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?

2,500 is a lot inside the house. I suspect people either have very big houses or their fitbits are wrong. Someone said it is 40 steps from their bed to the bathroom, it is 12 to mine. I am active in the house, but a lot of it is standing up not taking many steps. Ironing, cooking, washing the kitchen floor, folding up washing, etc. None of it uses many steps.

I generally get my 10K steps in before lunch time - a 5 mile morning walk with the dog generally sees to that. My fitbit has been cross checked against GPS and other devices and is pretty accurate. It may add a few steps when I'm driving but it will under report at other times so it more or less evens out.

I can also clock up 10K just doing housework - I deliberately do it as inefficiently as possible by taking one item upstairs at a time or tidying up one thing at a time. It helps that I have an odd shaped house.

Whilst I was working though it really could be as low as 500 steps a day. My parking space was right by the entrance so it was about 30 steps to my desk, I'd be there pretty much for most of the day other than another 30 steps or so to the loo.

2,500 is a lot inside the house. I suspect people either have very big houses or their fitbits are wrong. Someone said it is 40 steps from their bed to the bathroom, it is 12 to mine.

I haven't got a particularly large house but It's 70 steps from my office chair to the bathroom and back (I just counted). I probably do that about 10 times a day at least so that is 700 steps. My fitbit reminds me if I haven't done 250 steps between 8 and 6 so that means I do at least 2,500 steps just during the working day. In the evening and before I start work I will easily do another 1,000 to 1,500 just tidying up and constantly walking up and down the stairs.

70 steps! I live in a 3 bedroom detached house. I am wondering now if other people take tiny steps? Or is your bathroom downstairs at the back of the house?

70 steps! I live in a 3 bedroom detached house. I am wondering now if other people take tiny steps? Or is your bathroom downstairs at the back of the house?

Yes, it is downstairs at the back of the house. There is a bathroom upstairs but I don't usually use it in the day. I'm not that efficient when it comes to moving around but that is partly because I know that I need to move around rather than sitting all day.

Major day for me yesterday. I did over 10,000 steps. This is a big thing for me. I was sitting down at night seen I had done 9400 so decided to go on a short walk to hit 10,000 for a new badge on Fitbit

The thing about steps around the house as well is that whilst they count as 'activity' they almost certainly don't count as exercise.

I tend to do 7k steps a day, 3 miles, plus a gym session (which doesn't pick up steps as it's on my phone). My walk to and from work is done at pace, and on the way home, uphill.

I've jsut been on holiday for a week and averaged 20k steps of 'activity' a day, but only a few times did it feel like exercise. Sloping arond market stalls or ambling behind slow tourists isn't exercise. (Having said that, I have lots of muscle training at the moment, so my slow walking probably burned more calories than a usually inactive person's slow walking, even though it was less difficult for me).

You need exercise and activity - to generate fitness and muscle condition, and to use that fitness in proper activity. Steps doing the ironing will give you the latter, not the former.

@thecatsthecats I agree. Steps around the house are better than just sitting down all day but they don’t really count as proper exercise as the heart rate doesn’t really go up.

I use my phone to log. My old phone used to count steps when I was on the tube and being jiggled around; I have checked several times and the new one doesn't, so my step count did drop when I got the new phone! I walk about 30 mins each way to work (10 mins to tube, then get out a stop early and walk 20 mins from the tube to work). I usually have another reasonably significant walk in there (15 mins+) to a meeting, and I walk out to get lunch. I also do household chores and run around after the children in a terraced house (small footprint, awful lot of stairs). Doing that, I usually get to 10K or thereabouts. If I don't do the additional walk I am usually under 10K.

I also look at weekly/monthly averages as I tend to walk much more on Fridays when I am off work looking after my 4 year old, and over the weekend. My husband and I went on a short city break without the kids last week and I walked over 20K every day, 36K one day when we basically did nothing but walk around two different cities with a ferry ride in between. Not enough to counteract all the wine and nice food though!

Just a tip - if your iPhone has erroneously steps (driving, public transport etc) then you’ll be able to delete the entry under the ‘show all data’ option in the Steps section in the Health app.

Erroneously added steps even*

I've usually done 10 by about 12 o clock. I'm not particularly active either. 2 is barely moving.

What do you do to get your 10 in before noon? Assuming you mean 10k and not just10 steps

Yes sorry 10k. Walk kids to school, walk home, walk the dog. Run up and down the stairs eleventy billion times putting washing away and bingo!! Am very lazy though. Currently sunbathing on sunlounger in garden.

The thing about steps around the house as well is that whilst they count as 'activity' they almost certainly don't count as exercise.

Well no but I'm not sure that walking outside counts either unless it is very brisk. As you say, most people should do aerobic exersie e.g. swimming or running rather than just rely on walking.

Well no but I'm not sure that walking outside counts either unless it is very brisk. As you say, most people should do aerobic exersie e.g. swimming or running rather than just rely on walking.

At a crude guess, I wouldn't imagine people break the 2mph speed in the house though. The distances are too short to do anything faster. Whereas a slowish walking pace would be 3mph, 4mph a decent pace.

The Fitbit heart monitor is a better gauge of exercise. I walked up a huge hill with the pram yesterday and it only registered less than 1000 steps. I was really shattered and it felt like proper exercise. I was actually walking for an hour and a half and it only came out at 5000 steps.... so I really don't get people saying they did 10000 just walking around the house.

redbedheadd I find the Fitbit always under counts steps when pushing the pushchair. I think because your arm is relatively still on the handle it doesn't realise you are walking. DH and I have compared between who is pushing who is walking alongside pushchair and the one without the pushchair can get nearly twice as many steps.

The Fitbit heart monitor is a better gauge of exercise. I walked up a huge hill with the pram yesterday and it only registered less than 1000 steps. I was really shattered and it felt like proper exercise. I was actually walking for an hour and a half and it only came out at 5000 steps.... so I really don't get people saying they did 10000 just walking around the house.

It usually misses steps if you are pushing a pram or trolley as obviously your hand isn't moving up or down,

At a crude guess, I wouldn't imagine people break the 2mph speed in the house though. The distances are too short to do anything faster. Whereas a slowish walking pace would be 3mph, 4mph a decent pace.

It depends on the person and what they are doing though doesn't it? I walk pretty slowly everywhere I think. It doesn't make any difference whether I am inside or out. I'm just doing it for activity/leg exercise rather than cardiovascular.

I register no steps on the step machine at the gym as my hands are holding on to the bars and the watch doesn’t know I’m moving. Pisses me off but if I let go I fall

I average between 15,000 and 23,000 a day, however I'm on my feet all day as I work with children in a nursery, any day I don't reach 15,000 I go for a 30 min walk to make it up :)

I can do this without thinking on a really busy day or out for long country walk. However a few years ago I was a bit sedentary so blotchy pedometer and thought I’d ‘walk out and about’ of an evening if I wasn’t out. God it took forever! Much better to try to just be more active all day long wherever you can eg get off bus few stops early, always take stairs etc. Much less time consuming.