How can a person average 80,000 steps in a day?

[prc1977]

I don't mean to call anybody out or question somebody's integrity but there are fitbit users who average better than 75K steps a day over the course of a week. Assuming they get eight hours of sleep, that means they're walking almost 40 minutes each hour every hour of the day unless they're asleep. Every day for a week.

It is possible that they're running or training for a marathon or walking really fast or are really really into this walking thing but it seems like it is too much. Any way you do the math, it is an incredible amount of walking and it is sustained over the entire week.

What's the most anyone has ever walked in a day? How about in a week? 

I wonder what it would be like if I got up at five am and walked all day until midnight? Doing the math, it would theoretically be possible to break 100k but I don't think I could get anywhere near that. And 80k a day for a week seems too much too.

What do you think?

Moderator edit: Clarified subject. 

[MihaiMVP]

@paso

I have actually accomplished this during a 24-hour timeframe. It was a running event and I covered more than 190 kilometers. The bulk of the Sunday steps was until 8 am when the race finished. Afterwards beer, sleep and train travel. Most of the few steps I've made in the train didn't count as my tracker didn't register my wabbling as proper walk :). Now I can still walk (in a way that my wristband records it ...)

[paso]

Thanks for your explanation. Will the Fitbit record that high or does it require manual input. My 3 day old replacement charge HR seems unable to record my walks...I digress.
I could compete in the post run wobble and beer😉 Though.
I hope this isn't a frequent event. As a senior I've learned some of my youthful zeal showed up later as wear and tear. Also, confessions of a former gym rat I wish I had spent some of that time following other interests.
True everyone charts their own path and I would never want anyone to feel I am passing judgment.
Wishing you Happy trails:glowing_star:

,

[MihaiMVP]

I actually don't use a Fitbit (mine is Vivofit, so very similar) and the only "shortcoming" is that it shows up to five digits. After 99,999 steps it starts all over from 0 again, but the steps are still in the band's memory so they are not lost. 

[SunsetRunner]

Well it's still hard to do that many steps in a day now . 99,999 steps. And what didn't u like on the Fitbit that made u change to a vivo fit

[Corney]

Rocker08  why would anyone do 99,999 steps in a day?

[paso]

Good to know..always helpful to learn about different trackers
Happy trails:glowing_star:

[MihaiMVP]

I don't know about Fitbit yet. My Garmin is good too, I find it accurate and it has a long batery life (one year and 10 million steps later, it is still counting)

@SunsetRunner  why would anyone do 99,999 steps in a day?

Curiosity? I was wondering how the tracker would handle 🙂

[mr.o.u.s]

"""Re: How can a person average 80,000 steps in a day?
PinkRayneDrop wrote:
Fake steps would be NOT moving your feet off the ground at all.......as far as I can tell. Otherwise there would be no steps registered via a Fitbit One...... cause it's on your hip....
How about this; you've claimed 100,000+ steps in a day is "simple", I would like to see you try and go outside and try to walk or run even half that many steps in a day and then back it up with a MapMyWalk image of what you did.
Doing the above will give you an idea of what real steps are like."""

Not sure if you were replying to me, but here is my answer anyway: "simple" should never be confused with "easy". The first time I did 100K steps in a 24 hour period was during the 2016 Susitna 100 http://www.susitna100.com/ in Alaska, February 13, 14, & 15. Most of my steps are "real", I have run a couple of marathons and some ultras, the Susitna 100 was with a 30 pound back pack and consisted of running, jogging, walking, trudging, a little moseying, some skipping and a very small amount of crawling.

>From the results page http://ultrasignup.com/live/live.htm?dtid=19931#search
28th Place(Dead Last, next year I will train ;-), Bib# 105, Name: W.Mike R.O.U.S., Age: M51, City/Country: Yongsan-Gu, PRK - FOOT
Time: 47:22:10, Finish time of day: 8:22AM at Mile 100

I tried to keep my phone running Strava for 48 hours in the freezing cold hooked to a battery pack but it crashed several times. TinyURL was not working, if the link below also fails I can post screen shots. Here is the first 51.2 miles:
https:/email.strava.com/wf/click?upn=FLdFplb9Rd0LY-2BmLy3OryvDDptMqBn6AAC1cAG-2FGDgKsPaIkjZWKkg0X5FXajxGZhePtv9mloY4u-2B7A9caN-2BrbETxOcB09xp-2FMQS2Quuoe8cnznYus6eK3gk0zjkS5j8kWatmsqlDgBbIxGA0BRlsg-3D-3D_qY5u4Bh-2FT6fGdTTgo1qj-2BUkrnfg7zS9nfJB8mBi8csdbG8hPw5PNN8JGK28waw-2Fu7KOpmILpQo8tHSSToFQfNUEjHyg0TMEpLELsnIGeanO-2Bg-2B3ElAsI-2Bj8HeP1xySChhMD3WS9viQBtqpT3SFXvYSEuVW7-2BqKdYg-2BigXXxptccaRXyavmyMukZJbQz-2BcwoRZNme3EWbrTRDSuAygM8N8H2mo4qlbHvkma-2Bi2aRDNvbSYKYtyn0QnzHYP1sEuUcD
The other segments are 10.7, 15.7, and 21.9 miles. Short by .5 miles, I know, but that is what happens when Strava crashes.

