Steps or Miles?
ReenieHJ
Posts: 9,724 Member
When I used the treadmill I relied on miles but find it hard to do when I'm out walking, unless I've mapped out the exact mileage to places. I have a step/mile counter(nothing fancy) but cannot seem to adjust it correctly to my stride; I've tried to match it to what I was walking on the TM and it always came up 1/4 mile or so different.
So my question is do you use steps as a measurement? Is your goal 10K; is that accurate when they say it's equal to 5 miles?
I feel I shouldn't put that much thought into this and simply get out to walk. But I need a better idea if I'm walking 3.5 or 4 mph, or walking 2, 3, 4 miles, etc. Don't ask me why. It really doesn't matter that much because my body will know the difference.
Thanks!
So my question is do you use steps as a measurement? Is your goal 10K; is that accurate when they say it's equal to 5 miles?
I feel I shouldn't put that much thought into this and simply get out to walk. But I need a better idea if I'm walking 3.5 or 4 mph, or walking 2, 3, 4 miles, etc. Don't ask me why. It really doesn't matter that much because my body will know the difference.
Thanks!
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Replies
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GPS ?
Also you have to take into account that your stride may actually be quite different when you're walking outside as compared to when you're walking on the treadmill.
You could use a phone app with GPS (Fitbit without a band, Strava, map my walk, all three even at once with a full battery--they tend to use different smoothing) and compare to your counter. After a few samples you can continue to rely on just the counter.
Alternatively you could go to a track and walk a few samples of the known distance with your counter4 -
I always get about 2000 steps per mile. But my stride may be different than yours. Could you map off a mile and see how many steps you get walking it, and use that for your go-to number?0
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In the past 6 months (according to my handy spreadsheet) I have walked 2,965,395 steps totaling 1369.4 miles meaning I average 2165 steps per mile. Those are totals so it includes inside and outside steps and some of that was dog walking which throws it off too.2
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I find my stride length to be fairly correct overall, especially over longer walks. Of course if I just stroll around, stop somewhere and then walk on it's rather off. For everyday, or shorter distances I only use steps. For everything longer I use my stride.0
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Why not get a free GPS app for your phone, such as Runkeeper or MFP's own MapMyWalk? Personally, I prefer Runkeeper of the two, but either will get the job done. Then you'll know precisely how far you've walked, and it'll also give you other useful info such as pace.
In the absence of GPS, my recommendation would be to map off a perfect mile someplace, walk it, and count your steps. Then do it again another day and average the two numbers, because there will be some natural fluctuation. Then you'll know how many steps equals one mile. For me, it's usually 2030-2040, whereas a person with a typical 30" stride should hit 2112. Some pedometers will let you adjust the stride length so you can get a more precise distance calculation out of it, but steps are always going to be approximate. If you want true precision, go with GPS.2 -
If you can use a GPS app on your phone, that would be great. There are tons of free ones (I use Runkeeper). Otherwise a measured track (in addition to an actual running track at a high school/college, many parks or other paths in my area often have distance/mile markers) can give you a better idea of your step count per mile.
I average about 2400 steps per mile between running and walking (walking is higher than 2400). So 10k isn’t 5 miles for me. It could be more or less than 5 miles for you.
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You could also map out your route on mapmyrun before or after your walk. I did that for a long time before I got my Garmin watch. I find that terrain makes a difference in how many steps per mile I am taking, as well as pace. Running I do less than 2000 steps per mile, walking it is somewhat more. When I am on vacation and doing a lot of walking without using my Garmin, I'll use the 2000 steps as an average, but subtract 2 miles as incidental, not deliberate exercise.0
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quiksylver296 wrote: »I always get about 2000 steps per mile. But my stride may be different than yours. Could you map off a mile and see how many steps you get walking it, and use that for your go-to number?
That's close enough for practical purposes.
