How do people average 50000 steps per day?

[Emmeli]

Who has the time to average 50,000 steps a day!? How can this be possible?

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[rozzi1111]

I also walk to and from the train station on my to work 20 thousand plus
steps and I absolutely love it.

[Corney]

I no longer ask how people log 50K steps a day because I get too many
nonsensical responses. Now I only ask WHY do people log 50K steps per day,
the only thing I can come up with is EGO. As you mentioned it's painful
and takes all the fun out of walking. No research I can find will tell you
it guarantees you better health, wellness or fitness. To those who still
claim to average 50K steps per day, I guarantee some day YOU WILL PAY THE
PIPER!

That's fine but It's not 50K steps everyday! How do you think you would
feel if you added 30K steps everyday?

Moderator edit: merged reply

[BruceBu]

@Corney It's long been obvious where the ego problem is here

[essieL]

Where... explain please 

[GLTS]

I may be missing the point of your question @Corney  I walk 50k a day because I enjoy it. I live in a beautiful part of the world, and if I am free, I walk to enjoy it. 50k a day is about 8 to 10 hours walking. I walk to the sea at 5.30 every morning, and do some breakfast shopping on the way back - that’s about 15k.  I usually climb the beautiful cliff face behind my house in the morning. That’s about 12k. I often walk out to Manly in the afternoon and collect dinner ingredients on the way back, about 20k. And who could resist an evening stroll round the escarpment after dinner.  I don’t see how I could do it in less than 50k.

I have good shoes and my feet do not hurt. If I develop any pain, I stop.  

Why does it bother you?

[essieL]

I love to walk too, love the outdoors, tromping through the woods, climbing a mountain or even just melting into the scene of a city street. I have a fairly busy life and it isn't often I have time for 50k, but it is my idea of a perfect vacation. Those rare days tucked into my year when I have totally free I also get 50k or more. I finish them refreshed in my being, even if body is occasionally a little sore. 

[Corney]

Are you saying I have an ego problem? I'm not claiming to log 50-80K steps
per day. As a retired Physical Therapist with extensive experience
treating over use syndromes, knowledge of Anatomy, Physiology, Kinesiology,
and Exercise Physiology, all I'm trying to do is to inject a little sanity
into this thread. If individuals take what I have to say to heart, good
for them. If they are like you and ignore me because they think I have an
ego problem, so be it. Tell me Bruce, what experience do you have other
than anecdotal, that as we all know applies only to you. As a medical
professional I only rely on controlled experiments or research from well
established medical journals, not articles which clog the internet with
unreliable gibberish. I've told my clients listen to my advise or not, if
you don't It's not my problem. I don't think the problem is my ego, the
problem is you try to discount anything or anyone that doesn't agree with
you.

[BruceBu]

@Corney. No thanks - we've done this before and I'll not waste any more time on you or your negative experiences and attitude. As I've said before, have a good life - until it's time to pay the piper.

PS ~ You don't introduce sanity into a conversation by yelling inane threats at the audience.

[GershonSurge]

I have yet to meet a medical "professional." 

They all do whatever can soak the most money out of the patients.

[GLTS]

I may not have quite completely answered your question. I walk 50k a day because I like it, but also for three other reasons:

1.  For heart health - to keep my heart rate up and stop plaque build up

2.  For bone strength - women’s bones weaken as they age and full body weight exercise  helps control and reverse this

3.  So that I can.  I am on vacation at the moment - last week cycling 40 miles a day, and this week walking hills, climbing water falls, trailing over mountains. All of this I can do because I keep doing it daily. 

So it’s for two broad reasons - one just because I like it, and two because it has health and continuity benefits. 

Does this make any sense to you @Corney

[essieL]

Good for you Glts. I bet you feel terrific too!

[BruceBu]

http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/fulltext/2013/07000/Effects_of_Running_and_Walking_on_Osteoarthrit...

[GLTS]

Thank you @BruceBu that article was excellent.

