Newbie looking for guidance from weight losers

[Ainya]

I am a newbie and loving fitbit so far but wondering how much really should be doing to lose weight.

I am hitting my 10k a day but is this really enough to lose weight. I am seeing posts where people are doing 20K plus a day. what have others done who have lost a lot of weight.

Also how many floors do people do.

thank you in advance

[shipo]

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@Ainya wrote:

I am a newbie and loving fitbit so far but wondering how much really should be doing to lose weight.

I am hitting my 10k a day but is this really enough to lose weight. I am seeing posts where people are doing 20K plus a day. what have others done who have lost a lot of weight.

Also how many floors do people do.

thank you in advance

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For some folks, 10,000 walking steps per day is enough to generate weight loss, for other folks, myself included, I rather doubt 20,000 walking steps per day would make much of a difference.  The above said, I have found a healthy mix of walking AND running (very slowly and almost always on dirt or grass) a total of 20,000-25,000 steps per day triggered the weight loss I was looking (and hoping) for.

As a suggestion, look around the internet for a "Couch to 5K" (C25K) program which sounds doable to you.  Should you decide to go that route, let me know, I have coached many folks through such a program and have some key suggestions which may help.

Keep us posted on your progress.

[Ainya]

Thanks. So at least double what i am doing now. good to know but not sure how i fit that into my day. I think i will keep at 10K for this month (only started last week) and then 12 k august 14k september etc. i will eventually get there i hope and hoping i get faster as have noticed even after a week i am a little faster.

[SunsetRunner]

Diet is very, very important.    Are you following a plan?   Counting calories?

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@Ainya wrote:

I am a newbie and loving fitbit so far but wondering how much really should be doing to lose weight.

I am hitting my 10k a day but is this really enough to lose weight. I am seeing posts where people are doing 20K plus a day. what have others done who have lost a lot of weight.

Also how many floors do people do.

thank you in advance

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[JohnRi · Accepted solution]

10-15K is enough for most people  That's all I do and I've lost almost 75 lbs. 

I walk 4-6 miles a day, and lift weights three days a week.

You got to watch out for @shipo, he eats a TON of food, and has to exercise a ton to be able to do it.  While I appreciate his determination to exercise, and EAT whatever he wants, it's not an approach for most of us mere mortals.

I used to eat 1800 calories, raised it 2100, and I'm raising it again to 2300.  But I'm nearing the end of my weight loss journey.  I'm 23 lbs away from my first goal.  And about 8-13 lbs after that is my final goal.

I've hit 20,000 steps 8 times, 25,000 steps twice, and 30,000 steps.  I was 281, now I'm around 206.

So as long as you keep your diet in control, and do the steps, most people lose weight. 

You either have to eat less, or exercise more!

[Ainya]

Thanks Kathy

Have a plan with target portions of food groups per day - it's about 1500 calories and am going to weight my portions regularly. I aim to eat every 3/4 hours. Having a good plan isn't the problem - it's carrying out out.

[Ainya]

Thanks John. Am relieved. 10-15k sounds doable and then maybe aim for more at weekend at least one day . And well done you - what an amazing achievement - I will follow your lead.

[connyc7]

I think it's very individual.

For someone sedentary, to walk 10k is huge!  It's about 5 miles.  For other people it might not be a big deal and for someone with an active job (waitress, postman etc) they might do way more than that and not consider it exercise.  

Please ignore anyone telling you you must do at least 20-25k a day without knowing anything about you in terms of fitness levels or personal circumstances.  I think that can be very discouraging to anyone new to walking.  That's over 3 hours of walking if you assume you do a mile in 20 minutes.

If you are getting to 10k comfortably, why not do gradual increases... 12k, 14k etc.  Just generally make better choices.  Don't drive to the supermarket/post office etc if you can walk, park further away from any entrance etc.

The old adage of "you can't outrun a bad diet" is very true.  A 90 min walk gains me about 600 calories, but that's very easily undone by careless eating.

Just do your best and don't compare yourself to anyone else. x

[A_Lurker]

Being active is important, but diet is the most important part of losing weight.  I'm down almost 60 pounds since February and I rarely hit 10,000 steps.  Until I lose more weight I doubt my knees would take any more.  Now, I do them spread out during the day, walking as quickly as possible.  I also lift weights, and some of those steps are done carrying things (ie. yard work).  Keeping an eye on what I eat makes the weight loss happen.

[FitBeforeFifty]

I would consider 10k steps light activity. I've had a really bad day today and only have 5250 steps just following my normal office worker routine. It's 7:00pm. If I wanted to get to 10,000 steps, I would need to go out for a leisurely walk. To me, that's still a fairly sedentary lifestyle with light to moderate exercise (personally, I don't think a leisurely walk is exercise, but I'm probably in the minority with that opinion).

In fact, my whole week has been like this regarding exercise and I feel like crap.

