. When I compared phone and Fitbit I carried my phone in same hand as I wear Fitbit and they were the same

I don't think you can get too hung up on the actual number but maybe try to consciously have a few more active days and then try to replicate whatever that number is for you. I think being aware of trying to do more steps is the important thing.
Like others my weekday life gets me more steps - at the weekend I have to make more of an effort as I'm not rushing around as much.
xxx

Apologies for random kisses.

@Bluebelliphant I think regardless of the amount of steps everyone else does, if you're smashing 2k that's a great start, try upping your goal by even 1k, then when you're smashing that raise it again until you get to a number you feel happy with. You can do this, ignore all the negatives on here - moving is moving (put your music on and have a dance while you're doing the cleaning for example, you'll soon get your heart rate up). Good luck