Around 250 BC Eratosthenes, head librarian of Alexandria, measured the size of the earth. He knew that in one city, there was a well that cast no shadow at noon on the summer solstice - the sun was directly overhead. At his library at noon on the same day, the sun cast a shadow at 7* or about 1/50th of a full circle. All that was left was to measure the distance between the cities, and they didn't have GPS back then. He hired somebody to walk between the cities and count steps (actually paces) using 2,000 steps as a mile. He was correct to within about 2.5%.
You can use GPS for a more precise result. Everybody has a different stride length which varies over time and up or down hill and on different kinds of surfaces, so even measuring your stride isn't exact. But assuming 2,000 steps to a mile, which is the original definition of a mile*, is close enough for diet purposes.
* Mile comes from mil, for thousand, like millimeter or milliliter. A mile was defined as a thousand paces, and a pace is two steps - one with each foot.9 -
spiriteagle99 wrote: »You could also map out your route on mapmyrun before or after your walk. I did that for a long time before I got my Garmin watch. I find that terrain makes a difference in how many steps per mile I am taking, as well as pace. Running I do less than 2000 steps per mile, walking it is somewhat more. When I am on vacation and doing a lot of walking without using my Garmin, I'll use the 2000 steps as an average, but subtract 2 miles as incidental, not deliberate exercise.
Why only deliberate exercise? If my car breaks down somewhere without cell reception and I have to walk ten miles to call for help, do those miles not burn calories because I didn't intend to walk them (ie they weren't deliberate)?5 -
Why not get a free GPS app for your phone, such as Runkeeper or MFP's own MapMyWalk? Personally, I prefer Runkeeper of the two, but either will get the job done. Then you'll know precisely how far you've walked, and it'll also give you other useful info such as pace.
In the absence of GPS, my recommendation would be to map off a perfect mile someplace, walk it, and count your steps. Then do it again another day and average the two numbers, because there will be some natural fluctuation. Then you'll know how many steps equals one mile. For me, it's usually 2030-2040, whereas a person with a typical 30" stride should hit 2112. Some pedometers will let you adjust the stride length so you can get a more precise distance calculation out of it, but steps are always going to be approximate. If you want true precision, go with GPS.
I'm a non-techie with a flip phone that has served me well for over 13 years.
I have mapped out a couple routes but like to try other ones too. Count my steps for a whole mile??? You should see how often I lose count of things just because I get easily distracted. I'm lucky to reach 100.
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Why not get a free GPS app for your phone, such as Runkeeper or MFP's own MapMyWalk? Personally, I prefer Runkeeper of the two, but either will get the job done. Then you'll know precisely how far you've walked, and it'll also give you other useful info such as pace.
In the absence of GPS, my recommendation would be to map off a perfect mile someplace, walk it, and count your steps. Then do it again another day and average the two numbers, because there will be some natural fluctuation. Then you'll know how many steps equals one mile. For me, it's usually 2030-2040, whereas a person with a typical 30" stride should hit 2112. Some pedometers will let you adjust the stride length so you can get a more precise distance calculation out of it, but steps are always going to be approximate. If you want true precision, go with GPS.
I'm a non-techie with a flip phone that has served me well for over 13 years.
I have mapped out a couple routes but like to try other ones too. Count my steps for a whole mile??? You should see how often I lose count of things just because I get easily distracted. I'm lucky to reach 100.
Your step counter is already, well, counting steps.
Note the total when you start the mile, when finished note the total again. Subtract.
Now you know your steps per mile, and can math out a stride length to use.
I'd suggest to think about the purpose of the counter and distance - is it for exercise walks only - then go at that pace.
If it's for the daily steps and distance - go at a slower pace that is closer to average daily pace, not exercise level pace.
Steps / 5280 feet = decimal feet stride length. (meaning like 2.4 is 2 ft but not 4 inches, but 0.4 x 12 = inches, depending on what your counter wants as a figure)2 -
NorthCascades wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »I always get about 2000 steps per mile. But my stride may be different than yours. Could you map off a mile and see how many steps you get walking it, and use that for your go-to number?