I feel great thanks @essieL

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Ishtanii]

I mean no offense, but yes--you CAN get that many steps.  I am 51 years old, 5'4" ,  I weigh 256 pounds as I have multiple autoimmune and endocrine issues I struggle with, not the least of which is having no thyroid at all (surgically removed) and living on seldom properly adjusted hormone supplementation.  But don't let the scale and clock fool you. My MINIMUM step allowance per day is around 12,000.  I also do a minimum of 1.5 hours per day of cardio.  Using the Fitbit premium app it says: In the past 7 days you burned an average of 2,020 calories 115% more than the median for women

You are in the 97 percentile of all women  
And...

In the past 7 days you burned an average of 2,020 calories 94% more than the median for men and women

You are in the 92 percentile of all men and women
And step wise:

In the past 7 days you walked 85,416 steps 33% more than the median for men and women

You are in the 73 percentile of all men and women

Now I know that is nowhere NEAR 50k but here is the catch -- Not only am I a half century old, 256 pound woman, I am also partially in a wheelchair or using it to lean on heavily to walk and get those steps or my walker at this time. I destroyed my knee when I fell on a piece of angle iron when I was a welder while working my way through college at age 24.  I am scheduled for total knee replacement on December 8th of this year as it is now bone-on-bone.  Now I am sure my step count is about to tank for a few months while I recover, but bet your sweet buns 50k won't be that hard to do after I heal.  AND NOT BY CHEATING!  (How can you cheat a fitbit anyway--and more to the point...why fool yourself like that?  I tried just spinning it around on my finger and it registers nothing.)

How can I feel so sure? Because, last Spring (before my knee totally fell apart) I felt great after I had the cartilage in my knee repaired and was getting 35K some days between 1hr of physical therapy and 2 hours at the gym and my normal daily household chores. Yes, you have to move your butt. Speed walking 1 hour in the morning @ 4mph, 1 hour at lunch, and 1 hour in the evening will yield approximately 10,000 steps each time (30K). 

Now, how can you REALLY bump that up and get these seemingly unbelievable step counts?  Easy--if you have the cardio fitness for it. They are called ACCELERATION DRILLS.  I was a sprinter in middle school and you learn these things. Not sure if I can post a link but I will try. Now to get credit for all the steps these drills generate, you can't hold on to a wall or anything or you will get cheated OUT OF STEPS. ( I get cheated of any steps I take holding on to my walker or wheelchair with both hands, I only get credit if I leave my fitbit arm dangling free...so my step count is in truth likely around 25% HIGHER than 12k.--It counts that as time spent riding a bike ...go figure.)  But you can do some of these with your arms pumping. 
(Go to Youtube and search for this video:  Developing Speed For All Ages: Acceleration Drills)

So don't be so dismissive of people with what seem to be insanely high step counts. Football players, and those who train like they do or similar, can easily rack up over 100K steps in a day when these people are training three times a day  for 1-3 hours at a time and doing these drills intermittently for 3-4 hours per day.

Old, fat and with a bone-on-bone bum knee I cranked out over 20K today by just going for a 2 hour walk with my husband in the morning and a 2 hour walk this evening. Why?  Because I have determination and desire.

I have major surgery coming in just a few short weeks, and even though this deceptively chubby looking woman has a resting heart rate that is already  an awesome (50-55 bpm) and an awesome blood pressure (109/67 just today) and just got an amazing report of cardiac health back from my cardiologist despite being morbidly obese and 51 it isn't good enough for me yet.

My heart condition as per fitbit is only in the good to very good range -- and I want it in the EXCELLENT range . The better my cardiac health and muscle strength in my legs prior to surgery the better my outcome will be.  And "cheating" at fitbit--however you manage that one--won't achieve that for me.  Being TRUTHFULLY, consistently and solidly in that Fairly Active category is what will do it.

