Daily Steps

For those who track steps, how many do you take in a day? I see MFP uses 10,000. My goal is 8,000 and my stretch is 10,000. Sometimes it's hard to get in 5,000 on busy meeting days at work. I'd love to hear how many you take and how you get there. Thanks.

Replies

mjglantz

I typically get around 15,000 steps M- Saturday. Sunday is a rest day so don't get as many. When I get up I walk around the house opening shades and just moving. By the time I get to the gym 9:30-ish I have about 3,000 and hit 10000 around noon. Every opportunity to walk I take and my Garmin reminds me to move every hour. Inefficiency is good; i.e., I'll take multiple trips up and down the stairs.

Fflpnari

I try to get 10,000 on my days off. I get 14-15K on days I work. Ive been taking walks on my day off to get to the goal

CarvedTones

10000 steps is between 4 and 5 miles for most people in full stride. I do my dedicated walks at ~4.2 mph and it takes me over an hour to hit 10000. Mine disqualifies a lot of short stuff around the house. I have over 10000 today from dedicated walks, but int the last three hours since I got in from my last walk I have been up and down the stairs a few times,walked around in the kitchen and laundry room and back up into a bedroom/office. It hasn't budged since I got home from the walk. Some watches count those, but they also get several steps from washing your hands or brushing your teeth. My wife is less active than I am and gets as many or more steps some days because her FitBit counts more motion as steps.

amyepdx

I try for 10k most weekdays and more on the weekends. First I get 5K before I leave work. That means a going to the restroom in the other building a and short walk at lunch. Then the rest with my evening exercise.

Goal195byAug17

I started to do 10k prior to work. Trying for a 5 mile walk before 8am.

rj0150684

My (minimum) goal is 12k/day with an average of around 16 and a target of 20.

serindipte

I currently have 3125 for today (at 9:20PM) .. I have a home daycare and take care of kids all day. I thought my regular daily steps would be higher, but I have to take a long walk to get up to my goal steps for a day.

becarrah

I understand OP. I too have heavy meeting days when it's hard to get steps in during the day. I have to get them in before or after work and since my work days plus commute can be 11 to 12 hours, I am challenged some days to get over 5,000 steps. My goal is 7,000 with a stretch goal of 10,000.

enickma1221

Same challenge here. Busy with meetings all day, and taking care of kids all evening. I'm thinking I need to invest in a treadmill for easy access.

Lounmoun

My minimum goal is 5,000. My goal is 7,000-8,000 steps.
I have a pedometer. It doesn't count hand movements or anything. It is easiest to reach my goal on an ordinary day at home if I walk briskly for 30 minutes to an hour right away in the morning and then just periodically throughout the day.

Lillymoo01

I average around 25,000 a day. I get up at 5:30 am and walk 1- 1.5 hours before I have to wake my daughter up for school. As a uni student I have a lot of walking to do around campus during the day on top of that. I also find I concentrate better when I do my required readings while on the treadmill.

viajera99

I have a little app called Recess (there are a ton of similar apps available) that reminds me to get off my computer every hour. I usually walk about 500 steps around the house before sitting back down. It can add up over the course of a day.

nooshi713

My steps are very variable. On a more sedentary day when I'm tied to my desk more I might get 4000. Most days I get around 8000. Some days I get 10000-15000 with exercise included.

peggym4640

Thanks for the feedback. This is helpful. It feels like I will need to incorporate before and after work walks to hit my goals.

busyPK

I try and get 10k a day. Sometimes it's 14k (including intentional workouts) and others it's 8k. I also work an office job so I walk/jog on my treadmill 3 days before work and the other 2 days I go to the gym after work.

Davidsdottir

I take a walk at lunch and then shovel my food into my face at my desk. Also, gym at 5 a.m.

LifeWithPie

I average around 5k. Because I'm mostly lazy and I drive a lot in my job. My preferred excercise is kayaking, so..no steps there but my arms look good!

maybe1pe

I'm currently averaging 15k. my goal is 12k a day.

I do 7500-8500 at work by walking on my breaks and at lunch, and just incidental up and down to the restroom and to get water and such.

I do weight training every other day which is about 1500-2000 steps just moving around to rearrange weight plates and whatever else.

Then I walk my dogs 1.5 - 2 miles every night.

Weekends I love to get out and hike and walk and go to the little shops so I can easily get above my goal.

The walks at work are what helps me the most.

I use a Fitbit and it does not count extra steps for just moving my arm when I'm doing other things. but I do have mine set so it says it's on my dominant hand... which I think helps?

sgt1372

Unless I'm going on a 5-10 mile hike, I barely walk more than 1k steps in a day.