Either way, my point was I think know what it takes to get 80-100+ steps in a day and I just want to know what people in FitBit Corporate Challenges are doing to get those numbers for 30 to 60 days in a row. In a recent corporate challenge the weekly prizes/gifts for the team posting the most steps were in the $1000 to $2000 range for a 10 person team and the final prizes were $25,000, $10, 000, and $5000 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Otherwise, who cares what anyone else logs. This is somewhere north of $50,000 we are talking about here, if people are cheating and there are no consequences then aren't the prizes counterproductive? That is why they say "Strava or it didn't happen". MapMyRun/Walk/Ride are also good but if FitBit is going to sponsor these kinds of competitions then I hope they will do more to discourage, prevent, address cheating. If they need ideas, I have some 🙂

[MihaiMVP]

That's some nice prizes for a leisurely activity like jogging or walking!

In our monthly charity challenge we compete for concert tickets, bean bags and coffee - but even so, we are 3 teams going head to head at over 45 k / day / person.

[shipo]

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@mr.o.u.s wrote:

Not sure if you were replying to me, but here is my answer anyway: "simple" should never be confused with "easy".

---

The quote you listed in your post was mine and no, I wasn't responding to you I was responding to @PinkRayneDrop, someone claiming 100,000+ steps day after day after day was "simple".

I am an endurance runner as well, but the only "ultra" events I compete in are the long RAGNAR style 200+ mile relays, and even then I only typically log something less than 35 miles in 24 hours; needless to say I have the utmost respect for ultra runners and the training they do.  I have no doubt many ultra runners can log 100,000+ steps in a day, however, building on your comments, I too rather doubt they can sustain that output day in and day out.

[KathleenGage]

Actually, I didn't say it was easy. I said it was possible. To achieve this would take commitment and I doubt many people would have that kind of stamina or commitment. So no, I did not say easy. And if I did, my bad.

[MihaiMVP]

@KathleenGage

Indeed, it takes a lot of commitment. But it is definetely doable. During a walking challenge, I saw many folks doing back to back 100 K+ days. 

[Corney]

MihalMVP  Did you actually see them walking 100k steps on back to back days, or did you only see their log?  More power to them.  I wish them all the best in the future when they are dealing with over use syndromes and degenerative joint disease all for a silly challenge!  It takes a lot of commitment and very little knowledge of what they are doing to their bodies, but in the end that knowledge will come.

[USAF-Larry]

I have a hard time imagining walking 100K steps a day, and then doing it again the next day.  If we assume 2K steps per mile, 100K steps is 50 miles. If one walked 12 hours a day, with no breaks, that would be just over 4 miles per hour.  Could one walk 4 miles per hour for hour after hour after hour?  Probably not.   So, maybe they walked 18 hours a day with breaks that gave them an actual 16 hours of moving at 3mph. That would give them 6 hours to sleep and get ready for the next day of walking 18 hours.  I don't think a body would long survive with that level of stress.

[MihaiMVP]

The data is accurate (done by 7-8 people within our challenge), so I only wanted to confirm that walking / jogging all day long for a few days is by all means possible provided you are in a great physical shape. You eventually get tired like with any other activity, but then you take a rest and start again. You also get an increased apetite :). 

[Corney]

MihaiMVP For someone to log 100k steps their log should show the
following. Distance 37 miles, calories burned between 3700 and 4400 and if
they average 120 steps per minute their dash board should show over 13
hours of an increased heart rate. Distance and calories burned is filled
in by the person logging in, but the graph of activity should show over 13
hours of increased heart rate. And you say you saw someone log 100k steps
2 days in a row, just think about it. No I do not accept sarcastic clients
who do not or will not listen, it's a waste of my time and their time.

[shipo]

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@Corney wrote:
MihaiMVP For someone to log 100k steps their log should show the
following. Distance 37 miles...

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Hmmm, by my calculation the distance should be more like 50 miles if the individual is walking and more like 63 miles if the individual is jogging or running.  If I was to walk 37 miles I know I wouldn't get anywhere near 100,000 steps.

[SunsetRunner]

If I walk 37 miles I would only do 85-86k steps. And that seem like a lot of to have to do

[shipo]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:
If I walk 37 miles I would only do 85-86k steps. And that seem like a lot of to have to do

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Short steps?  Most folks would only log about 74,000 steps after walking 37 miles.

[MihaiMVP]

Taking short steps is a good strategy in this kind of contest - not the same if you walk 6000 steps an hour or 7500 steps an hour. Same for running - it takes different people between 9000 and 11000 per hour but usually you want to just do it in your natural way, not forcing a specific technique. A graph could look like this: