10,000 Steps In Addition To Regular Exercise

Penthesilea514

TavistockToad wrote: »

i get around 6000 steps on a normal work day, before any meaningful exercise. i also work out 5 x a week, running or biking, and a bit of walking, so i figure i am active enough!

I am the same- usually around 6000 steps in a normal workday before exercise.

DX2JX2

You can do both if you want to, but there's really no need.

I don't care about steps as long as I get at least 2.5-3 hours of moderate/intense exercise per week (30-40 minutes a day/5 days a week). Lo and behold, those exercise hours actually end up getting me to 10000+ steps per day since I generally run for my workouts.

livingleanlivingclean

I found a step counter on my phone, so have been carrying it around for a couple of days out of interest.... I struggle to get 10,000 steps, even adding stints on the treadmill to build up numbers. It makes me feel like I need to make more of an effort to move during the day, before exercising. (it did make me do a couple of extra classes at the gym to get more exercise!)

StarvingDiva

I know, I see a nutritionist and an exercise physiologist and the exercise physiologist said this to me, she's like how many steps are you getting in, I am like not much I work from home, so how many I get going up and down the stairs, or walking around the house. But then I'm like heres my workouts (almost 1.5 -2 hours a night depending on what I am doing) and she's like this is good, but I want you to get your steps to 10k as well. WTF?

DX2JX2

StarvingDiva wrote: »

I know, I see a nutritionist and an exercise physiologist and the exercise physiologist said this to me, she's like how many steps are you getting in, I am like not much I work from home, so how many I get going up and down the stairs, or walking around the house. But then I'm like heres my workouts (almost 1.5 -2 hours a night depending on what I am doing) and she's like this is good, but I want you to get your steps to 10k as well. WTF?

That generally sounds like a WTF but it could be that she's trying to get you to up your cardio conditioning. Any chance that the bulk of your workouts are resistance work?

KelGen02

my fitbit determines the difference between just taking steps and when I am truly active. I can have 5k steps from walking back and forth in the office but it will show 0 active minutes logged. I work a desk job so walk 30 minutes at lunch at a pretty decent pace and it will log that 30 minutes as active minutes or when I go to zumba for an hour it will log 60 active minutes and shows a higher calorie burn for those active minutes than it did for those 5k steps where I was just walking around the office. To me, just my little ole opinion, that 10K was just a number they came up with to get everyone more active... if you are taking 5k non active steps you are still burning more calories than you would while sitting on your couch so either way it benefits the user. I know, myself, that I am very competitive with this little rubber band on my arm so every time i go to the bathroom I walk in place and high knee it for a few minutes to get my steps in LOL... I don't manually put my exercise into MFP, my fitbit is synced and will make the adjustments for me. I try not to over complicate things, I kinda just go with the flow... the flow has seemed to work as I am down 70lbs so... Don't over think it, just go out there and be active!!!

StarvingDiva

DX2JX2 wrote: »

StarvingDiva wrote: »

I know, I see a nutritionist and an exercise physiologist and the exercise physiologist said this to me, she's like how many steps are you getting in, I am like not much I work from home, so how many I get going up and down the stairs, or walking around the house. But then I'm like heres my workouts (almost 1.5 -2 hours a night depending on what I am doing) and she's like this is good, but I want you to get your steps to 10k as well. WTF?

That generally sounds like a WTF but it could be that she's trying to get you to up your cardio conditioning. Any chance that the bulk of your workouts are resistance work?

I do both. I lift weights and do HIIT as well as walk with my friend 3 times a week. I do yoga on my two rest days.

MeanderingMammal

StarvingDiva wrote: »

I am like not much I work from home, so how many I get going up and down the stairs, or walking around the house. But then I'm like heres my workouts (almost 1.5 -2 hours a night depending on what I am doing) and she's like this is good, but I want you to get your steps to 10k as well. WTF?

The issue is that if you're concentrating your training into a short period there are some issues related to a lack of movement during the day. I'd disagree that you need to be aiming for 10K steps, but there is a lot of value in regular movement. There is a growing view that protracted sitting leads to some foreshortening around the hips and pelvic cradle, so getting up and doing a bit every hour is quite useful.

Difficult to know without determining the conversation but from your response above it would appear that you could do with more movement.

