10,000 steps

[Jemrockstar]

Hello, I am new to fitbit, my sister got me the charge 2 and I just got it 2 days ago.  I was wondering has anyone been able to make 10,000 steps a day? I read that it takes 10,000 steps to lose a pound a week, that seems kind of high, is this doable? 

[A_Lurker · Accepted solution]

Hello, and welcome.

It take a calorie deficit to lose weight.  The general idea is that it takes 3500 calories to burn a pound of weight off.  This can be a combination of eating less and/or moving more.  So, depending on what your calorie intake is, your weight, your current number of steps a day, well... the answer is, maybe.

There is no magic number of steps that will cause you to lose weight.  I've lost weight doing well under 10,000 steps and maintained my weight eating 3x that.  However, moving a little more every day and eating a little less every day should cause you to lose weight.

[GettingfitinSC]

@Jemrockstar It is doable; you just have to add more step each week. When I first got my fitbit at Christmas, getting 5000 steps was difficult. After a couple of weeks, I got the hang of adding steps throughout the day, and I changed my goal to 8000. A few weeks later, I was able to go to 10,000. Now I'm at 12,000, and am about to bump up to 13,500. You can do it. Just start by adding a few steps here and there- a 5 min walk, a 10 min walk, another 5 min walk...you'll start to see the steps add up! 

[Bill_k]

Yes it is doable.  In my case i am retired and to do the 10000 steps which is about 5 miles i walk to a local coffee shop and back have coffee or walk to the local mall to have lunch  or whatever and walk back every day.

That covers around 7000 steps.

I have a schwinn stationary aerodyne bike in my bedroom that i use to do the other 3000 steps every night while watching tv .

The fitbit uses hand movements while using the bike as steps as the bike has an upper body exercise included.

If you are working it should be much easier for you as i imagine you walk around while doing that.

You should try to walk fast enough to keep your heart rate in the 'fat burning' mode that will show up in the heart rate picture on your screen.

Your fitbit will keep track of  how many calories you burn every day based on your weight ,age,and heart  rate while you walk or exercise .

A normal sedentary lifestyle will use about 2000 calories a day and you'll see this number repeatedly on product labels etc.

So without exercising you use about 2000 calories.You'll see them tick off on your fitbit during the day.If you burn another 800 maybe  by doing 10000 steps and /or exercise then you have about 2800 calories to play with for a day.

Then you can adjust your eating to be a number of calories below that depending how fast you want to lose weight.

The less steps and exercise you do the less calories you can eat to maintain or lose weight.

So you end up counting calories and deciding what you should eat as well which is a whole other thing .As well you will lose weight if you cut your sodium intake down to whatever the daily guideline is as excess sodium makes you maintain water if you have too much in your system.

.Hope this helps.;-)

[1Step4ward]

I would love some FREINDLY competition for daily challenges!

I have lost 15kgs but now haven't lost anything in a few weeks. I really need to stay motivated by hitting some step goals (15k steps / day). It would be wonderful if you could add me as a friend for challenges to keep us motivated!

[Jemrockstar]

Hello, 

I would love to add you as a buddy, I need more buddies for the challenges, so far I only have 2 buddies, so I will definitely add you and thank you. 

[Jemrockstar]

Thank you for this reply, it really helped and motivated me.  I think I will set my goal for 5000 steps and once I get used to that I will reset my goal for more steps until I feel I can do the 10,000 but I will get there. 

[Jemrockstar]

Thank you for this reply, I think your idea of gradually getting to the 10,000 steps is an excellent idea.  I am going to start out with the 5000 steps and see how I do.  Thank you very much.