10000 steps

Bunch of random thoughts:

(1) You don't need to exercise to lose weight. You should, but you don't have to. Weight loss comes from eating fewer calories than you burn. Exercise means you can eat more and still lose weight; no exercise means you eat less to lose weight.

(2) As far as I can tell, there's nothing magic about the number 10,000; it's a target to motivate couch potatoes to move around a bit.

(3) MFP gives out too many calories for exercise, it's wildly inaccurate. In my experience with cycling it's about 2x. Many people only eat back half their exercise calories because of this.

(4) You're right that walking isn't intensive exercise. Some people can tolerate higher stress like running and lifting weights, but not everybody can. Walking, mostly people can do.

Personally, I walk because I enjoy it. I don't pay attention to how many steps I get because I don't consider it "real" exercise. I also ride a bike about 100 miles in a typical week, run occasionally, and hike on the weekends.

10,000 is just a target to make sure you move around a decent amount in daily life. It works for me -- I try to get that without exercise, and then exercise in addition (of course, when I run I don't know for sure what the steps from other movement was, but I can estimate -- it's mainly important for me on rest days, and then I just try not to reduce non exercise activities on other days). I don't try to estimate calories burnt that closely, but average out my activity over the week, since I tend to be reasonably consistent week to week (days vary a lot).

Do you put gasoline back in your car after you drive it?

Walking is very good for general health - anything over 5K a day - Don't count on it for weight loss - calories are usually overestimated. I've done 4,897,437 steps in 3 years.

My trainer says running is bad for most people - especially if overweight- wrecks the knees - and lots of people run in the wrong way - makes it worse

Crabcruncher,
Walking is good for someone that is starting out or has knee problems or something like that. I'm a runner and love the feeling afterwards plus the benefit of having ability to up my daily calorie goal. If you truly want to know what you are burning per exercise I would invest in a heart monitor and link it to MFP. But just remember not to eat back your calories. The true and only way that you will lose and keep it off is to exercise, eat cleanly and stick to a meal plan that you can live with because it's a life style change and not a diet that works and last. Feel free to add me to your friend list.

I walked 7 miles just while on a shift at work and it doesn't help my weight loss. I have no car or access to public transport and walk at least 10 miles a day. I never eat my calories back. It would be pointless burning them off if I did.

srecupid wrote: »

I live in a small town with no car and a job where i'm on my feet all day. Some days I don't get to 10k steps. I don't know how anyone with a desk job that didn't intentionally walk alot would get to 10k.

It's very hard - three years ago - I worked at home with a desk job, and could get to 8K a day, sometimes 10K. Now my hours are more fixed and I have a hard time getting 5K - made harder that I now go to the gym three times a week.

srecupid wrote: »

I live in a small town with no car and a job where i'm on my feet all day. Some days I don't get to 10k steps. I don't know how anyone with a desk job that didn't intentionally walk alot would get to 10k.

I walk to the L in the morning, get in just a small amount at lunch and often have a meeting or something that I walk to (within downtown), and then walk home from the L, and that gets me almost there. If I detour for errands (like shopping) or get off a stop or two early (or on a stop or two late) or simply end up with a long wait that I deal with by pacing back and forth across the platform, that, plus my misc steps throughout the day, is 10,000+.

Obviously it's easier if I go to the gym or walk to swimming or, best of all, run. The only times I have trouble are when I bike to work--I almost never get 10,000 then.

lemurcat12 wrote: »

srecupid wrote: »

I live in a small town with no car and a job where i'm on my feet all day. Some days I don't get to 10k steps. I don't know how anyone with a desk job that didn't intentionally walk alot would get to 10k.

I walk to the L in the morning, get in just a small amount at lunch and often have a meeting or something that I walk to (within downtown), and then walk home from the L, and that gets me almost there. If I detour for errands (like shopping) or get off a stop or two early (or on a stop or two late) or simply end up with a long wait that I deal with by pacing back and forth across the platform, that, plus my misc steps throughout the day, is 10,000+.

Obviously it's easier if I go to the gym or walk to swimming or, best of all, run. The only times I have trouble are when I bike to work--I almost never get 10,000 then.

Yeah it's not hard if you are walking alot anyway. I bet you don't live right next door to the train station though. I definitely wouldn't want to live near one of those rickety old trains.It's not particularly hard if you are doing something else while getting the steps (errands, walking to the train stop etc) but, if you work a desk job and drive both ways to work like alot of people it's difficult. 10k steps is like 5 miles. I can walk 16-17 minute miles. So at the best it would take 80 minutes to get my steps in. You sleep 8 hours a day and if you work 8 hours a day squeezing in 80 minutes for a 5 mile walk isn't exactly efficient.

I'm a desk-jockey myself but fortunate to live about 5km/3miles from my house to my office, and its a nice walk. So my "commute" to work there & back on foot, as well as zipping around the office, pop into town for lunch can easy rack up 15,000 steps. Not only that, I'm in a great part of the UK, all flat, near the river. Looks like this...