50k Steps a day?
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ook_ga
Posts: 10 Member
Is anybody here in this club or knows somebody who is? Every time I see the leaderboards with people clearing 1.5 million monthly steps, I wonder how it's possible.
I injured my leg in November and received a FitBit for Christmas and thus haven't been able to monitor my "true" step count (what I'd be doing while training as I normally do). Still, running uses fewer steps than walking - so I wouldn't expect it to change too dramatically.
The fact that stride length is so easy to manipulate in the user settings makes me suspicious of some of those totals. But I'm willing to believe it's possible. Postmen? Soccer players? Inquiring minds, and all that
I injured my leg in November and received a FitBit for Christmas and thus haven't been able to monitor my "true" step count (what I'd be doing while training as I normally do). Still, running uses fewer steps than walking - so I wouldn't expect it to change too dramatically.
The fact that stride length is so easy to manipulate in the user settings makes me suspicious of some of those totals. But I'm willing to believe it's possible. Postmen? Soccer players? Inquiring minds, and all that
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It might be possible. Assuming that the person walks about 100 steps a minute, achieving 50,000 steps would take about 500 minutes (8.333 hours).
The numbers could be inflated though. Fitbit somehow counts me spiralizing vegetables or dramatically abducting/adducting my arms as steps, and I've heard of people who would put the tracker on their ankle and simply abduct/adduct their leg while standing to get steps.0 -
That's kind of why I'm not interested in participating in challenges with other people. If I'm only competing with myself, there's no point in cheating by doing things that look like steps but aren't. (Although, I'll admit, I do strive to keep my 7 day step count higher than my son's.)
I'm not sure that stride length has anything to do with it though. Setting that longer or shorter than one's actual stride length will affect the miles and calories burned estimates but won't affect the step count itself.
My highest step count so far is in the 20-25K range (I'm not sure of the exact number). I could see someone who has a job that involves walking pretty much all day achieving double that on a regular basis.0 -
This is why I don't participate in many challenges. They're too filled with FBS (Fitbit BS). Anytime the numbers don't shake out, it's pretty obviously FBS. That's ok. My conscience is clear at night and I don't have to sleep with theirs. I have a few friends who aren't on the FBS train, so I know our competitions are legit. Competitions with random people? Yeah, no.0
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I compete in challenges for fun. They motivate me. Once (on vacation) I got 35,000 steps in one day. Some people in the challenge didn't know I was on vacation walking all over and accused me of cheating. I'm trying to get fit not win any step bragging rights so it would not be in my best interest to cheat. Challenges have motivated me to get steps in though. One day my steps were low and I wasn't gonna work out so I walked to the store to return a Redbox movie instead of driving. Not in the challenge I doubt that even would have crossed my mind.0
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This is why I don't participate in many challenges. They're too filled with FBS (Fitbit BS). Anytime the numbers don't shake out, it's pretty obviously FBS. That's ok. My conscience is clear at night and I don't have to sleep with theirs. I have a few friends who aren't on the FBS train, so I know our competitions are legit. Competitions with random people? Yeah, no.
Perfectly said. I just recently deleted all of my fitbit friends. There were some that were getting an insane amount of steps in, and never answered when people asked how they did it..
I don't have an active job, don't need to walk at all. And the most steps I've ever gotten is 31,000. This literally took me from morning to night to achieve!0 -
Thanks for the input, everybody. I agree that it's not sensible to chase people obsessed with something so trivial, but I find some value in trying to keep up with someone similarly active.
I've been around ~19k the last few days, and that takes a long walk with the dogs and 40 minutes on the treadmill on top of my general skittering about. I've yet to see any ridiculous numbers in challenges with friends...if anything, I'll be the one accused of cheating! I just happened to join a few groups on the FB website and noticed those leaderboards had some crazy numbers up top.