Like @shipo, I feel like I need to be in the 15,000+ range to feel like I'm actually active.

Yes, I could lose weight at 10k steps or even 5k steps if I'm willing to eat like a bird, but I wouldn't be fit and I would still consider myself a coach potato.

[shipo]

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@connyc7 wrote:

Please ignore anyone telling you you must do at least 20-25k a day without knowing anything about you in terms of fitness levels or personal circumstances.  I think that can be very discouraging to anyone new to walking.

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I don't think anybody has said 20,000-25,000 steps per day is a "must", so please don't go putting words in he posts of others.

For my part I said some can achieve weight loss with as little as 10,000 steps per day, others cannot even come close.  For me personally, like @FitBeforeFifty correctly states, unless I log 15,000 steps at a bare minimum, I feel like a couch potato; even 20,000-25,000 seems thin on some days.

In the end it is all about balance; you balance the food you eat, the activities you engage in, and pretty much everything else in your life style, and you will lose or maintain weight.

[shipo]

@Ainya, one further thought on steps and walking and running.  If I read correctly, one of the concerns you have is trying to find the time to put in more steps.  I don't know if you consider running an option, but if you do, running not only burns more calories per step (generally speaking), and because of the increased cadence, running allows you to log more steps in any given period of time.

Then again, if running is not something you see in your future, please disregard the above.  🙂

[Dominique]

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@Ainya wrote:

I am hitting my 10k a day but is this really enough to lose weight.

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There is no automatic relationship between step count and weight loss. Your step count is merely a general indicator of activity. What you need for weight loss is a caloric deficit. You can create such a deficit by eating less, moving more, or a combination of both (or eating more, but moving even more). Generally speaking nutrition has a bigger impact on weight loss than physical activity. This doesn’t mean activity doesn’t matter (it’s important for many other reasons), but it will mostly support your efforts with nutrition, not the other way round.

[MaryVE]

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@Ainya wrote:
Having a good plan isn't the problem - it's carrying out out.

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For me it was a commitment and a lifestyle change.  I lost 60 pounds on LoseIt! several years ago and am  successfully keeping it off, but it's a daily commitment.  Perhaps you just aren't ready yet.

[Dominique]

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@Ainya wrote:

I am seeing posts where people are doing 20K plus a day.

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Don’t pay too much attention about what others are doing. You may also want to start the Premium membership (you can try it for free for seven days). One of its features is benchmarking: it will let you see what the total Fitbit population is doing. You will notice the 20K+ folks are just a very tiny minority within the total population.

[FitBeforeFifty]

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@Dominique wrote:

Don’t pay too much attention about what others are doing. You may also want to start the Premium membership (you can try it for free for seven days). One of its features is benchmarking: it will let you see what the total Fitbit population is doing. You will notice the 20K+ folks are just a very tiny minority within the total population.

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I have premium and you are correct. I'm in the 99th percentile based on my activity level and I'm not quite up to an average of 20k per day. On the other hand, the median is less than 7k steps per day which is (in my opinion) relatively sedentary. So, maybe everyone shouldn't start with a goal of 20k steps. Having said that, I don't think the average/median is a worthy goal because the average (or at least the median) is not something I would aspire to.

The main point I'm trying to make here is that the 10K goal isn't really something to celebrate -- it should be consider the minimum.

[A_Lurker]

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@FitBeforeFifty wrote:

The main point I'm trying to make here is that the 10K goal isn't really something to celebrate -- it should be consider the minimum.

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The goal is that you should be more active than you were when you started.  And type of activity matters as well.  I tend to measure myself against 45-55, men and women, who are obese.  This is the category I belong in.  Based on steps I'm only in the 59th percentile, however, based on very active minutes I'm in the 91st percentile.  In fact, kind of scary, compared to all users I'm in the 86th percentile on very active minutes.

Depending where you start, 10,000 steps might not be achievable to all.  So where you see it as a minimum, others may see it as a goal to celebrate.  I know we're all responsible for where we are, however, consider adding 100-150 lbs on your back and trying those same minimum 10,000 steps.  I know I sound a little touchy, but honestly, I hit 10,000 steps twice in the last 7 days.  I might do better on the coming weekend, and I might not.  Kind of tired of continually hearing the subliminal message that if people don't do that 10k+ that they're not doing enough.  And how many people post here about doing 15,000 steps and not losing weight?

If you're new to all this, get your food intake in order and move more than you have been.  It's really that simple.  There's no magic number of steps that's going to have the weight melt off.

[dogenzenji]

Hi there. Most days I hit the 10k and beyond with the help of the dogs. I try to mix it up a bit with exercise adding swimming and cycling and weights. Personally I think active minutes are your best bet. I also swear by whey, replacing my lunch with a protein shake and eat normally at dinner. For me the combination of more mixed exercise added protein and counting calories to keep below 2000 most days seems to be working. Everyone is different though. Good luck!