10,000 Steps really??????

RemarkablyUnremarkable

I have a general question about fitness. I am steadily losing from 2-2.65 pounds a week apprx. So I am losing, I am working out a minimum of 40 minutes a day. I am trying to build on that a little each week as well. I am fairly sedentary ( I think). I am a stay at home Mom of a five year old, the other kids are in various stages of education up to college. I also own my own business and work from home, much of what I do is on the computer.

My question is... Is 10,000 steps really the end all of how fit you are? When I worked at the hospital I did that and more. Now, I find it really hard to rack up the steps. My activity tracker goes off every 15 minutes and I am thinking, I am SMACK in the middle of a design UGH! I feel like in between sitting at the computer for work, then packing orders, house work, laundry, shopping, picking up kids I am constantly going from the moment I open my eyes until I collapse in the bed late night. My overall goal is to lose the excess weight and be fit. I want to be able to go on runs etc. Can an hour a day of working out get me there?

cwolfman13

RemarkablyUnremarkable wrote: »

I have a general question about fitness. I am steadily losing from 2-2.65 pounds a week apprx. So I am losing, I am working out a minimum of 40 minutes a day. I am trying to build on that a little each week as well. I am fairly sedentary ( I think). I am a stay at home Mom of a five year old, the other kids are in various stages of education up to college. I also own my own business and work from home, much of what I do is on the computer.

My question is... Is 10,000 steps really the end all of how fit you are? When I worked at the hospital I did that and more. Now, I find it really hard to rack up the steps. My activity tracker goes off every 15 minutes and I am thinking, I am SMACK in the middle of a design UGH! I feel like in between sitting at the computer for work, then packing orders, house work, laundry, shopping, picking up kids I am constantly going from the moment I open my eyes until I collapse in the bed late night. My overall goal is to lose the excess weight and be fit. I want to be able to go on runs etc. Can an hour a day of working out get me there?

No, it's a completely arbitrary guideline and has jack to do with how fit you are...someone in Japan or something pretty much literally pulled that number out of their *kitten*...

I don't get in 10K steps most days and I'm more fit than many people I know who do...I can go knock out 50 miles on my bike no problem, my buddy who obsesses about steps can't even come close...

tylervigen

To answer your other question: 10,000 steps is about 4.7 miles (assuming a 30in step). Jogging 4.7 miles at a leisurely pace would take less than an hour and would be an even better approach to the same goal.

Sued0nim

10k is a marketing tool

But it does make your activity level ...active ..which is significant calories to eat

That said why would you set your tracker to annoy you every 15 minutes

cerise_noir

For me, no. If I am sedentary I get 3k steps, but with 1 hour of walking I can bump that to 10k no problem.

everher

I see it like this - I work out because I am not really active much during the day.

I don't know if I've ever hit 10k steps in a day (outside of exercise). I have a desk job in which I have to be at my desk in order to do my job. There are times I get up to confer with someone else or get something I need, but for the most part I am at my desk all day for nine hours.

Still losing the weight and my fitness level is improving.

missmagnoliablossom

It's a weird measure. That's why I like my new Polar A300... getting to your "fitness goal" every day is a combo of steps, total active time, and workouts. Much more motivating to me than steps alone.

spiriteagle99

You might try taking your 5 year old for a one hour walk or bike ride every afternoon. On rainy/snowy days, dance together. That would break up your work day, concentrate your exercise, and leave you refreshed for finishing your orders. It would also teach your child the fun of getting regular exercise.

RAinWA

cwolfman13 wrote: »

RemarkablyUnremarkable wrote: »

I have a general question about fitness. I am steadily losing from 2-2.65 pounds a week apprx. So I am losing, I am working out a minimum of 40 minutes a day. I am trying to build on that a little each week as well. I am fairly sedentary ( I think). I am a stay at home Mom of a five year old, the other kids are in various stages of education up to college. I also own my own business and work from home, much of what I do is on the computer.