I'm excited to see my steps and floor counts on hikes this summer. Even if avoiding competition with others, those cute badges are fun to collect
Somebody mentioned steps being counted while spiralizing vegetables? I might have to test that. I don't gain any steps flailing my arms around while stationary...are some models more sensitive than others? The ankle cheat just gives me the creeps...I don't even want to try that
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I have definitely gotten "steps" counted while folding laundry and while writing on the chalkboard when I'm teaching. It's usually a negligible amount when compared to daily totals, though.
My highest single day total was just over 20k and that was on vacation when we walked all over the place (Plus a little time on the treadmill at the end of the day to get to that nice round number).0 -
The highest I ever got was on Halloween, when I cleared 20K -- and even then, I paced a parking lot to get the last 1,500 or so because I really wanted to hit that number. I can't imagine hitting 50K regularly unless one was a really serious runner.
I don't know why FitBit shenanigans never occurred to me, though. I'm only friends with a few people that I know in real life, so I suppose that's a bit of it.0 -
Shenanigans is the perfect term. I've heard some people have a shorter running stride than walking, though in picturing such I chuckle. Running generally uses fewer steps. A 10 mile run takes me ~13 thousand steps, so they'd REALLY have to be getting out there every day.
I've been really close to 20k lately but haven't pushed to reach it. I did, however, go up and down some stairs a few extra times to get to 50 floors the other day haha. Only FBers...0 -
Sunday my highest number with 25,130 steps and that was while I was power golfing. I managed over 9 miles just golfing and the rest of the steps were from shopping and fiddling around the house. I average 16,000 most days. I have one FB friend who averages 25,000 a day and I have no idea how this is done.0
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Hi all I would love to know how people get steps that high on a daily basis. The most Ive been able to do in one day is the 30k steps and that was walking to kids to and from daycare twice (we forgot the lunches), going on a 10km walk with a friend after work and them doing another round of walking after the kids were in bed with the dogs. I was exhausted afterwards and struggled the next day to get even 10k in. P.s. Im one of the ones that wear my fitbit around my ankle (pushing a pram with it on my wrist wont count steps lol) it hasn't added any extras to date although I haven't tried it with running which might make a difference.0
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Sunday my highest number with 25,130 steps and that was while I was power golfing. I managed over 9 miles just golfing and the rest of the steps were from shopping and fiddling around the house. I average 16,000 most days. I have one FB friend who averages 25,000 a day and I have no idea how this is done.
I was hitting 25,000 steps regularly. I do 3,200 step blocks throughout the day which is 20 laps around my house/yard. It's been over 40C (106F) here nearly everyday lately, I struggle power walking in this weather!0 -
More isn't more, in this case. You get diminishing returns from additional walking, beyond a certain point. I've never seen the point of challenges -- I'm not competing with anyone, just wanting to stay active and make sure I'm not eating over my TDEE.0
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My husband is a postie (letter carrier) and averages 22,000 to 25,000 steps a day. He does have a little truck so isn't walking all day, but he was surprised he doesn't get more. He figures he is currently actively walking or running at least 2.5 - 4 hours each day. And he is tall with long strides, so a shorter person might take more steps to cover the same distance. He is using my old One, which only counts forward steps. It is slightly under counting.
I did wear the One on my shoe once when I was doing some standing work and wanted to see if it would count my side to side movements. It did count my steps, but also gave me a much higher calorie burn than I would have gotten wearing it in my pocket. And I'm a fidgeter, so I forgot it was on my shoe and was swinging my foot while having lunch. It counted every foot swing as a step. I think I got 5,000 or more in 10 or 20 minutes. But I don't have any Fitbit friends, so I wasn't cheating anyone but myself.0 -
It's possible, but unlikely in many circumstances. I've done a few 40k days, those usually involved a long walk of 10-12 miles taking about 2-2.5 hours, and then I was on my feet at work for another 7-8 hours.
15k seems to be my standard if I don't make an effort to go for a walk/run, aka most days where I just bike.
A really physical, walking based job could probably get someone a base steps daily of 30k, maybe as high as 50-60k if their job was walking walking all time...although I'm not sure if such a job exists.