That's close enough for practical purposes.
Around 250 BC Eratosthenes, head librarian of Alexandria, measured the size of the earth. He knew that in one city, there was a well that cast no shadow at noon on the summer solstice - the sun was directly overhead. At his library at noon on the same day, the sun cast a shadow at 7* or about 1/50th of a full circle. All that was left was to measure the distance between the cities, and they didn't have GPS back then. He hired somebody to walk between the cities and count steps (actually paces) using 2,000 steps as a mile. He was correct to within about 2.5%.
You can use GPS for a more precise result. Everybody has a different stride length which varies over time and up or down hill and on different kinds of surfaces, so even measuring your stride isn't exact. But assuming 2,000 steps to a mile, which is the original definition of a mile*, is close enough for diet purposes.
* Mile comes from mil, for thousand, like millimeter or milliliter. A mile was defined as a thousand paces, and a pace is two steps - one with each foot.
Just wanted to say that I totally enjoyed this post.4 -
NorthCascades wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »I always get about 2000 steps per mile. But my stride may be different than yours. Could you map off a mile and see how many steps you get walking it, and use that for your go-to number?
That's close enough for practical purposes.
Around 250 BC Eratosthenes, head librarian of Alexandria, measured the size of the earth. He knew that in one city, there was a well that cast no shadow at noon on the summer solstice - the sun was directly overhead. At his library at noon on the same day, the sun cast a shadow at 7* or about 1/50th of a full circle. All that was left was to measure the distance between the cities, and they didn't have GPS back then. He hired somebody to walk between the cities and count steps (actually paces) using 2,000 steps as a mile. He was correct to within about 2.5%.
You can use GPS for a more precise result. Everybody has a different stride length which varies over time and up or down hill and on different kinds of surfaces, so even measuring your stride isn't exact. But assuming 2,000 steps to a mile, which is the original definition of a mile*, is close enough for diet purposes.
* Mile comes from mil, for thousand, like millimeter or milliliter. A mile was defined as a thousand paces, and a pace is two steps - one with each foot.
Just wanted to say that I totally enjoyed this post.
Ditto^.1 -
Steps or miles for what? Is this for logging exercise in MFP or just because you'd like to know, for personal achievement, how far you've walked each day?
I know, because I've mapped it and also got the info from multiple sources, that it's exactly 1 mile from my house to a particular doctor's surgery. On a couple of occasions, I timed how long it takes me to walk that route. Normally it's 20 minutes but if I speed up it takes 15-17 minutes. So, my normal pace is 3mph and my brisk walk is 3.5-4mph. For logging my walks as exercise on MFP, I select the speed that I walked at (3mph or 3.5mph) and the length of time that I walked for. If I think I was really pushing it, I'll select 4mph. I set the stopwatch on my phone as I leave the house and stop it when I get back.
And I don't have a goal for steps, miles, whatever. I just go for a walk every day to get out of the house and get the newspaper. I'm getting plenty of exercise at the moment doing gardening but I like going for a walk.3 -
NorthCascades wrote: »spiriteagle99 wrote: »You could also map out your route on mapmyrun before or after your walk. I did that for a long time before I got my Garmin watch. I find that terrain makes a difference in how many steps per mile I am taking, as well as pace. Running I do less than 2000 steps per mile, walking it is somewhat more. When I am on vacation and doing a lot of walking without using my Garmin, I'll use the 2000 steps as an average, but subtract 2 miles as incidental, not deliberate exercise.
Why only deliberate exercise? If my car breaks down somewhere without cell reception and I have to walk ten miles to call for help, do those miles not burn calories because I didn't intend to walk them (ie they weren't deliberate)?
Can't speak for spiriteagle, but many have MFP set up to include regular daily incidental miles (i.e., walking to the L and back, walking to the store or other daily errands) in their activity level (lightly active or whatnot) and then log additional exercise, included added long walks. (The 2 miles mentioned as being deducted would probably be included even within a sedentary set up.)
