# 10,000 steps? More chance of joining the group Steps.



## nickinwarwick (Oct 2, 2017)

I've been jolted into taking health more seriously, and have started to use myfitnesspal to log food and exercise. I've got this synced with a newly purchased Fitbit.

So the recommended daily number of steps is 10,000 daily. Is it just me or is this a really high figure for a day which doesn't include specific exercise? Granted I do have a desk job but I'm certainly not stationary all day, and I'm only doing about 3000 steps. Nowhere near the 10k 

I don't want this to be a negative post and I can and will try to do more, like going out at lunchtime, but I still don't feel I'd get close on a work day. So I was just wondering whether others manage to hit this figure as part of normal daily life?


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## Pigeon (Oct 2, 2017)

They do pedometer challenges at my work sometimes and yes, a standard desk-based day can only be around 3000. I can normally get to 6500 if I got for a walk at lunch, plus trying to do stuff like walk to the pharmacy or corner shop. Supermarket shopping is good for step counts! Have you tried running? Once a week I do 5k at lunch with colleagues, gets us some exercise and fresh air in the park! Other suggestions include going to talk to colleagues rather than emailing, and going the long way round to the toilets, tea room etc if you can. I've also tried daft things at home like dancing to the radio while cooking tea, once I put the ironing away one piece at a time!


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## Wirrallass (Oct 2, 2017)

@nickinwarwick Hi ~ with my gift of a fitbit I aimed for 2K steps to start with then after a week or two I upped it to 3K steps. There's no way I could walk 10K steps to start with. I suggest you set your target at whatever you're comfortable with then gradually increase the number of steps when you feel you're ready. You can make use of your weekends to accustom yourself to walking. I'm currently struggling to walk 5K steps which isnt bad for a person with dodgy hips & knees ~ if I don't reach my new daily target I don't berate myself and endeavour to reach it the following day.

The fitbit is a great motivator isn't it ~ it won't let you sit for too long before it buzzes to remind you to *Take a stroll* or *250 steps to achieve your target*. One day I excelled myself and walked 7.50K steps ~ fitbit rewarded me with a high achiever award It also reminds me when to drink more water ~ what my heart rate is ~ how many hours of sleep I have had etc.

There are some forum members who walk far more than 10K steps ~ and one member @Stitch enters into walk marathons! As l recall, one member @RobK walked 45K steps during the course of one working day

Theres an old adage:~ Don't run before you can walk ~ so take things slow at first Nick and increase your step target as and when you feel ready. Take care.


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## Ditto (Oct 2, 2017)

I aim to walk to the shops daily which is 3 miles or more, not sure how many steps that is, I don't want to mess about with the Garmin, I'd never get it going again.  I voted. I like clicking things. I live a quiet life.

I'm gonna be humming Tragedy all evening now...


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## Wirrallass (Oct 2, 2017)

Ditto said:


> I aim to walk to the shops daily which is 3 miles or more, not sure how many steps that is, I don't want to mess about with the Garmin, I'd never get it going again.  I voted. I like clicking things. I live a quiet life.
> 
> I'm gonna be humming Tragedy all evening now...


Good for you Ditto but take your time and don't buy too much coz you have to carry it home!!!


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## nickinwarwick (Oct 2, 2017)

Pigeon said:


> ... I've also tried daft things at home like dancing to the radio while cooking tea, once I put the ironing away one piece at a time!



I'm addressing diet and exercise but no-one told me I had to start ironing as well.


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## Copepod (Oct 3, 2017)

@nickinwarwick. I can honestly say I could count my ironing sessions, since diagnosis 21 years ago, on fingers of one hand. Would have been different if I had been allowed to rejoin Territorial Army, after having to return to UK from New Zealand, where diagnosis meant the end of my marine ecotourism career.


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## RFS (Oct 3, 2017)

nickinwarwick said:


> I've been jolted into taking health more seriously, and have started to use myfitnesspal to log food and exercise. I've got this synced with a newly purchased Fitbit.
> 
> So the recommended daily number of steps is 10,000 daily. Is it just me or is this a really high figure for a day which doesn't include specific exercise? Granted I do have a desk job but I'm certainly not stationary all day, and I'm only doing about 3000 steps. Nowhere near the 10k
> 
> I don't want this to be a negative post and I can and will try to do more, like going out at lunchtime, but I still don't feel I'd get close on a work day. So I was just wondering whether others manage to hit this figure as part of normal daily life?



I bought my FitBit One to help calculate my TDEE and I stupidly joined a FB group (this is all pre-T2D days) where they were aghast that I wouldn't step every second of every live long day and ... what is this GYM you speak of going to. I quit the group in the end.

My cousin's husband is retired and his Fitty was instrumental FOR HIM to reverse/put into remission his Pre-diabetes. BUT - he is retired and can go off for a long afternoon stroll whenever he feels like it! Oh my, we have had battles royal - he is not built for running on a tready or cycling, I am. I am a firm believer that ANY exercise which elevates your heart-rate over sitting on my behind counts as exercise, and with no cartilage left in my knees I combine my extensive rehab sessions from physios with cardio, and it seems to be serving me well. But he will just keep banging on at me until the cows come home that walking is the only exercise that works for 'reversing' diabetes and lowering my blood pressure.