Beyond that, it's either a dedicated effort to walk a ton during most of your free time hours or people that don't have a job and are, for whatever reason, motivated to walk a ton. My dad is retired now, but really hates the cold and is really sensitive to it, so he just does tons of walking in the house. Usually averages 50k-70k steps moving around the house over the day.
100k steps a day average is where I'd start to get suspicious. If you walk purposefully (120 spm) that would be 14 hours of walking per day. Even if you sleep just 6 hours a night, that only leaves 4 hours not walking including time to prepare meals, eat, shower, etc. It gets difficult for me to imagine a person that maintains that sort of routine day in, day out. More or less constant motion, with no real time sitting.
100k though as a one off for a day is perfectly reasonable though.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »This is why I don't participate in many challenges. They're too filled with FBS (Fitbit BS). Anytime the numbers don't shake out, it's pretty obviously FBS. That's ok. My conscience is clear at night and I don't have to sleep with theirs. I have a few friends who aren't on the FBS train, so I know our competitions are legit. Competitions with random people? Yeah, no.
Perfectly said. I just recently deleted all of my fitbit friends. There were some that were getting an insane amount of steps in, and never answered when people asked how they did it..
I don't have an active job, don't need to walk at all. And the most steps I've ever gotten is 31,000. This literally took me from morning to night to achieve!
So that's where you disappeared to when I looked to invite you to a hustle
When I take into account my stride length, I would have to almost walk a marathon to get 40k steps. I can see how it was possible as a rare occurrence, but not as a regular thing.0 -
mangrothian wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »This is why I don't participate in many challenges. They're too filled with FBS (Fitbit BS). Anytime the numbers don't shake out, it's pretty obviously FBS. That's ok. My conscience is clear at night and I don't have to sleep with theirs. I have a few friends who aren't on the FBS train, so I know our competitions are legit. Competitions with random people? Yeah, no.
Perfectly said. I just recently deleted all of my fitbit friends. There were some that were getting an insane amount of steps in, and never answered when people asked how they did it..
I don't have an active job, don't need to walk at all. And the most steps I've ever gotten is 31,000. This literally took me from morning to night to achieve!
So that's where you disappeared to when I looked to invite you to a hustle
When I take into account my stride length, I would have to almost walk a marathon to get 40k steps. I can see how it was possible as a rare occurrence, but not as a regular thing.
Naaw sorry. I was just getting so many invites, and I felt bad declining them. These challenges were starting to take over my life. I even cancelled a hairdresser appointment i had been looking forward to because I couldn't afford to sit down for a couple hours!
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A really physical, walking based job could probably get someone a base steps daily of 30k, maybe as high as 50-60k if their job was walking walking all time...although I'm not sure if such a job exists.
I've got a friend who works on the floor at Target and you can definitely tell which days she's at work - she routinely tops 30k steps on those days.
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I think the vast majority of people are participating legitimately in FitBit and I find challenges to be incredibly fun and motivating. It's not out of the realm of possibility to earn insanely high badges (100,000+) and in fact I hope to earn some big badges in time. However, I would personally have to walk for 10 hours straight as fast as I can to earn such a badge. Possible? Absolutely! Doing that DAILY would not be feasible for me, but I'm an obese asthmatic. I can imagine a scenario where someone could accumulate 40-60,000 a day, between purposeful walks and being active on your feet all day. Imagine someone training for a 10k or training for a marathon. Lots of scenarios could get you some big step counts, but most people are not that active. Look for friends with similar weekly averages! You'll motivate each other to get more steps if the challenge is close.0
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Christine_72 wrote: »Sunday my highest number with 25,130 steps and that was while I was power golfing. I managed over 9 miles just golfing and the rest of the steps were from shopping and fiddling around the house. I average 16,000 most days. I have one FB friend who averages 25,000 a day and I have no idea how this is done.
I was hitting 25,000 steps regularly. I do 3,200 step blocks throughout the day which is 20 laps around my house/yard. It's been over 40C (106F) here nearly everyday lately, I struggle power walking in this weather!
Well done. I need to step of my game. My legs are aching just thinking about it. LOL Walk strong!
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