GottaBurnEmAll

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

StarvingDiva wrote: »

I am like not much I work from home, so how many I get going up and down the stairs, or walking around the house. But then I'm like heres my workouts (almost 1.5 -2 hours a night depending on what I am doing) and she's like this is good, but I want you to get your steps to 10k as well. WTF?

The issue is that if you're concentrating your training into a short period there are some issues related to a lack of movement during the day. I'd disagree that you need to be aiming for 10K steps, but there is a lot of value in regular movement. There is a growing view that protracted sitting leads to some foreshortening around the hips and pelvic cradle, so getting up and doing a bit every hour is quite useful.

Difficult to know without determining the conversation but from your response above it would appear that you could do with more movement.

^This.

Basically, we all need to move more throughout the day.

10,000 steps is arbitrary, but I try to hit it in addition to my intentional exercise because I've heard the news stories about how bad prolonged sitting is for us. The only way to counter the effects of prolonged sitting is to get up and move around more!

Machka9

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

StarvingDiva wrote: »

I am like not much I work from home, so how many I get going up and down the stairs, or walking around the house. But then I'm like heres my workouts (almost 1.5 -2 hours a night depending on what I am doing) and she's like this is good, but I want you to get your steps to 10k as well. WTF?

The issue is that if you're concentrating your training into a short period there are some issues related to a lack of movement during the day. I'd disagree that you need to be aiming for 10K steps, but there is a lot of value in regular movement. There is a growing view that protracted sitting leads to some foreshortening around the hips and pelvic cradle, so getting up and doing a bit every hour is quite useful.

Difficult to know without determining the conversation but from your response above it would appear that you could do with more movement.

Yes ...

When I was being set up in my office by our ergonomic assessor, she asked whether or not I got up once and hour to walk around a little, and how much exercise I got.

I told her that I exercised for at least 1 hour a day.

That's good, she said ... but that leaves 23 hours out of every day where you're just sitting.

Oh ... well if you put it like that, it doesn't look so good.

Now I walk as part of my commute, get up and climb stairs mid-morning, walk at lunch, do some more stairs mid-afternoon, walk as part of my commute home, and walk or cycle after work. Plus I try to get up at least once an hour throughout the evening to walk around the house.

StarvingDiva

Well now I work in an office (at the time of the conversation I worked from home) so I get up numerous times through out the day, mostly to wear a path to the bathroom from all the water I drink, or sometimes I walk over to the other buildings, but I am still not getting in 10k steps. Plus after my 2 hour workouts, all I have for energy is to go to bed. lol

mcraw75

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-ways-to-track-fitness,news-25357.html

Lounmoun

IsabeausRose wrote: »

I apologize ahead of time for not having links to back myself up but I'm on my phone. I've been reading articles online about this 10,000 steps a day theory and found out that it doesn't count towards the daily exercise we are supposed to get. It's just how active we are supposed to be in general. So our daily aerobic activity and regular strength training are supposed to be IN ADDITION to the 10,000 daily steps. This is quite a lot of movement every day. I'd like some educated opinions on this and to be corrected if what I read was wrong.

My opinion is that it is a guideline not a rule.
You should start with where you are and increase to an activity level that suits you and your goals best. Walking is not the only exercise so if you get less steps but are doing something that gets you to your goals then I wouldn't worry about it.
Moving for so many minutes a day is also a guideline.

olive1968

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

There is a growing view that protracted sitting leads to some foreshortening around the hips and pelvic cradle, so getting up and doing a bit every hour is quite useful.

I'm going to add my anecdotal evidence that I believe this to be true for me. I sit waaaay too much at work and have recently begun to realize this is the likely issue with my hip flexors and chronic hip pain.

Calichusetts

I do 10k easy during my day. Then a 30 minute cardio on an elliptical. Some days I get close to 20K

sgt1372

I only count steps in addition to my normal expected TDEE, which I list as sedentary or lightly active at most (depending on the calculator used).

I'm listed as "not very active" on MFP.

I recently started hiking early in the morning at a couple of local county parks. About 2.5-5 mile hikes for 1-2 hours involving about 6.5k-13k steps. This is all extra activity that I log to MFP.

Don't log any step activity otherwise.