My question is... Is 10,000 steps really the end all of how fit you are? When I worked at the hospital I did that and more. Now, I find it really hard to rack up the steps. My activity tracker goes off every 15 minutes and I am thinking, I am SMACK in the middle of a design UGH! I feel like in between sitting at the computer for work, then packing orders, house work, laundry, shopping, picking up kids I am constantly going from the moment I open my eyes until I collapse in the bed late night. My overall goal is to lose the excess weight and be fit. I want to be able to go on runs etc. Can an hour a day of working out get me there?

No, it's a completely arbitrary guideline and has jack to do with how fit you are...someone in Japan or something pretty much literally pulled that number out of their *kitten*...

I don't get in 10K steps most days and I'm more fit than many people I know who do...I can go knock out 50 miles on my bike no problem, my buddy who obsesses about steps can't even come close...

All this is true, but if you are like me and have a sedentary job and really can't do much exercise, hitting a step goal is at least moving. I aim for 12k steps a day. I'm under no illusion that it makes me fit, but any movement is good for me. Outside of some very controlled rehab work I can't do much else right now. Someday....

Tacklewasher

My goal is 7500. ~2500 on the treadmill each morning, ~2500 throughout the day and 2500 either walking the dogs or more treadmill time. I hit it most days and some I go way over, but the 10K for me was not a daily achievable goal.

Spliner1969

Meh. I reset my daily goal to 5k. I work out 5x a week or more and burn plenty of calories but in the Winter I never get that many steps, hell I'm usually under that goal as well. If walking was your only form of exercise, then maybe 10k a day would be a good number to try and reach, but otherwise no, it's a totally made-up number that someone decided was a good round number. I've had doctors tell me "you should walk 30 minutes a day". Well, yea, in a perfect world I should probably. But in the summer I do much more than that, and in the winter I do cross training and body weight training so yea, it's just a stupid rule of thumb.

endlessfall16

10K steps is fitter than 9K which is fitter than 5k...and so on. Any moving is better than none and there's not one definition of "fit" for everyone. I would kill for my wife to do 10K step daily. If she did that she would be fitter than 80% of people I know. I don't care for walking. I can walk all day and it doesn't seem to have much impact on my wt and fitness. What seems to make a difference for me is 5-10 hours/week of 1-on-1 competitive tennis with peers of my age and level.

RemarkablyUnremarkable

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

You might try taking your 5 year old for a one hour walk or bike ride every afternoon. On rainy/snowy days, dance together. That would break up your work day, concentrate your exercise, and leave you refreshed for finishing your orders. It would also teach your child the fun of getting regular exercise.

Funny you mention that, she loves working out along side me LOL. Sometimes well do a DVD she likes trying to kickbox and has a couple of soft 2 pound weights for our lifting days. She is a pretty determined little workout buddy

SezxyStef

this is what I use it for...the 10k steps I mean

Per this article
1) <5000 steps.d (sedentary);
2) 5000-7499 steps.d (low active);
3) 7500-9999 steps.d (somewhat active);
4) > or =10,000-12,499 steps.d (active); and
5) > or =12,500 steps.d (highly active)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14715035

basically tells me how active I am most of the time unless it's a cooking day then it gets shot to hell...

for me I get about 4k in the winter at work...and I am trying everything, summer at work 6k (walk outside) around the building. If I am shopping on my lunch break about another 2k...

so it's the treadmill I go to get the 10k..mainly for the extra food.

mph323

I've been injured for the last 2 1/2 months and haven't been active at all - like some days I get less than 3K. My fitbit has started giving me pity calories for walking around the house - today I have a little over 2000 steps and 25 pity calories :-(

RemarkablyUnremarkable

RAinWA wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

RemarkablyUnremarkable wrote: »

I have a general question about fitness. I am steadily losing from 2-2.65 pounds a week apprx. So I am losing, I am working out a minimum of 40 minutes a day. I am trying to build on that a little each week as well. I am fairly sedentary ( I think). I am a stay at home Mom of a five year old, the other kids are in various stages of education up to college. I also own my own business and work from home, much of what I do is on the computer.