This is because I'm retired and spend most of my time at home and usually don't have to walk anywhere except inside my house.

I make up for this by rowing 10k meters a day, which is located only 5 steps from my kitchen and 50 steps from my bedroom.

I burn 550 cals/day and get a, very efficient cardio & light full body workout doing this. I still supplement the rowing w/some weight lifting but I'm at a place where the lifting is no longer essential.

The point is that there a there are alternatives for those of you who can't don't take 10k steps/day. So, if you can't do that many, just find and implement an alternative form of exercise that will work for you instead.

choppie70

I am at about 18K a day. I am on my feet most of the day at work - I teach 3rd grade, so I am walking around the room a lot.

I do a short mile walk before work and then I do about 2 miles on the treadmill at night.

MJsStory

My goal on my Fitbit is 6000. If I am carrying something. Pushing something, or holding onto the railing while climbing stairs.... my steps don’t count. Since this is a majority of my day, I think it is counting just under half of my steps. The other day I recorded each time I used the stairs. I counted 1 trip up the down as 1 flight of stairs. Fitbit says I did 11 and I counted 25. That does not include the stairs at home.

ladybug4233

For the last four months my goal has been 6500. This does not include intentional exercise. The last week has been over 10k. Yesterday was 14k. Now my goal is 10k a day. I walk everywhere.

Psychgrrl

I go for 10,000 a day outside of exercise—just hit my one-year streak of at least 10,000 steps a day!). I work on a college campus and will take a longer route to meetings to sneak in steps, and my gym and yoga studio are within walking distance from work, so when I workout after work (most days) I get extra steps and call it my warm up. I also walk laps around my apartment complex (one lap is about 1000 steps). My “rule” is I can only watch new tv episodes when I’m walking.

I’m also lucky enough to live in Southern California where I can be outside year-round.

CarvedTones

choppie70 wrote: »

I am at about 18K a day. I am on my feet most of the day at work - I teach 3rd grade, so I am walking around the room a lot.

I do a short mile walk before work and then I do about 2 miles on the treadmill at night.

18k - about 7 to 9 miles. 3 miles outside school. So you walk around the classroom 4 to 6 miles a day?

peggym4640

Psychgrrl wrote: »

I go for 10,000 a day outside of exercise—just hit my one-year streak of at least 10,000 steps a day!). I work on a college campus and will take a longer route to meetings to sneak in steps, and my gym and yoga studio are within walking distance from work, so when I workout after work (most days) I get extra steps and call it my warm up. I also walk laps around my apartment complex (one lap is about 1000 steps). My “rule” is I can only watch new tv episodes when I’m walking.

I’m also lucky enough to live in Southern California where I can be outside year-round.

That’s amazing. Congrats on your streak.

Calliope610

I have a 8-5 desk job. That being said, my current FitBit average is 15,257 steps per day.

I set a goal of 1,000 steps per hour from 7am to 7pm - that gives me 12,000 step right there. I usually have over 1,000 steps by 8am, just getting ready for work. By noon, I "should" be at 5,000 steps. If I'm not, I get moving - even if it means pacing back and forth while on the phone or taking a quick lap around the building. Most evenings, I get in 2-3 miles while walking the dogs. That's another 4,000-6,000 steps.

Christine_72

I have a dog, just walking him twice a day, everyday gets me a minimum of 10,000 steps.

choppie70

CarvedTones wrote: »

choppie70 wrote: »

I am at about 18K a day. I am on my feet most of the day at work - I teach 3rd grade, so I am walking around the room a lot.

I do a short mile walk before work and then I do about 2 miles on the treadmill at night.

18k - about 7 to 9 miles. 3 miles outside school. So you walk around the classroom 4 to 6 miles a day?

Sure do! Between monitoring student work walking around the room, walking to the office/photocopier numerous times a day, walking my students to and from specials, and lunch, walking around during recess duty and motor breaks (we take our students for walks 2x a day - 2 laps each walk. 1 lap = 1/4 a mile ). We also do GoNoodle movement breaks during the day which gets everyone up and moving. Some days I can reach 10K by 1pm.

Of course I also get steps from cooking, cleaning, laundry (up and down 2 flights of stairs), and playing with my daughter each day.

saires_au

Goal is 10,000/ day but I’m generally 12000-15000 day. I work partime as a nurse, walk the kids to school and general daily activity, sometimes I go for a hike through the national park (maybe one a fortnight) and twice a week i do a group fitness class for an hour which often has periods of running between resistance exercises.

ACanadian22

My phone is set for 6k and my activity tracker is set for 10k. I try to go over 10k a day and do it at least 5 out of the 7 days a week