I work at home, or freelance on a Sports-desk when I am not at a tournament covering the event, so I think 3000-5000 steps incl. getting to work, any walking around there and back sounds about right. I rack up a few more when I am at a tournie running to courts to catch bits of matches and dashing back and forth from press conferences, but the days are maybe twice as long. 12-14 hour days at a tournament for a week are not uncommon.

Incidentally since being diagnosed as T2 slap bang in the middle of the clay and grass court season, I have made a few tweaks to my MFP that you might find useful. I used to calorie count, and now I have changed my settings to be Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack (am), Snack (pm) and I carb count now. I make notes of what my Freestyle Libre BG scanner is telling me. I also log my exercise there and like you, my Fitty is linked to MFP so it picks up what meagre steps I do, but more importantly it gives me an indication what my total energy expenditure is for the day.

I don't think is by any means a negative post Nick... quite the opposite. I am going to see a friend on Saturday who was diagnosed in April, who is complaining bitterly that they hate all forms of exercise and won't do it. Very different to my "I hate walking so I will do an hour at the gym or at home cardio boxing"... so keep up what you can and all the best. Hope the MFP/Fitty combinations works for you!


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## grovesy (Oct 3, 2017)

I used a pedometer well before fitbit, and I used to walk around in ad breaks on tv, walk around whilst making a cuppa  and brushing teeth. It helped push steps up.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Oct 3, 2017)

Have you got the one that prompts you to walk 250 steps an hour? If set for 8hr day that would be 2000 steps right there. Some hours you almost certainly do already, other hours you'd probably just need to go to the loo at the other toilets, you know the ones down the far end... or walk up and down the stairs twice. Beneficial in that it will shift your fixed-focus viewing point too.

For me the days when I don't manage are the ones with less dog walking in the mornings. 25-30 minute walk with the dog is often 4000-5000 steps. If I fit in an errand at lunchtime (or even just intentionally walk somewhere for no reason) I can get the steps in. My average is 9,850 a day, but it'd be nearer 5000 I think without the dog!

Having said that I think 10,000 steps is pretty arbitrary and based on some pretty weak evidence. Just makes a nice round number I guess?

Not sure how you get to work, but you may be able to fit more walking in there too, at either end of the day (if driving, park your car further away from the building, if public transport choose stops further away, if working from home have a 'trip' to work by leaving the house, walking a loop and returning. Time spent walking before/after the working day can be great to process what has happened, provide some space, and return home feeling in a more 'home' frame of mind.

Hope you find a way that works for you.


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## trophywench (Oct 3, 2017)

I've been looking for a reasonably priced pedometer and preferably one that tells you the distance you've walked too, cos in addition to the D I also have intermittent claudication - and all the HCPs want to know how FAR you can walk before the pain sets in and you have to rest.

Frankly I haven't the slightest idea! I'm one of those benighted wimmin drivers who doesn't have instant spacial awareness - out in the car this morning (husband driving) and although the road we live in is fairly 'main' - a 'B' road and a bus route - older residential properties along most of it, lots of terraces of all ages, so loads of parked vehicles some fully on the road and some half up the pavement so you always have to 'weave'.  Following a KA that was forever stopping for traffic coming the other way whereas in the words of both my former husband and the current one, you could have got a tank through there.  Meanwhile my thoughts were, Yeah - I'd have stopped and waited, too!  LOL

I do NOT want to spend the amount of dosh a Fitbit costs.  (Neither do I want all the other things they tell you, thanks)

Any suggestions?


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## grovesy (Oct 3, 2017)

I found the Omron walking style range durable and reliable used for years before going on to an activity tracker.


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## Radders (Oct 3, 2017)

I count my cycle to work in my step count. I saw a converter for various exercises to step equivalents which said that 15 minutes cycle was equivalent to 3000 so I do 9000 steps right there, plus the 2-3000 at lunchtime in my walk round the block. On wet days I walk nearly a mile at each end of the bus journey, sometimes more. If there's more than 5 minutes to the next bus I walk to the next stop. All of this is so much preferable to going to the gym for me. It costs nothing apart from the bus fare, and gets me where I want to go. I hardly did any exercise when I had a car, so glad I got rid of it!


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## Chris Hobson (Oct 3, 2017)

My job involves a reasonable amount of moving around so I usually get ten thousand or close to ten thousand steps most days. If I do any actual exercising I tend to exceed ten thousand quite easily. A 10K run is enough to run up the steps as my running stride must be slightly less than a metre long. I'm trying to take it a little easy now that I have finished all my organised events for the year as I think that I really need to take a bit of a rest. I find it interesting that, as I have exercised more and more since my diagnosis in 2013, I now find it hard to sit still for long.


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## nickinwarwick (Oct 3, 2017)

Some very good suggestions here, although I'm feeling it's reinforcing my belief that 10,000 isn't realistic without specific extra exercise - well for me at least. A definite practical change for me would be to get the train to work, since the station is further away than the public car park I have to use. Rail fare is about the same as driving. (Except that I have 2 months remaining on carpark season ticket, d'oh!). I think I'll try 1 or 2 days a week.

