Obsessed with step count

[CrypticField]

I do at least 10k steps every day, usually it's closer to 15k.

I run, hike and walk. It's a self-challenge to never miss a day. My streak is well over three years.

I really enjoy cycling and weight workouts but over time I've stopped these completely because sometimes I only have the energy to get my minimum 10k steps done.

I know it's daft but I feel like even if I did a an hour on the bike and an hour weight workout but only 5k steps, it would feel like a failure.

Can anyone relate?!

And please please please all the women on this thread do weights. I was active all my life, 1000s of steps, lots of cycling and some yoga too. Since reaching my 60s I have had two factures and yep- osteoporosis.

I do weight training regularly now, and love love love it. But my god I wish I'd started decades ago.

Love this! You could call it "Big Bone Day"! 😃😃

Weight maintenance is not equivalent to all-round health though, is it? There are other goals that are equally important.

@ParmaVioletTea

If you look at the way our basic calorie expenditure goes, getting over 10k steps per day far outweighs ny other form of exercise for keeping our food in/exercise out balance looking healthy.

Not that you’re saying this Parma but just because anyone does 10k a day doesn’t mean you can shove any and everything in your mouth and expect to be healthy. What goes in matters a lot.

I think when you're chasing a metric at the expense of something as health giving as weight training then it's being counter productive.

I have a steps streak of >500 days that I'm trying to maintain but I set my step goal lower (8k works for me, you might need a different number) so that I can achieve it even on a day when I've done another workout. (My average is about 15k.) Or perhaps another metric would work better for you? Active minutes are a good one, and incentivise you to do higher intensity exercise as you get double minutes!

Absolutely - but walking is good Zone 2 exercise, and it can also be really good for mental & physical well-being. Most people don't move enough, and movement is medicine.

Although in @CrypticField 's case, it's become obsessive.

I hope by writing this down OP, and reading the reactions of random strangers on the internet, you realise YOU are in control, not your step counter!

And that some form of resistance training is essential for your physical health. I've always been active (trained dancer, aerobics & pump bunny) but starting weight training in my late 50s has been such a revelation. I'm now really strong & fit - and nearer 70 than 60, but able to outrun, out lift, and out move most of my younger colleagues & students.

You're in control, @CrypticField not your step counter.

Yes of course - good point. But if people are (misguidedly) using exercise instead of diet as weight control, then steady steps - as long as there are lots of them! - are far more effective than 30 minutes on the treadmill.

I'm not sure many people realise this. But if you calculate your TDEE, then the number of steps per day is more significant than a pump class or whatever ...

But you're right @tanstaafl - no one single thing is key - it's the overall picture & the rounded approach.

What a brilliant idea, thank you.

Perhaps I can give thought to a new routine; something sustainable and more varied.

It sounds unhealthily obsessive to the detriment of other aspects of health and life.

Would it help to gradually reduce that minimum goal to set more realistic expectations?

I keep my goal at 7,500. I naturally exceed it most days but a few times a month it encourages me to move a bit more if I haven't moved much at all, and that's where it's useful. It's rare that I don't meet it (4 times in the last 3 months) but nothing happens if I don't. The body needs rest too, and reducing the load or switching up to cycling or the weights mixes up the health benefits.

Nothing terrible has happened to my health because I "only" did 5852 on Christmas Eve (only looked it up for the thread!) because health is about the general trend, and actually those rest days are good for general health. Even the likes of professional marathon runners have a day a week of dialling the movement down significantly (plus tapering and recovery cycles).

While walking is good for you, 10k steps is an arbitrary number invented for marketing purposes. Reading more about that may release you from the fixation.

Thank you so much for all the thoughts and great advice - I'm so glad I posted!

How does this sound?

31st December 2025 will be the last day of my 10k streak.

I'm going to re-set it to 7,500 from 1st Jan but not have to reach that every day. Perhaps even making sure to break it with a rest day every couple of weeks to stop it building?

Plus x3 20 min strength workouts a week, more if I fancy it

Overall goal of running 10- 20km per week, as an average

Plus cycling 30 mins x1 a week, more if I feel up to it

I really miss a variety of exercising and seen that breaking the streak is the only way forward...

Here's to a more balanced 2026, with variety and rest being more of a priority than a dumb number I feel trapped by!

Sounds brilliant @CrypticField Have fun with all the other forms of moving.

Maybe you could set yourself the challenge of trying a new physical activity every month or something like that?

For example, how’s your mobility and flexibility? Maybe challenge yourself to do a yoga class once a week, or learn to climb a rope, or learn basic callisthenics moves?

That does sound more realistic and balanced.

New Year is a natural opportunity to declare the streak as complete and change the goals to fit life more naturally.

I don't know your age, but I would also add that if you want to be able to continue running and hill hiking as you get older, weights and some flexibility exercise will be vital to maintaining that ability.

I'm doing the 7million step challenge so yes I can relate

Less than 15k was a bad day for me before anyway

(I think that less than 10k is unhealthy)

Actual medical research considers the benefit of 10K over 7K very minimal, though.

I sometimes wish God had not given us so many - or perhaps so few - fingers, leaving us with these counting obsessions. In what world is "less than 10k steps a day " always unhealthy for anyone? It's way too precise, based randomly on us having ten fingers, and certain to be superceded by another "rule " next year.

I think walking 7k a day is sedentary and I think being sedentary is unhealthy

You can think that, and people with expertise in health still don't agree with you. (An extra 3000 steps of walking over what you consider sedentary, so very light exercise, won't make much difference to your outcomes. If you care about your health, you might want to look into it and become more active and include strength training.)

I don't think 10k is really enough either but 7k is bad if you are able bodied

Obviously agree strength training also essential

I don’t think that any streaks are a good thing. From wordle to steps. If you were someone in my life who I cared about I’d tell you to stop the streak.

10’000 steps was maybe up ahead of the 1964 Olympics by a Japanese pedometer manufacturer 🤪🤪🤪

To be fair back then people didn't spend so much time sitting at home gaining wait in front of the TV

Nowadays I think it's more of a medical necessity to remind people to move about sometimes