Are steps more important than active minutes?

[Young64]

Hi 

i am keen to know whether walking minimum 8000 steps is better and more important than active time ? 

Moderator edit: Updated title for clarity

[WendyB]

Everyone is different. It depends on what you care about.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @Young64, welcome to the Fitbit Community Forums! 🙂

This is an interesting question and very relative too as @WendyB says. It's more about the intensity you put on your activities than the type of activity you are doing but at the same time both are closely related. 

For more information on what active minutes actually are, please take a look at this article and that should help you clear those doubts.

Anything else, we're here to help!

PS. I'm moving your post to the Get Moving board for categorization purposes.

[Ronlaub]

I agree with Wendy B. It depends on what you're looking to accomplish. If you're looking for calories burned, the number of steps will play a key role because it shows you're moving around, even in short spurts. If you're trying to improve your cardiovascular health, then you want more active minutes. By staying in motion for longer periods of time, that will get your heart working harder.

[WavyDavey]

Steps are a good indicator of overallo activity level. Active minutes are a better indicator of cardio fitness. 

Most people tend to focus on steps at the beginning, but it's possible to get a lot of steps and not get much heart workout. 

[Mukluk4]

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@Young64 wrote:

Hi 

i am keen to know whether walking minimum 8000 steps is better and more important than active time ? 

Moderator edit: Updated title for clarity

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Neither, it's all about Calories Burned

[emili]

hey there @Young64 and welcome to the community. It really does depend on your goals and your fitness level. You can go to the supermarket, carry in groceries, run the vacuum and putter around the kitchen for an hour. At the end of all that you will have maybe 4000 steps. But none of them really exerted you. So you have steps which is for sure better than not, but you didn't really put yourself in a state where your fitness level is being impacted. If your goal is to lose weight, then your active minutes are probably more of what you want to pay attention to. If your goal is to move more regardless of effort, then steps are what you may care about. Either way you are moving and that is already a "step" in the right direction..