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

[lukedga]

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@Corney wrote:

When non-runners would ask me why I ran in races I never won, I would ask them to go to the finish line after a race and try to point out the winner.  After a race, everyone who finished felt like a winner!

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I guess they arrived late? Because the winner is usually the first person to cross the finish line. Still, I get your point - at least as it pertains to races. I'm competitive and have taken pride in the handful of events I've 'won' or placed in, but I'm more concerned with improving my times than beating other people or getting awards.

In that sense, I guess that's why I'm confused by the step count thing and the defensiveness regarding their validity. There's a chasm between FitBitters and 'StepBitters', so if it's going to bother me - I either won't do challenges or will only accept challenges from people with similar fitness goals to those of my own. 

[Corney]

I just did an experiment sitting at my computer.  By swinging my left arm back and forth 40-50 times I increased my step count by over 100.  If people are cheating, they are only cheating themselves.

[Corney]

Yes my point was for people to go to the finish line after the race was over and look at all the smiling happy people.  It's not only the winners that are happy, everyone who finishes have that same look of accomplishment on their faces.

[katedavis89]

I try not to concern myself with steps from other people. I have a feeling that there are some people who have figured out how to “cheat” in order to win a challenge or beat the competition. I don’t concern myself with other people’s counts, I just like to see where I am in relation to the steps of others. I am only doing it as a personal comparison-not to “win” the weekly totals or daily totals. Sometimes, I like to see if I can catch up with someone on my list of friends, but only because I feel I can push myself a little harder! I try to be kind and if I think someone seems to be putting in way more steps than what they usually do, I just ignore it.

[chemie]

Hi I'm a meter reader and that's most of my steps. I average around 30k a day.

My other job on the weekend at Bunnings lets me down 😃

Best I've ever done is a marathon day just over 60k steps with the transport home.

Working day best is around 40k steps.

50k a day wouldn't be possible with this job.

Before I had this I got a garmin and most I've done working is around 32km.Lack of water and toilets makes it hard ;-/

https://connect.garmin.com/profile/chemie

Got that after a dog bite around my eye. Passed out at the hospiital getting checked up. I'd only eaten two gels for the day and reckoned I hadn't had enough. So i wanted to see how many Kjoules I was doing.

Often get dizzy and wanted the GOBE to get blood pressure but sounds like it don't work so got this for the heart rate.

[Slucyk01]

First time to log on to this community forum and I read that kind of answer. Wow. 

[Incognito]

The last couple months have been super lazy for me and I am ashamed of it.  I need to get my butt in gear.

But anyways, I can see it possible to get a 50k a day average, but how long that can be sustained is my question.  Those who can, kudos to them.  I have been able to keep about a 30-40k a week average over a whole summer through the GCC and that includes good and bad days.  My personal best was over 100k (46mile all day ventures) twice in a single 100 day challenge.  After my 100k day, I can follow up with about 20k and ramp back up to my average.  That does not or did not leave me at a 50k average, but the fact that an office worker like myself can hit 30k-40k consistantly through a summer makes it very plausible to hit a 50k average.  

[lukedga]

If you're a member of any of the Activity Groups, the Full Leaderboards rank users in three categories: Steps, Distance, and Active Minutes. For example, ther leader in a group of which I'm a member is posting January averages of 55,575 Steps, 29 Miles and 406 Active Minutes (nearly 7 hours) per day. Maybe his office is on top of a mountain? Or maybe he's Dean Karnazes. Second place is posting more realistic but still daunting averages of 31,775 steps/18 miles/239 active minutes.

I've noticed my steps while active make up a much larger proportion of my total steps than many others on these leaderboards. I circuit train and lift weights (things that count as activity but not steps on Bits with HR) in addition to cardio, so maybe that's the explanation. Some of these people may just walk absolutely everywhere they go. But walking registers as activity, so the mystery remains.

I couldn't care less about people's motives, I'm just sort of a numbers wonk and curious to peek behind the curtain. I'm burning 4,000 calories a day with my 'middling' stats, so I'm especially curious to see some of these megastepper's food diaries!

[katedavis89]

That’s good to know! My best day was 30,000k. I am retired now, and I get quite a bit of exercise, but some of that is through martial arts and weight lifting. I have really bad arthritis in my hips, knees and ankles, so there are days when I struggle to get 10,000k. I have friends who move all day long and still don’t go much over the 50,000k mark. I figure that if I get to 20,000k, then good for me!! Anyway, thank you for your information. I’m not sure how I got caught up in this whole thread, other than someone asked a question and for some reason, I am getting a lot of these posts directly! Happy stepping!

[DerrickS]

I got 50,000 steps in a day once. I can't imagine waking up and doing it two times in a row, let alone 7 consecutive days in a row.

[lukedga]

This is representative of the overwhelming consesus, I'd say. 

[Corney]

I think it's time to quit worrying how people get their number of steps per day.  Is there some kind of grand prize offered for the highest number of steps per day, week, month, year, that I don't know about?  Stop worrying about others and concern yourself with what you are doing or not doing.

[lukedga]

This is the canned response which, at various points in the thread, has attempted to bully people away from an open discussion. No one person's opinion should dictate the conversation.

