39 miles per day?

[fishlovindog]

I belong to a few of the activity groups and i'm averaging about 15-16k steps per day which is about 8 miles. In some of the groups I have seen averages of up to 80k steps per day or 39 miles per day. Is that even possible? That's a marathon and a half every single day. Any thoughts? Are people actually able to achieve that?

[Maggiedoll]

I think thru hikers are usually doing ~30 miles/day, and that's carrying everything they need, and frequently in pretty rough terrain.  Not sure how many would be bothering with fitbits, but apparently there have been some thru hiking movies recently that have increased the popularity of walking from Georgia to Maine.

[SunsetRunner]

I don't see the point in the distance done, take my nephew, 6'2", his stride length is going to be much longer than his mum, who is 5'5"

so if both did 30000 steps, my nephew is obviously going to have gone the greater distance

someone could just plainly cheat and put high numbers as their stride length for instance

[Nomad92]

Can you walk 39 miles ( 62 km ) a day?

Yes you can. But this would mean, you really have to walk from morning to night, if not even longer ( depending from pace ).

Can you do it on a daily base? I doubt so.

[Bbeliever215]

I participate in many heavy stepper challenges and most of the time ppl are getting up very early and staying up very late to get their steps in. These challenges can be very competitive so it is likely to get some many steps and miles. There are ppl that start their day at 3 am jist get their steps in. I start my day at 4:30am to workout, including weights. So yeah its possible.

[shipo]

Please provide say an hour by hour step count along with the activities done in that hour to achieve the steps.  Personally I've feeling pretty doubtful you've actually accomplished that many steps.

[SunsetRunner]

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@shipo wrote:

Please provide say an hour by hour step count along with the activities done in that hour to achieve the steps.  Personally I've feeling pretty doubtful you've actually accomplished that many steps.

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Here's how I got close to 46,000 steps in a day during a weekend challege.

Apr 9, 6:29PM	Spinning Edit	2,515	N/A	33:43	263 cals
Apr 9, 6:13PM	Spinning Edit	1,725	N/A	16:00	176 cals
Apr 9, 5:53PM	Spinning Edit	2,078	N/A	20:12	178 cals
Apr 9, 1:22PM	Walk Edit	4,005	N/A	36:59	345 cals
Apr 9, 7:11AM	Walk	35,566	18.86 miles	5:39:30	3,147 cals

[shipo]

Yup, for any given day, 50,000 steps (which equates to 25 miles for the average person and would range from say 22 to 28 miles based upon extreme ranges of stride lengths for folks capable of that many steps in one day) is easily possible; once again, for any given day.

The above said, averaging 39 miles per day (which equates to roughly 78,000-80,000 steps a day) is beyond reach of all save maybe 0.1% of the population.

[Nomad92 · Accepted solution]

This is exactly the same I was trying to say.

But let's face the most important fact. WHY does it matter?

I think the only thing matters is that people challenge THEMSELVES and get more physically fit and are able to do more than when they started.

So let's say you find the time to do a 10 km run every working day & also find motivation and energy to push yourself with a hard muscle-workout ( dumbbells and pushups, situps and more ), then I think you are doing more than alright ! I don't need to wake up at 3 AM to walk down a certain amount of steps. If you find fun anad enjoyment in it? Fine. But I doubt anyone on this planet finds enjoyment in walking 40 miles EVERY DAY. This isn't even healthy for your body. This is too much.

But however..to each his own.

[Ukase]

The short answer is  - yes. My mother is Sharon A. As of now, her 7 day step total is more than 238,000. 

And - she's um...well, she doesn't read the forums - she's 76 years old. Except for Thursdays and Sundays, she gets up, she goes walking. For a couple of hours at a time, listening to books on CD, she circles the neighborhood ..many times.  She'll return home, have a non-fat vanilla yogurt, watch some tv for a while, with a cup of coffee. 

Then, she'll go back out for another walk, for another 2-3 hours. She's lost at least 80 pounds since I got her that fitbit One a few years ago. When she goes on vacation to visit her sisters, she doesn't get quite so many steps in - and she admits to getting frustrated by some person named Frank who clealy must be a mailman walking a route, or a marathon runner in training - although he's over 70 as well and passing her up from time to time. 

I once saw her pace back and forth while she was on the cordless phone with her sister - for over two hours! 

I have accused her of short term memory loss - that she forgot that she already went for a walk, but she just laughs that off. She feels guitly if she doesn't have at least 20k steps. 

I suspect the folks that are getting all those 80k steps - if they are actually walking at a normal pace, (10k would be about 80 minutes, by my experience) that would be 10 hours and 40 minutes of walking. 

They could be walking that - but my guess is they may wait tables at a large restaurant and then go home and walk a few miles for exercise. But, I could certainly be wrong. 

I think her average is 36k per day. I lift weights for my exercise with some cycling in between circuits so I don't get nearly as many steps. I just use the Charge HR for the calorie count. 

[philly78]

I joined a group for nurses and I have a hard time believing the stats of some people in my group. It bothered me at first but I've gotten over it! Lol.

When I first started using my Fitbit I wasn't even hitting my 10,000 step goal every day as I was just getting back into good health after being extremely ill for several years. Now I'm meeting my goal and then some!

