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 😅

It's probably also worth remembering that not all steps are equal. 10k pottering around the house isn't the same as 10k purposefully walking.

I don’t find 10k easy. If I am around the house I only manage 2-3k. If I go to the shops I might do 4k. I can only manage 10k if I go on a long walk. 8k is an active day for me.

I’ve done a 5km ParkRun, took DS to RugbyTots, cleaned the house and I’m only on 8500 steps…

I've had a Fitbit for years. I found 10k easy. Was easily on to 13k fpr an average day (the morning dog walk was 6k).

Then my fitbit broke.

I have a new watch tracking my steps. And making 10k is now harder. Still walking the dog. But there's been a couple of days this week I've not made 10k.

I wonder if different watches have different 'sensitivities' to what is a step?

It’s very easy to do when it’s counting housework or gardening. I work from home and went on a 30 minute walk at lunchtime and did a 10 minute cool down on the treadmill after my gym session in the evening. I didn’t make it to 10k steps that days as was mainly sitting at my desk 😩

Yes I often get my 10k notification when Im standing still brushing my teeth !
The 10k is not a magic number it's an easy number for people to remember. No step count device is 100pc accurate.
The better question is ... do you feel like you are moving enough, walking enough and getting enough exercise in your life if yes ... great and well done.
If no, forget the watch and do some other stuff as well as housework

That sounds a lot! Yesterday I hit 7000
working from home but did a number of chores around
the house in the evening including several trips to the bins and car, and walked a mile round trip to the shop. Similar today too.

Sounds like whatever you are using is tracking your hand / wrist. DH can rack a load of steps by standing in the kitchen hand chopping vegetables.

How in earth can you do 10000 doing housework? Have you got a vibrator in your pocket 😂

I’d say this is what’s happening.
I often get an alert off my watch to say I’ve reached my steps goal when I’m doing the washing up or turning a page in the book I’m reading.

I'm on 10k steps but I've done a 5km walk alongside normal household tasks (we have a 2000 sq ft house and 4 kids of primary age to run around after so pretty active). I do think your tracker is likely inaccurate. I use my phone though so it doesn't capture absolutely everything, I do find that unless I purposely walk for at least 40 mins or so (alongside the school run, clubs, Lidl shop etc) I've no hope of reaching anything like 10k steps.

I find garmins are great for measuring runs, but less so for walking short distances. If I walk up a flight of stairs it seems to over count. That’s before you add in the extras from arm movements. I find I need to run a bit less than an hour to get 10,000 steps, usually about 10k so know there’s no way I’m getting to that wandering round the house and popping to the shop

I do 14-15k a day. I have a sit down job and kids grown up, so it does require effort. Do need to do less as have a sore hip, but easily gain weight if not doing it.

You have to put your stride length in. My steps got quite a bit shorter as I got sicker, so my count's increased for the same walk. I'm now trying to improve my stride and speed, rather than fixating on count.

I wouldn't get any where near 10k steps pottering around doing chores in my house. I average 13-14k on my days off work and that's with a dog walk of at least an hour.
I suspect your watch is counting arm movements.

I think you're doing too much housework, any housework is too much in my opinion ha ha. On a normal day I work in an office 9-3pm but then I'm on my feet from 3-6 doing jobs at home and running kids to various activities, running errands, doing shopping etc. I then tend to do an hour exercise (a mix of HIIT and strength training). On a normal weekday I average 9-11,000 steps on an Apple Watch. So I'm not trying particularly hard to get to 10,000 steps but usually do. Weekends we tend to valet 2-3 cars, do some jobs at home and in the garden and again would average 8-10,000 steps. We also love to get a long walk (5-6 miles) in if the weather permits so on these days we would average 20,000 steps. So I don't think your watch is far out on steps. I suppose some watches might pick up arm movements incorrectly but i would be surprised if a Garmin was far out. I tested the Apple Watch by running on the spot for a while and counting steps in my head and it was spot on. However I did notice it adds a few on when you're ironing!

Nope you’re wrong. 10k is made up (from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics apparently) but a reasonable baseline. 20k as a minimum is just something you’ve invented, sorry.

Absolute twaddle

All wrist step counters need to be calibrated to your stride length, you can't just stick them on and expect them to be accurate, especially if you are on the short or tall side. I find my Fitbit is pretty good at differentiating between steps and other exercise, but its far from perfect. the other thing is that bimbling around in the house may clock up steps but that is no way the same as pounding down the street doing 4 mph. In other words there's steps and there's steps...

I've done housework (three story townhouse), a walk round the park and a walk round town and I'm at 7k.

On a week day I find the walk to and from school is about 2k steps so twice a day is 4k, I normally do about 1.5 - 2k doing the usual jobs round the house and then a walk or gym at lunchtime to get me to 10k.

As others have said, they track arm movement so with any vigorous movement (I.e when you’re scrubbing pans or wiping worktops down), it will think you’re walking.

It isn’t easy to reach 10k for people with sedentary jobs which most do nowadays. Many drive to work, walk from the car park into work then sit behind a desk all day. I’m a lecturer so spend a lot of my day on my feet at the front of a lecture hall and I pace generally. I also have to shoot across a big campus a lot thanks to wild timetables putting my classes in 50 different buildings. Plus I commute in on the train so have a walk to and from the station. And I’m a runner so three or four days a week I’ll do at least 6k steps from that.

I think most people lead sedentary lives in comparison. If you’re just cleaning the house every day, unless you’re insane and blitz it from top to bottom daily then you’re not getting 10k steps in. It takes concerted effort.

I have a toddler to run after / clean after. Live in a 2bed semi and there is no way I come close to 10k steps a day just pottering around the house. I need to go on at least an 1hr walk

I think your tracker is inaccurate. I walked ten minutes each way to the gym and did a 25 (easy) rehab gym session. Came home and did a bit of housework and later cooked a meal. All that was just short of 4,000!

You can’t be measuring them right.

I love these threads about how many millions of steps people are getting in just on doing the housework. Are you all trotting about like goats taking little tiny steps? I must have a big manly stride, I have to walk about 6 miles to do 10k steps.