I'm unsubscribing from the thread simply because it's obviously not going to advance further. I haven't witnessed 'worry' so much as curiousity. None of the "everyday 50k" people have spoken up so I guess curiousity is as far as wel'll ever get.

While there aren't any prizes offered for outlandish step totals, it's slightly 'worrying' from a societal standpoint that people who may cheat at something so petty are out there among us. It's likely they're not too honest about most things. 

[Slucyk01]

Thanks Lukedga. I had to withhold comment for that one because I was unable to say something nicely or diplomatically. You nailed it.

[Triciapop3]

No I don’t. I shut it off. I hate getting this stuff in my e-mail. It doesn’t matter, at any rate. People still need to learn to be kind. If someone asks a legitimate question, then they don’t need to be scolded or treated like they’re an idiot for asking. Asking how someone gets 50.000 steps a day is a valid question. And yes, some people cheat. I actually know of someone who was doing that just to beat her opponents in a challenge. I will go back and shut this thing off yet again. If I can’t get it to stop (as apparently it didn’t) I will contact tech support. Thanks. Have a great day.

[katedavis89]

I am not sure why I am getting so many of these posts. I made a comment on the forum and it seems like I am being targeted with angry diatribes. Really, I made a comment on the 50,000 steps a day issue and the only thing I said was that it seemed like a pretty difficult goal and that some people have probably figured out how to cheat, though I don’t know why they would want to do that. I didn’t start the post. I also don’t need to be told to mind my own business when I reply to a comment on the forum. If I knew of a way to delete this from my feed I would gladly do that. Instead of being nasty, why don’t you find something kind to say? People are asking because, frankly, to do 50,000 steps a day, every day, seems rather unrealistic if you have a normal job and live a normal life. While there may be no grand prize for the amount of steps one takes, there are differently weekly and daily “challenges” that people participate it. So, yes, if you do the challenges, then by all means, you have the right to question the validity of steps. Nobody needs to be scolded because they asked a question. If you don’t like the question, then don’t make the comment. Easy as that.

[Corney]

The average walker takes 120 steps per minute, at that rate they would have to walk 7 hours without stopping.  I've heard people say, I'm a meter reader, well I've seen meter readers and they do not walk at 120 steps per minute and must stop to read meters, I'v heard people say I work in a factory and am on my feet all day long, how can you do any work walking 120 steps a minute constantly, even if you are a supervisor, you would have to stop sometimes, and I doubt they would allow running on the factory floor.  Taking 7 hours out of a day just to walk, everyday, seems unrealistic.  I'm retired, but I wouldn't take 7 hours out of my day just to boast I walked 50,000 steps today.  Get a life!  Even if they were a runner and had a stride length of 2 feet, they would have to run almost 19 miles to reach 50,000 steps.

[Jrdubyakc]

@katedavis89 The posts aren't personal responses to you.  You have a personal setting selected that gives you a notification anytime someone posts in a thread where you have also posted. 

If if you don't want to receive the notifications anymore (for any thread), you can Go into your subscription\notification settings and UNselect "Automatically subscribe me to all topics or reviews I participate in".  If you just want to get out of this particular conversation, use the pull down menu under Topic Options (top right of page) and select "unsubscribe".

[kellamine]

Hi, I just happened to chance upon this thread while looking for a solution to my weakened knee. I just tot I will share with the one who posted the question on how I hit 50k or 60k steps.

I started using fitbit products in Nov 2014, back then I had ALOT difficulty even hitting 10k. Coz even though I workout 1 to 3 hours a day, I was mainly doing bikram yoga and yoga doesn't clock much steps or calories.

And then I started doing runs, every morning. A 8km run will give me abt 10k steps so I was averaging around 18k at the end of the day. Shopping the whole day afterwards will bring me to ard 25k??
Lately I have started preparing for a full 42.175 km run in May, so I have increased my morning runs to 12 to 16km, sometimes I run twice in the same day.
Anyhow let me summarize how I get there in case you are wondering 🙂

For my
20k: Morning run + regular daily routine
30k: Morning run + regular daily routine + cycling to work + grocery shopping
40k: Morning run + evening run + shopping
Or Morning run (>20km) + shopping
50k: Morning run + shopping + crazy cycling (>5hrs)+ trampoline
60k: Morning run (>20km) + shopping + aerobic + trampoline class

*for 30k and above steps, my total exercise zone hours are typically 10 to 13 hours.

Thats all my step "secrets" revealed, that said, I am also starting to feel that I have overworked my knees, so am trying to cap my daily steps to just 30k.

I hope my post helps those trying to clock more steps :))

[Corney]

This is only my opinion, but anyone who averages 50,000 steps per day can not keep it up for along time, unless you walk or run with perfect bio-mechanics, you body, feet, ankles, knees, hips , back will not hold up.  Just think, 50,000 steps per day, over 250,000 steps per week, over 1,000,000 steps per month.  I ran for over 25 years, 6-7 miles per day, everyday, almost 50 miles per week, 2,000 miles per month, 24,000 miles per year, after 25 years the mind was willing, my feet and knees were not.