10,000 steps?

[mjanetd]

I've had my fitbit flex for a couple of weeks and yesterday was the first time I made it to 10,000 steps.  I was so close that I had to keep going to make the magical 10,000.  My question is how in the world do people do this every day?  I ran errands twice and took the long way both times then walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes just so I could make it.  My normal going out of my way to walk places ends up around 5000 then up to 7000 with excersise.  How do people claiming 20,000 steps a day have time to work or do anything else except walk.  I think I'm going to change my goal to 8,000.

[mjanetd]

I do walk a lot so maybe it's just not counting all my steps.  I seem to carry something with me most of the time in my left hand.  Thanks everyone.

[youngWerther]

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@josephz2va wrote:

They all can get 80k in one way or another.

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I checked for Usain Bolt,  he is supposed to train 3 hours a day, I don't think he even comes close to 80k.  Even people running a marathon a day are far off 80k steps.  Registering them on fitbit is no problem,  it takes me one minute on the keyboard.

[josephz2va]

I do know if I was to do 80k, it would take me 16 hours on the elliptical machine 5000 steps based on my variant speed unless I was able to cheetah the heck out of it. 90 speed is the fastest it can go. But that would mean I would have to maintain 90 speed for hours and hours and hours with a peak performance of 158 to 180 which is not recommended by any cardiologist. They only recommend 30 minutes.

[RivalDealer]

I've been pretty shocked since I got mine, 10,000 steps seems a lot to me but I have been doing it, usually two 30min walks or a jog and a walk, then top it off at night if I need to.

I guess it's just a case of getting into the habit. If you spend 30mins in the morning walking or jogging before you do anything else then you are around halfway there, then walk at lunchtime or in the evening.

I work from home and it's a deskjob, 10 steps from my bedroom to my office 

[Brifit4life]

For me I work a full-time desk job, 7am-5pm M-Fri.. I get two Mondays off a month and every weekend off. For the days I work, here is what I do on days I want a lot of steps:

Morning: wake up early so I count more steps and walk the dog, by 7am: 2k+ steps

By the end of work day: took longer routes around office and try to move around every hour, at least get 100 steps in every hour. Walk on my 15 minute breaks which give me about 1500 steps each break: 4k-5k steps

By the time I get home and settled in I usually go straight to the gym and try to run at least 4-6 miles... by that time I am way over 10k steps... usally near 20k.. every mile I get about 1,500-2k steps in.. then I also walk my dog again before the night is over and I get another 1-1,200k steps there. Then cleaning the apartment and settling down gives me another 1k-2k steps. I have just learned to keep moving!!! If I want to get a lot more steps I start the morning with a 30 minute run or a 30 minute work out at lunch, that'll give me about 30k+ steps. Soon you will be getting 15k-20k easily. It took me almost a year to see the different ways I could get creative. The highest I have been is either 35k steps a day or close.

[dlraymer]

I work from home, so I don't have the mile walk to and from the train to the office everyday.  But I make sure I get 10000 every day.  Here is how I do it.  Walking around the house and up and down the stairs usually gets me 2000-5000.  I run for 30 minutes on the treadmill (I have a regular pedometer for that, fitbit doesn't track running in one place) and that gets me 5500.  I walk the dog once a day, and that usually gets me 3000.  If I go anywhere, I can usually get to 15000, and I have gotten to 20000 a couple times.  The only reason I walk the dog is because I need to to get to 10000.

[DominicJ]

Just because you work from home, doesn't mean you can't go for a walk before you start

[dobh]

Some days I hit over 14,000 and others I dont get past 4,000.  My average over a week is generally over 10,000 per day.  Does this matter or should i try to get in the 10,000 every day ( the days when I go way over are days when I play golf which gives me approx 12000 steps !

[Sharrons]

Well today was unusual it was my sick kids foundation walk 33km. but on average I do 14 to 15,000 as my job requires me to walk all day and I generally work 9hours a day

[Sharrons]

So anyone that does have a sick kids hospital in their area or country please consider donating it is a fantastic cause

[KNM]

Can we change our goal to make it higher than 10,000 steps? I hit 10,000 steps usually before 2:30 PM each day.

[BelleLeeGhetti]

I use to feel the exact same way! But you know I have found little ways to increase my steps through my day that quickly become habit and I barely notice. Park a little farther from the door. Go the long way around when you are looking for things at the mall. Just get up and move around a little during commercials or at the office. It really does add up! I am not hitting 20 000 by any means but I do my 10 000 with a lot less effort then before :). I SO WANT TO BE A 20 000 stepper LOL but one day at a time right?

[sintha]

You can change your goal on your dashoard steps tile just by clicking the settings. overall i find that depending on the type of work i am doing my step count changes. some days i can easily make 20k and other days i barely make my goal. I try not to worry about what other people are doing and instead make it about how i can do just a little bit more each day.

[uscgto]

yes you can.

I had 10,000 but thats not really a great step milestone. lol.

I changed it to 12,500. and on the weekend, I occasionally hit 18k-20k.

[Farica]

I'm on my feet most of the day, sometimes the step count seems to go up very quickly, sometimes not at all so I guess I'm not always moving my arms. I can get 6000-7000 fairly easily just doing chores but if I want 10,000 I have to make an effort to go for a longer walk at a serious pace. I was also wondering how 'normal' people find time to get higher counts. I used to walk twenty miles a day (which would be, what, an average of 40,000 steps? if I'd had Fitbit in those days) but that took literally the whole day, and I was very much younger.

[CherylMD]

I used to be a cleaner at an airport I am sure I would have gotten 10,000 steps in a shift, but I would have been way too tired to  walk after a shift, I have now retired and puchassed my fitbit. I do my first walk for the day at 5 a.m. walking an hour and 10 minutes where I get between 8,400-9,300 steps, I then do a second walk with my husband at 7 a.m. he is unable to do long walks due to health issues I clock up my 10,000 on this 15 minute walk, doing housework and gardening I clock up about 3,000 a day, I usually do another walk after lunch that takes me to 20,000 steps and sometimes up to 30,000. I found  the more I walked and became fittter the more I needed to walk. previous to the purchas of my fitbit I had only been walking 15-20 minutes a day, I just went further and further.

[GarryMillar]

My problem is ill health so any steps are great for me.....trying to build up to 10,000 but so far in the early 3,000 a long way to go

[Tave]

Also, be sure your stride length is correct in your settings.  Many people overlook this part of setup and just use the device out of the box.  If you measure and input your stride length, it will more accurately capture your steps.

[CherylMD]

3,000 steps is better than naught, that is actually how I got started it was my husband's health, he has COPD but had become very unfit because of the effort that walking took, with physio at the hospital and walking 1.3 klm every morning he has improved over 2 years I walked with him but eventually I went further and now do up to 20,00 and he is averaging 8,000 steps a day, he did reach 10,000 twice but it really takes it out of him. Good luck on your health and steps.

[sundance64]

In my opinion, 10,000 steps is a great goal, however, I think the best goal should be to improve your own numbers on a consistent basis and not be caught up in the number itself. I can achieve 10,000 steps if I take a 40-45 minute walk and stay active all day, however, my goal is to just keep improving. Each week I try to average a a few hundred to a thousand more steps than the week before. Eventually I'll hit a peak and the goal will be to simply stay as close to that number as I can on a regular basis. When I first started using step trackers years ago I remember realizing that getting 10,000 a day wasn't as easy as it sounded, it definitely takes extra effort if you don't make spefic time for exercise unless your job is walking all day as in retail. Don't worry about measuring up to anyone else, just be better than you were yesterday! 🙂 Good luck.