I wake up early and exercise before going in for a 12 hour shift in a busy ER. I worked out for 50 minutes yesterday prior to going in and was on my feet much of my shift as it was a very busy day. I got to my car around 11:30pm and saw I had a little over 24,000 steps. I actually considered walking the extra steps so I could hit the 25,000 and get the badge! Haha! But I just didn't have it in me and I drive an hour to get home.

Maybe there are those who average 40,000 steps/day. I guess it's possible but I find it would be difficult to have time for anything else! I've learned to just accept that there may be others who aren't being completely honest. I've also been in some challenges where my suspicions were raised about the honesty of some of the members. I've decided it isn't even worth it to stress over. I set goals for myself and continue to watch my progress and my health improve. If I have a bad day and don't meet my goals then so be it. If I have a great day (like yesterday!) I set a goal to try and improve on that. my current goal is to finally hit 25,000 steps in a day. 😄

[Incognito]

I have done 47 miles a couple times in the past 5 years.  All but one was done before I had my fitbit.  It was a up at 6am and walking all day and I finished at 11pm.  Why?  Because I wanted to do it.  I participate in the GCC every year and that has been part of a goal of mine.  But to average that would be insane.

[Marcy]

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@Incognito wrote:

I have done 47 miles a couple times in the past 5 years.  ...But to average that would be insane.

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I completely agree with @Incognito and others. Just the time it takes to get over 80k in a day just couldn't be a sustainable average for anyone, in my opinion, including short-strided insomniacs using a treadmill desk. 

[BruceBu]

It is not possible only for those of you who cannot do it. I have averaged 54k steps, 31 miles/day for a period of a month. I would question the wisdom (but not the possiblity) of doing it as a year-in-year-out average.

[Dominique]

@BruceBu: just curious: what would this graph (from the Dashboard) look like for you on Jun-8 (90k steps) and Jun-7 (71k steps):

The graph I posted is from my own Dashboard, for May-31, when I totalled 30k steps. When walking briskly, I tend to get about 1800 steps / 15 minutes (7200 steps per hour). In order to get 71k steps in a day, I would need to walk for 10 hours straight, without ever pausing. Running would help a little, but I’m not a marathon guy, so I could do it for about 2 hours max. (the equivalent of a semi-marathon for me).

[BruceBu]

@Dominique: No problem - here they are. Looks to me like you are sedentary a lot of the time - hard to do lots of miles/steps if you aren't walking/running a good fraction of the time. For me, running does not seem to be a good strategy for increasing overall step count and miles - I find that I do more for short periods of time (2 hrs is short), but end of the day totals are always less. I will occasionally jog for a few hundred yards just to give the walking muscles a rest, but I guestimate that running is less than 2% of my mileage. I will occasionally do a full run (cadence 150 - 160, 9 min mile), but only for 20 minutes or so (June 8, 7am) a couple of times a week - just enough to maintain the skill, but not a significant fraction of my exercise, and hopefully not enough to adversely affect my joints..

[Dominique]

@BruceBu: thanks for posting your charts! I see your green bars are in the same range as mine (about 1700-1800 steps / 15 minutes). Averaging 54k at that pace is like a full-time job (about 8 hours), and anything on top of that requires working overtime (like starting before 6am and continuing stepping after Midnight, as seen on your 90k day).

Yes, I’m mostly sedentary. I’m one of those people who need to work to repay their mortgage, and I happen to have a deskjob. I’m self-employed, so I have some flexibility in my use of time, but I still have to spend most of my day sitting in front of a computer.

[BruceBu]

@Dominique, Depends a lot on point of view. May seem like a full time job to you, seems like a month's vacation to me. Do your full time jobs only last a month???? Just for context - I am retired, my mortgage is fully paid and I am comfortable for life. I live in a rather large (walkable) house high in the front range of the Rocky Mountains: (1) whenever I want a national park quality walk, all I have to do is step out the front door & go (2) when walking outside is not so nice, I walk inside in front of walls of glass that overlook the Evergreen Basin and the high peaks of the continental divide. Also, I have no problem multi-tasking - walking large loops in the rec room with the TV on - a basketball game can be good for about 15k steps, 1/2 hour of news good for ~3500.

[SuiJuris94]

I'd just like to know how they do it.  Maybe I could use some of their tactics to improve my daily step count.  Just because someone asks about a particularly high average step count or miles per day doesn't mean they're accusing anyone of cheating.  I'm always looking for more ways to get more steps in! 

[shipo]

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@SuiJuris94 wrote:

I'd just like to know how they do it.  Maybe I could use some of their tactics to improve my daily step count.  Just because someone asks about a particularly high average step count or miles per day doesn't mean they're accusing anyone of cheating.  I'm always looking for more ways to get more steps in! 

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Walk more or run more; pretty much anything else is bending the boundaries of what is called a step.

[SuiJuris94]

Well, yeah, I get that to get more steps I'd have to get more steps, but I'm wondering how they fit it into their schedules.  Do they do a lot of walking on their jobs, if they are employed?  How much time does it take to walk 39,000 or 50,000 or 100,000 steps in one day?  I know that FitBit also registers steps when riding a bicycle, or at least mine did.  I think I take every opportunity to walk more every day including walking during my lunch hour, but I've never been close to 39,000 steps in one day.  My record is somewhere beyond 25,000, but less than 30,000.  And I've had my FitBit for four years or so.  I just don't know how to manage to get more steps in on a daily basis.