10k steps is easy ?

[Angels1111]

I find that if I'm doing normal day to day housework I reach 10k steps quite easily - today for example I'm already on 5k from cooking lunch, washing up, doing laundry, putting laundry away and a bit of dusting and tidying. I've still got more to do so feel like I'll easily get to my 10k without trying too hard.

If I go for a walk/gym etc I usually get to 15-20k steps.

I'm basically wondering whether I'm doing too much housework compared to the norm 😅

I easily get 12-15k a day at the weekend just cleaning, walking with the kids etc. During the week I have a pressured desk job and do around 3k. It must be so bad for my health my job!

I use a Garmin watch, it track "steps" when I'm standing still doing bicep curls.

It's the arm motion.

If you're absolutely determined to track, get a pedometer

Yes I can get it pottering about the house or garden sometimes. I don't get tons of steps at the gym as I do more weights/yoga/circuits.

Usually I get 10k steps from a bit of housework/cooking plus walking the dog, or on days when I'm in the office, walking to the station, a 20 minute walk at lunch, and walking home from the station again. It's about 50 minutes to an hour of walking for me, four or so miles with my stride length.

It's not a lot for me but it is if you aren't used to it and I can see how people can't fit it in or can't do it if they work long hours, are unfit or not in the best health.

I also do other exercise five days out of seven. 2 x weights and cardio in the gym, 2 x yoga and 1x circuit training a week. In spring and summer I might swap one or more of those for a run or a swim and the dog walks get a bit longer as the paths dry out and days are longer. Plus I do a fair bit of gardening from March to October. I don't do too badly for someone with a job that means I'm sat down for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I average 11k a day despite having a full time desk job just because I have dogs that need several walks a day.

If I miss a walk, they just sit by my desk staring at me until I relent, or barking all the way through my video calls. Better than any fitness tracker for motivation.

Nonsense.

10000 steps is between 5 km and 8km. So between an hour and an hour and a half at a focussed power walk pace. It's not just a bimble around with a hoover and a walk to the park.

It’s an hour, even an hour and a half split over your entire waking hours. You only need to walk for an hour straight if you literally don’t move the rest of your day. And if you sit down for 90% of your time then you aren’t that active.

I would say your arm movements folding laundry etc are counting as steps with your watch. Have you tried keeping your iPhone in your pocket and comparing what steps are counted in your Health app on there?

I took two kids to the zoo a couple of days ago for the whole day and did laundry and didn’t reach 10k steps!

If you live in a small house or flat it's difficult. However when I lived in a city, I found 10K steps easy, far easier than now, when I live rurally. I was talking to a health professional about this and he agreed that it's easier to walk a long way when you're in a city, simply because things are within walking distance. As an example, I lived within half an hour's walk of three branches of M&S when I lived in a city. Where I live now, the nearest is 8 miles away, so about three hours' walk in each direction.

I had one of these watches and I did a 1000 steps sat on my arse all day - so not accurate at all.

I have to do at least 30 minutes of fast walking to clock 6000 steps on a normal non work day.

Are you wearing it on your dominant hand? If you shake your arm up and down and the number goes up then it's wrong.

I'm just back from a three mile walk I do daily. That is 6500 steps. I've about another 1,000 from hanging out washing, cleaning etc.

I'll need to go out for another half hour walk later to get over 10,000.

I can't clock up any decent amount in the house, which is probably accurate as even when on your feet you aren't covering any great distance.

I work from home and go for a walk at lunch time (about 30 mins, fast pace) and unless I’m doing my sport in the evening I only average 7,000 steps.

To get 10k steps takes me 1 hour 15 minutes of brisk walking (treadmill).

I have managed to get 10k steps inside (no treadmill) when I'm moving stuff, but my house is quite big and a few of those steps are from hand movements of housework.

More often just pottering I'll get 3-4k steps max, and need to go on the treadmill or go out for a walk to get the rest of my steps in (I aim for 15k minimum daily).

I have a garmin too. It's calibrated for my height, stride length etc.

I used to live in a flat. My kitchen was tiny. The rest of the rooms were not big. It was 16 steps from the front door to the back door. So no, it’s not always easy to get 10000 steps in just doing housework and putting things away.

I do too. I remember struggling to hit 5k a day during covid lock downs. I was working at home so I wasn't up all day but outside my working hours I was always busying myself, sometimes even just pacing round the back garden because I was going stir crazy.

I was dead chuffed the other day when my Fitbit clocked 3.5k steps (I'm inactive with crippling PEM). Then I realised I hadn't been outdoors all day, but had caught up on all the washing up 😂

I decided it counts because I was clearly standing quite a lot and using my arms!

I walk almost an hour to work and my tracker only hits 5k.
I only hit 10k towards the end of my work shift, (8am - 6pm) and I'm constantly on my feet apart from lunch break. I use a Fitbit, so I dunno. Maybe they vary from Garmin.

It's interesting. I've been tracking for years as my husband.

10000 steps for me is about 90 mins and about 4.5 miles.

I can do it easily at work - about a mile each way to walk there and back and the rest around the school corridors.

At home I struggle. I'd done about 4 loads of washing, drying, ironing this morning as well as hovering... 900 steps. My husband got up 2 hrs later, pottered about a bit making breakfast almost 2000! It's odd and annoying. We both wear the same brand/edition watch! He says he just bounces around more. ..

If I’m in the house all day then my steps aren’t usually even up to 3k, even with housework activity included.

I agree with pp, it’s likely that your tracker is overestimating your steps.

That’s a lot more housework than I get. Cooking dinners hardly generates a few hundred

I’m not convinced watches are accurate. I’ve walked with my daughter - in a day trip walking the same distance and I’m always at least 15% higher step count - whether hers is measuring low or me high who knows. It’s about 2000 steps a mile, you are probably taking smaller steps in your house so say 2400. So you are walking over four miles a day inside your two bed home? Does that sound likely?

I was a teacher before retirement so on my feet and moving about all day - round the classroom, about the site etc. I could get to 7k that way. Not 10k. And as I said it’s an arbitrary target anyway.

My watch says I have done around double the number of steps that the app on my phone says. If you halve the numbers it is probably fairly accurate.

I get about 10k steps by parking further down the road and walking to pick DC up from school, walking laps at work when doing my playground duty, pacing up and down whilst teaching and a 30 minute session on the elliptical trainer each morning. I suspect most of your steps are coming from hand movement. Try strapping it to your ankle or waist for a day.

Which wrist do you have your tracker on? Make sure it's set to dominant or non dominant hand correctly.