Don't hate people who exercise differently than you do in a way that reflects higher step numbers. Your only true competition here is YOURSELF.  Let these other people be an inspiration for what you can achieve.  And if they are getting insanely  high numbers and you want to get them too... then ask them what exercises they do that you can try to boost your own count. But no matter--you will need endurance, practice and good cardiac health to do it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIF16GLlLBo

Go to Youtube and search for this video:  Developing Speed For All Ages: Acceleration Drills

[Ishtanii]

Go to Youtube and look into acceleration drills.  There are some of us out here who train multiple times each day. 
Wake: 4am  and warm up with a 15 minute walk at 4mph (good for about 3k steps) 15 minutes of speed drills are good for about 9k steps. run sprints for 15 minutes. about 6-8k. walk 10 minutes at 4mph then 5 minute cool down at 2mph for aprox 2.5k steps  This makes for a total of about 20.5k to 22.5k  in a one hour training session. 

Lunch: Repeat

Evening: Repeat 

This yields 61.5K to 67.5K steps per day. This is about how much some of us in the fairly active category train. Before I trashed my knee, I trained 5 HARD hours per day.  Now I can only train about 2-4 moderate intensity hours per day. For example, yesterday  morning I took my wheelchair out for some speed wheeling around town (trying to build my arm strength) for about 30-45 minutes, then I walked for about an hour at lunch with my  husband (using my wheel chair to lean on to support my weight as my left knee is bone on bone -- surgery coming up to replace it on 12/8/17) and then went for a two 1 hour slow walks this evening.  

And yes, I really  do weigh that much thanks to having major endocrine problems that required a total thyroidectomy--yes, I really do have to use a wheelchair / walker / cane to get around. 

If I can manage this walking stiff legged (my left leg won't bend without excruciating and blinding pain at this point) leaning on a wheelchair or other assistive device...how much more can a healthy person of normal body weight do?  I am pretty sure it would be easy to double this 20K I did today because I have managed a 35K day myself. 

It just takes desire and determination to push yourself beyond your pain and waaaay out of your comfort zone.  Exercise is addictive--just like a drug. You release endorphins when you push yourself. Endorphins relieve pain and are as addictive as any street drug. When you have as much pain as I have, and you don't want to take the opiates your doctors prescribe all too willingly...you get off your bum and let you body make its own pain killers with exercise.

I hope this helps put the step thing in perspective. Not sure how one can "cheat" a fitbit, but that is why I posted my heartrate data as well.  I don't think anyone can fake that. Can they?

[GLTS]

Hi Ishtanii, you are confusing me with someone else.  I often walk 50,000 steps a day.  Corney was asking how that is possible, so I answered his question. From his response I suspect he was maybe not so much asking how, as perhaps suggesting I was not doing this.  I can’t think why he would bother, if he did not actually want information. I may be wrong.

I agree that it is possible, and I am sure you can do it once your knee is fixed.

I note however that it is not a good idea when you have two broken bones in your foot, as I do just now.  

Good luck with the knee. 

[Corney]

I no longer comment on peoples step counts.

[GLTS]

Very sensible @Corney. 

[GershonSurge]

Personally, I think averaging 50,000 steps a day is within reach. I've watched @BruceBu's profile as he has done it many times. He tends to do it a month or two or three at a time and then reduce his steps. Maybe he will comment. 

I've done over 25,000 steps a day for the last 14 days and haven't felt any fatigue at all. Before I get to that, I'll explain why. I like to walk/run slowly. While I'm out, I either think or listen to audio books. Why sit at home and read when I can get outside?

For the purposes of this post, I define a "step" as walking, jogging or running. The treadmill is fine. Others may choose differently.

I have three secrets. First, I go slowly alternating slow jogging and walking -- 20 seconds each. Second is my diet. I eat a whole food plant based diet. No animal products, no added oil. Lots of starches for calories, cruciferous vegetables (about two pounds a day) for the anti-oxidants that eliminate fatigue, and about six fruits a day because I like them.

The key is about a cup and a half of chopped cruciferous vegetables about a half our before and immediately after walking/running. 

If a person doesn't feel fatigue, all they need to do is find about seven hours in their day minus the time for lifestyle steps. Then start a slow progression to fill those hours.

The big warning is if something hurts even a little, stop doing it until it doesn't hurt. 

[SunsetRunner]

They may be patrolling military bases and government compounds 😄