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?

I think the least I've done in a day, ever, is about 4,000 steps and I felt like I barely moved.

Seeing where you can build in more walking to your everyday life I think is the absolute key to fitness- I don't mean running marathons, bench press twice your weight fitness (which no-one actually needs to do, by the way) but just everyday fitness in mind and body, keeping your weight stable and your heart healthy.

Fitbits may not be completely accurate but they are an indication- good to know the reason why I'm tired is because I've been mostly on my feet from 9 until 6 and have done 18,000 steps.

Being able to see what other slim friends do on there was revealing. Slim people really do move more.

Fitbits definitely overcount!

I have a cheap version from amazon but it only counts proper walking. It’s a little bit annoying actually when I’ve spent 3 hours on my feet doing housework, playing with toddler, pacing up and down with the baby etc and it only shows 156 steps or something. Mine doesn’t count anything under however many steps so the count goes up as you walk but if you stop before the number (can’t remember what it is) it reverts back to what it was before. This means I can go from bottom to top of my four storey house and back, having paused to put a pile of laundry down and it doesn’t count because it’s 48 stairs each way plus a couple of steps in between but that pause stopped it counting. A lot of my walking outside (with toddler) also doesn’t register because it’s too stop starty.

To get 10k I need to go for a decent 40 min-hour long brisk walk on top of my normal daily movements; easy with a baby in the pram, not so easy with a toddler in tow as well.

10k steps is doable for me most days at the moment with a little bit of effort, it wasn’t when I had hyperemesis or when I’d just given birth. I live somewhere with a couple of nice walks, if I didn’t it would be harder. There’s no way I could get 10k steps in just pottering around the house etc and I don’t sit down apart from to bf the baby! I’m surprised at the people making out it’s nothing, yes ok it’s not loads of exercise but you do have to put some effort in to reach that ime.

When I'm not working I do about 12k - 2 school runs plus Daily Mile and a 45 min dog walk easily gets me over the 10k. The two long shifts I work I'm lucky to get to 5k. Weekends with a longer walk often 15k so I'd say it averages out at 10k a day.
If you are doing 2k, try and add on 1k to your target every week and build up slowly.

Work this out, whilst on holiday we did a lot of walking. Both my partner and I have fitbits. We went on walks together, at the end of the day his step count was double mine 🙄😡😂

I count my steps with my phone. I've just used it to count my steps as I go about my morning routine in my very small living space and it didn't register any steps?

2.5 mile run- less than 4000 steps.

2.5 mile run- less than 4000 steps.

It varies so much from person to person though doesn't it. This is about 6000 for me.

Fitbits are really awful for step counting, they just add on so many. My dh has a Fitbit and his step count is always double or more what’s on my step counter app on my phone even when we’ve been out together doing the same things all day and I’ve had my phone with me all day.

I don't really see the problem with fitbit counting arm movements, unless you're concentrating on exercising your legs. If the main goal is to be less sedentary then all movements count towards this.

There are ALWAYS moments when you don't have your phone on you. Phone counters are far less accurate than wrist counters.

My friend and I had identical school/nursery runs runs before my dd started school. Our devices both measured identical distances of just over 5 km for the morning run but her steps were significantly more than mine. I'm sure this is down to the fact she's 5'1 and I'm 5'8 meaning she takes more steps for the same distance as opposed to inaccurate step counts.

Looking at my garmin stats, I ran about 6 miles yesterday which counted for about 12,000 steps - seems about right.

Either my Fitbit wrist tracker is broken or it’s massively undercounting all these thousands of steps it’s supposed to be logging. I spent 2.5 hours typing yesterday afternoon and it’s barely counted anything the lazy fucker.

2.5 mile run- less than 4000 steps.

It varies so much from person to person though doesn't it. This is about 6000 for me

Yep, and your running steps will be different to your walking steps - it would be under 3000 for me, depending on the speed.

I'm a very slow runner. 2.5 miles gives me about 5000 steps.

Mine is a cheap one. I haven’t worn a watch in forever and hate plastic/rubber etc touching my skin, so I wasn’t sure I’d wear it and so didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it.

I didn’t think it was counting all my steps and thought maybe I needed to buy a decent one. Friends were debating whether ones Garmin was better or the others Fitbit. So I was nominated to try then all and decide 🤣 over the course of a couple of weeks I wore one on each wrist. I tried various combinations of them and on dominant/non dominant wrist etc, I also counted my steps when on a proper walk and actually, over the two weeks, they were much of a much. They worked a little differently in the way they counted, but over the course of a day they were much the same result. They all counted the odd few steps when driving, but none if I sat still reading or whatever, some other activities counted as a few steps, but an insignificant amount.

So I decided to just stick with my cheapie and set my own level. Before my knee was bad I did 8000 steps on a ‘proper walk’ and just tried to be more active in general. My absolute limit I set at 10000 and I went for a short walk to get to that if I hadn’t, but it’s generally 12-15,000 as long as I get my 8000 walk in.

Obviously being a short arse I get more steps in over the same distance as tall people, but that’s right. It takes ME the same effort to take a step as them. Their leg length covering more distance doesn’t make their steps more ‘worthy’.

This is mine from yesterday, bare in mind I was bedridden with a hole in the head migraine all day...

2 Miles was about 4000 steps when I ran on Saturday. Although I did walk for about a minute part way through.

Norfolk.

To be blunt, 2000 steps is shockingly low. Is this a joke? You must be sitting down for a lot of the day.

Norfolkenchancemate I'm slightly confused that your fitbit says you've burnt 1717 calories when you've done less than 4000 steps, that seems wildly innacurate.

Basal metabolic rate + a few thousand steps maybe?

Tbf I wouldn’t trust calorie counter on a fitbit at all. It does seem to be quite generous.

Norfolkenchancemate that calorie measure is off surely? I did 15k steps yesterday with two long walks and mine says I only burnt 480

I do about 20k on an average day. It means I can eat like a hog and not put weight on. It's quite scary how little people move around.