Who actively tracks their steps?
In the absence of sustained serious training (life, work, injuries) I’ve resorted to increasing my walking steps during the day.
I’m often to be found pacing up and down train platforms, corridors, streets etc.
Thinking that it probably takes 12-13k of steps to burn 500 calories. Not sure of any real training benefit despite “time on feet”.
It’s a poor day if I don’t reach 10k. It’s a rare day if I get to 20k.
Mrs FB does on a regular basis - I don’t.
My wife does. I look occasionally but I’m not really bothered by it.
The 10k number has no scientific backing to it. It was a challenge created by a pedometer maker years back. Don’t get me wrong, doing 10k is better for you than doing 1k, but 10k isn’t the fitness nirvana that a lot of people think it is.
The other problem I have with it is a 6’5"" my stride is much larger than most so do fewer steps for the same distance
Usually don’t get near 10,000 steps during the week because of sitting at a desk for most parts, yesterday was 4723 and Monday 10,583 mostly due to a 35min jog on the treadmill.
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pre covid when i didnt cycle to work Id get 12k+, now I’m lucky if I get to 2k, although school run days if I walk take that to 10kish (4k round trip twice a day)
From memory Isn’t it just an arbitrary number to aim for.
There wasn’t huge science to say that was the “magic” number
I don’t really track them in the sense of trying to hit a target that garmin sets, but my watch does record them.
The most interesting part of that is looking at the trend during the early lockdowns, and how sedentary I was outside of going for a short run. For anyone not into the basic sports of cycling or running, you can see why lockdowns caused such a spike in weight gain.
Literally, unless I went for a run, I hardly moved at all. There’s really not a need inside of a 1 bed flat. Getting down to 500 steps in a whole 24hr period is scary low. But at least for me, I was probably on zwift those days!
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I’m always interested when my Garmin says I’ve done it - which is most days - but I don’t track it…
10k is of course better than nothing but is aimed at those who for what ever reason do not exercise…
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in the last 12 months…4.96 million steps, 4,635km, 14.2k average daily
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3.2m for me the last 2x 12 month periods. The last “normal 12 month period” showing on Garmin Connect pre covid I was at 5.2m.
Thats a 40% reduction, so a significant impact. I imagine there’s probably a rolling 12 month period within that 24 months where the total is substantially lower too
Exactly that for me as well. Still is now, though school pickup/dropoff will add a bit. but on weekdays where Mrs Gb is on drop offs, i’ll struggle to hit 2k unless i run.
Less than 10,000 generally means I’m ill.
Ending 12sept 2018 - 4.0m
Ending 12sept 2019 - 5.6m
Ending 12sept 2020 - 4.6m
Ending 12sept 2021 - 5.3m
Of course the real reason is that I run every day, and walk to the supermarket (or just walk) most days.
There would’ve been a year in 2005 or so where I would’ve averaged less than a 1000 for sure, so most of the above numbers are because of the routines I’ve got into to avoid falling back to that.
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Just got a Garmin Fenix 5 Plus recently which does all of this so I’ve started looking at it a bit but more out of curiosity than anything else. It’s fun to see that my fell race on Saturday equated to 400 floors climbed 
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My Garmin tracks and I look but I don’t have it as a personal goal. Pre-covid I would do ~7k when I got in the car after work not including going for a run at lunch. Now WFH I struggle to get above 5k not including a run. I do try and get out fo a couple of short walks as work allows. On a day when something goes belly up that requires my attention I get to about 2-3k.
I think it comes from one of those huge data investigations and it was linked to reduce mortality (which I have always found an odd phrase) but I recently read that 15k is more like what we should aim for.
On floors, spot the point in time when I moved from a ground floor flat to a 3 floor house, with our main bedroom in the loft…!
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3.5million the year into Covid, and I used to cycle to work more as well. this past year 2mill skewed by 2.5months of 1 or 2 x 4k walks each day for school run. taking the first 3 months of lockdown 2020 it was 100k per month, mainly my 30min “jogs” with El Nino
I find that as my Garmin ups the target as I hit the target makes me try vaguely to hit a streak but eventually if I don’t do a run I miss it. Think I’ve managed about 40 days above target streak. Having a dog to walk really makes the difference though for lots of steps. Have been quite consistent since getting my Garmin in 2016 around 6M steps a year - 15k to 18k a day. Max in a day is 117k during a 24hr run
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Around 14k average per day here, which is due to running for “fun” and walking for most other things.
A few years ago I used to drive 16 miles to work at 7 am , sit at a desk all day, drive home again at 8pm and then slob out for and hour or two until bedtime. Those days unless I forced myself to go for a run, would usually be between 2 and 3 thousand steps.
Moving to a walk-friendly town to live and work has made a big difference & i feel better for it.
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I’m only keeping an eye on it now that I have Vitality life insurance. Got to keep the daily points up. Some days it’s tough. Today with a 5 hour meeting, working from home and still doing an evening lap of the dam, I haven’t hit 5,000 yet.
It means I’m one of those annoying people that even puts an evening walk on strava. Vitality only gives you points with >7,500 steps but it’ll give you points for a 30mins activity. So I record my walks now.
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Sounds like some kind of Chinese state surveillance thing
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