My question is... Is 10,000 steps really the end all of how fit you are? When I worked at the hospital I did that and more. Now, I find it really hard to rack up the steps. My activity tracker goes off every 15 minutes and I am thinking, I am SMACK in the middle of a design UGH! I feel like in between sitting at the computer for work, then packing orders, house work, laundry, shopping, picking up kids I am constantly going from the moment I open my eyes until I collapse in the bed late night. My overall goal is to lose the excess weight and be fit. I want to be able to go on runs etc. Can an hour a day of working out get me there?

No, it's a completely arbitrary guideline and has jack to do with how fit you are...someone in Japan or something pretty much literally pulled that number out of their *kitten*...

I don't get in 10K steps most days and I'm more fit than many people I know who do...I can go knock out 50 miles on my bike no problem, my buddy who obsesses about steps can't even come close...

All this is true, but if you are like me and have a sedentary job and really can't do much exercise, hitting a step goal is at least moving. I aim for 12k steps a day. I'm under no illusion that it makes me fit, but any movement is good for me. Outside of some very controlled rehab work I can't do much else right now. Someday....

For sure movement is good if not just for the circulation alone. My day is something like work on the computer 30 min to an hour, get up and make food for my daughter, run downstairs start laundry, vacuum, back to the computer and repeat. Housework taking care of her, letting dogs in and out etc. On the upside I have a two story house with a split level. Downstairs is laundry room and door to the backyard for the dogs. The second story is the bedrooms. So lots of stairs happening for me no matter the task.

RemarkablyUnremarkable

Great points and I can totally rack up "miles" spinning that my tracker doesn't even acknowledge. I guess I am getting to caught up in the numbers. I think I will turn off the move reminder, I mean I am up and down all day everyday between the family and fur family LOL! Thanks for all your input!!!

mph323

RemarkablyUnremarkable wrote: »

Great points and I can totally rack up "miles" spinning that my tracker doesn't even acknowledge. I guess I am getting to caught up in the numbers. I think I will turn off the move reminder, I mean I am up and down all day everyday between the family and fur family LOL! Thanks for all your input!!!

Lord yes, I turned off the reminder. I'm way too susceptible to guilt, even when coming from a machine :-(

mph323

If you want to be entertained, check out the forums on the fitbit site, especially the multiple-year threads titled "How Can Anyone Do [50,000, 80,000, some other random number] Steps In A Day?????" And people who join contests on the internet with people who may or may not exist, and complain that people are cheating.

RemarkablyUnremarkable

mph323 wrote: »

RemarkablyUnremarkable wrote: »

Great points and I can totally rack up "miles" spinning that my tracker doesn't even acknowledge. I guess I am getting to caught up in the numbers. I think I will turn off the move reminder, I mean I am up and down all day everyday between the family and fur family LOL! Thanks for all your input!!!

Lord yes, I turned off the reminder. I'm way too susceptible to guilt, even when coming from a machine :-(

Right? Ugh the tracker is taunting me, the 10,000 steps lingering in my head as what's "healthy." I am happy to know not everyone gets in the 10k steps and admits it ROFL!

RemarkablyUnremarkable

mph323 wrote: »

If you want to be entertained, check out the forums on the fitbit site, especially the multiple-year threads titled "How Can Anyone Do [50,000, 80,000, some other random number] Steps In A Day?????" And people who join contests on the internet with people who may or may not exist, and complain that people are cheating.

OMG this is hilarious! I'll have to take a peek. It will give me something to read with my morning coffee. Contest? No thanks, just knowing I am not hitting the magical 10k regularly makes me feel like a snail... I often wonder about people's "burn" they post about torching 1000's of calories a session. I guess I am better off sticking to challenging myself daily to improve and trying to not get caught up in the numbers right?