That's why -- as someone who does not synch a step tracker with MFP -- I would not track and log all mileage in a day, just that over my normal daily total. (Walking 10 miles to call for help would of course be counted, but I wouldn't consider that incidental, even if it was an unplanned and irritating event. I've gone on planned 3 mile runs and gotten lost and ended up running 6 miles, and of course all 6 counted.)2 -
Anyway, to answer the question in the OP:
I would either synch a step tracker, so you don't have to worry about converting steps to miles, or download an app like Runkeeper (which is my preferred one too) or MapMyRun.
Before I had GPS (in the olden days), I counted miles when running around the neighborhoods by counting blocks. A real city block here (not street to street but say 1200 W to 1100 W) is 1/8 of a mile, so if I ran, say, 4 blocks west, 4 blocks north, 4 blocks east, and 4 blocks south that was 2 miles. As an alternative to this, I knew how far I was using my favorite route to the lake path and that has mile markers. Many cities have a regular pattern like this, but of course many do not. An alternative might be to have a planned walk based on markers and measure it out in advance, but GPS would be much easier!
Oh [edit, as another poster above suggested], just time yourself walking a known 3 mile route (or whatever your mileage of choice) and then after that go by time if you normally can walk around the same speed.0 -
Thanks everybody, lots of good ideas on how to go about this now. 1
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NorthCascades wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »I always get about 2000 steps per mile. But my stride may be different than yours. Could you map off a mile and see how many steps you get walking it, and use that for your go-to number?
That's close enough for practical purposes.
Around 250 BC Eratosthenes, head librarian of Alexandria, measured the size of the earth. He knew that in one city, there was a well that cast no shadow at noon on the summer solstice - the sun was directly overhead. At his library at noon on the same day, the sun cast a shadow at 7* or about 1/50th of a full circle. All that was left was to measure the distance between the cities, and they didn't have GPS back then. He hired somebody to walk between the cities and count steps (actually paces) using 2,000 steps as a mile. He was correct to within about 2.5%.
You can use GPS for a more precise result. Everybody has a different stride length which varies over time and up or down hill and on different kinds of surfaces, so even measuring your stride isn't exact. But assuming 2,000 steps to a mile, which is the original definition of a mile*, is close enough for diet purposes.
* Mile comes from mil, for thousand, like millimeter or milliliter. A mile was defined as a thousand paces, and a pace is two steps - one with each foot.
Just wanted to say that I totally enjoyed this post.NorthCascades wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »I always get about 2000 steps per mile. But my stride may be different than yours. Could you map off a mile and see how many steps you get walking it, and use that for your go-to number?
That's close enough for practical purposes.
Around 250 BC Eratosthenes, head librarian of Alexandria, measured the size of the earth. He knew that in one city, there was a well that cast no shadow at noon on the summer solstice - the sun was directly overhead. At his library at noon on the same day, the sun cast a shadow at 7* or about 1/50th of a full circle. All that was left was to measure the distance between the cities, and they didn't have GPS back then. He hired somebody to walk between the cities and count steps (actually paces) using 2,000 steps as a mile. He was correct to within about 2.5%.
You can use GPS for a more precise result. Everybody has a different stride length which varies over time and up or down hill and on different kinds of surfaces, so even measuring your stride isn't exact. But assuming 2,000 steps to a mile, which is the original definition of a mile*, is close enough for diet purposes.
* Mile comes from mil, for thousand, like millimeter or milliliter. A mile was defined as a thousand paces, and a pace is two steps - one with each foot.
Just wanted to say that I totally enjoyed this post.
Ditto^.
Thank you both for saying that. Sometimes I ramble, and I'm not sure if it's something anyone else will find interesting or just me. Glad to hear other people enjoyed this.
I read a lot, maybe too much. I think I learned all this from a book called Coming of Age in the Milky Way. It's about the history of our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it, starting with the time when we thought the night sky was a dark blanket being held up by the mountains, with small holes letting light through, ending in the modern era.3
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