If you have a Fitbit or other such fitness device, you’ll know that the “recommended” number of steps you should walk a day is 10 000.
I’ve never been able to get to the 10 000 steps. I wrote about that here, here and here 🙂
Interestingly, I heard some research from a reputable company that there is no research to support 10 000 as the magic number. There is research (decreased obesity and other related diseases) around the 7 500 steps mark though.
I still maintain that for my kind of job, if I’m walking around too much and racking up steps, I’m not actually working so the two things are diametrically opposed. I can either work or walk around.
In October, I decided to analyse my Fitbit stats. I only racked up 13 days of more than 5000 steps.
So in November, I decided to make my goal 5000 steps and try and get that number to 20 days of 5000 steps or more. I made it – got to 21 days.
I decided to do the same in December and managed to get to 5000 steps for 24 of the 31 days.
In January, since I knew I’d be on holiday for 10 of the days, I upped my goal to 25 days. Managed 28. That is excellent for me!
Now in February, I’m on a 14 of 18-day streak as at the time of writing this post. This has been a “normal” work month for me so plenty of client meetings, and therefore the days when I just cannot are quite usual.
What I have learned about my fitness journey is this:
- Saturdays and Tuesdays are easy because I have a scheduled dance class already.
- I’m much more likely to try get to my 5000 steps when I’m within a comfortable distance (if I have 4600 or so at 10 pm, I will walk up and down my kitchen) but not if I feel like it’s unattainable. This is a life lesson for all goals, don’t you think?
- I’m a moderator with fitness. I’m definitely not an all or nothing type person. I prefer to do a bit on a very consistent basis than rack up 10 000 steps once a week and 3000 on the other days. What about you?
- Shoes make a big difference. On gym days, when I have on my takkies (exercise shoes), I’m much more likely to run up and down my stairs to fetch things upstairs/ downstairs than I am when I’m wearing work shoes or flip flops.
- I really need to increase my fitness very slowly to have success.
Do you track the steps you walk?
Do you walk more when you’re tracking?
Do you know what your average number of steps is, and when your highest days are?
I did the step tracking thing for a few months last year. It did not work for me at all. All it did was stress me, so I stopped doing it. I do exercise. I aim for 30 minutes on the stepper, everyday. I don’t manage everyday, because some days, like yesterday, I had one of those “eyeball falling out your head” headaches. And some days I need to be kind to me. I am losing the weight and to sustain that I need to do things in a manageable manner, because I am an all or nothing kind of girl.
I aim for the breathless, heart beating type stepping for at least fifteen minutes. The few times I tracked on the stepper, I can do 6000 steps in 60 minutes, if I just walk ( I can manage to read while doing this). But, 60 minutes is hard to get, so I do 30 minutes and then I step a lot faster and I cannot talk, let alone manage to read. i don’t bother to track anymore, even though I should. Tracking does not motivate me at all. I think it is the pressure to perform that puts me off. I don’t like being forced.
I don’t have a fit bit right now. I bought the simplist version and that must have edibles cheap junk because it kept breaking. I never replaced it. I did like it but as commenter above mentioned, it could stress me out. I definitely picked up on my audio reading while walking. Once I heal from this ridiculous broken ankle, I may get another fitness tracker. I know one thing, I didn’t realize how active I was until your forced not to be 😉
Wow those are brutal numbers. I don’t see how they will recover. The wearable fitness fad may have come to an end. Cheap plastic garbage bracelets with inaccurate stats that are feature hamstrung. And what is the data really doing for people anyway? Really it’s just a fad. You don’t really do anything with that heart rate data with Fitbit, not that it’s accurate anyway. Like Like
Comment take two:
Currently I am far far below being moderate (by my standards). I am an overachiever step wise as I usually get to 12 to 15 000 on most days and on weekends when I go for a race usually get way over 20k. Though the only reason I get that many steps is because typically I do a 5 to 8Km about 4 to 5 days per week and also use the train so walking to and from the station and to the car adds up. That said I don’t trust these step counters l. I’ve been in a car on a rugged road where the counter was saying I took steps and I’ve walked pushing a stroller and it didn’t count. Something else that pushes me is joining some friends for a work week challenge and I refuse to come anything other than 1st or second … yes I am competitive like that
Ps: I’ve always wondered who came up with 10k being the magical number considering that it takes 6 to 8KM to get to 10,000 steps