@everydayupsanddowns Yes it does prompt but doing the 250 an hour isn't really an issue during the day, it's the extra needed to get anywhere near 10k. I'd love to own a dog but simply couldn't, I'm out 12 hours a day and I don't think I could take it to work 

@trophywench You can get very cheap pedometers for £2 or £3 and I think I had one free from Special K once. Or copycat Fitbit clones for £20 on eBay. Might be less accurate but then again the Fitbit seems to count steps while I'm driving so I don't know how accurate any such device truly is.
Edit to add - sorry I see you're after distance as well but you could calibrate a cheapo pedometer by walking a known distance? (Map a walk on google maps then see how many steps?).


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## Radders (Oct 3, 2017)

nickinwarwick said:


> Some very good suggestions here, although I'm feeling it's reinforcing my belief that 10,000 isn't realistic without specific extra exercise - well for me at least. A definite practical change for me would be to get the train to work, since the station is further away than the public car park I have to use. Rail fare is about the same as driving. (Except that I have 2 months remaining on carpark season ticket, d'oh!). I think I'll try 1 or 2 days a week.
> .



Yay! Reducing your carbon footprint at the same time!


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## Robin (Oct 3, 2017)

Radders said:


> I count my cycle to work in my step count. I saw a converter for various exercises to step equivalents which said that 15 minutes cycle was equivalent to 3000 so I do 9000 steps right there, plus the 2-3000 at lunchtime in my walk round the block. On wet days I walk nearly a mile at each end of the bus journey, sometimes more. If there's more than 5 minutes to the next bus I walk to the next stop. All of this is so much preferable to going to the gym for me. It costs nothing apart from the bus fare, and gets me where I want to go. I hardly did any exercise when I had a car, so glad I got rid of it!


Ah, that's really useful, it never occurred to me that you could do that. I just Googled a chart. I used a pedometer once, (a cheap £1.99 one) but I realised that an hour's heavy pruning with the long handled loppers at full height had knackered me, but not recorded any steps! It never occurred to me you could look up the equivalent! On the basis of the chart I found, today's exercise class followed by a couple of hours heavy gardening, plus other bits and bobs, easily gets me over 10000.


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## trophywench (Oct 3, 2017)

nickinwarwick said:


> @trophywench You can get very cheap pedometers for £2 or £3 and I think I had one free from Special K once. Or copycat Fitbit clones for £20 on eBay. Might be less accurate but then again the Fitbit seems to count steps while I'm driving so I don't know how accurate any such device truly is.
> Edit to add - sorry I see you're after distance as well but you could calibrate a cheapo pedometer by walking a known distance? (Map a walk on google maps then see how many steps?).



That sounds like an idea Nick - will have to look on eBay again for something cheap!


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## nickinwarwick (Oct 4, 2017)

I decided to try the train to work option today. Previous daily steps was 3100, today... 7335.

Pros:
More exercise obviously!
Home quicker and with less stress

Cons:
Had to get up at 5:45. It's just not natural! (And in all seriousness probably not sustainable. Ideally need to change work start time, just 20 mins would help fit with train times).

Definitely going to do this 2 times a week to begin with and go from there.


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## Radders (Oct 4, 2017)

nickinwarwick said:


> I decided to try the train to work option today. Previous daily steps was 3100, today... 7335.
> 
> Pros:
> More exercise obviously!
> ...


Fantastic! 5:45 is ok once you get used to it, honest.


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## steven (Oct 5, 2017)

I only use the metro for 75% of my commutes  ..and ✻take an old fashioned walk✻ the rest of the way  ..I also put more ✻steps✻ in during my lunch breaks.

Setting off to work earlier than I'd otherwise need to, makes mine a sustainable routine.


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## Chris Hobson (Oct 5, 2017)

"Had to get up at 5:45. It's just not natural! (And in all seriousness probably not sustainable..."

Being a bit of a morning person I am slightly bemused that someone would think that getting up at 05:45 was too early. I would say that it doesn't take long to get used to getting up at an earlier time. You do tend to start feeling tired in the evening which means that you can then go to bed earlier to compensate.


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## nickinwarwick (Oct 6, 2017)

I'd say I'm a morning person as well, I certainly like to be into work at 7:30 or 8:00 and seem to get a lot done when starting early. Would rather not be going to bed before 10pm though. I'll see how it goes.

Another train day today and getting a train home that went to Warwick Parkway rather than Warwick led to 8500 steps.


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## Radders (Oct 7, 2017)

Great going with the steps! I find that they have a much greater impact on bringing my levels down if I walk fast enough to get slightly out of breath. I can't maintain it for a long distance so I do it on any uphill stretches as a kind of interval training.


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## phonic2k (Oct 16, 2017)

My understanding is that it’snot about the mount of steps that I did that made a difference in my insulin resistance but how I exercise, and the reason I see my neighbour walking each day to work and back doing more than 10,000 steps and to shops and back but never lost a pound of weight due walking that slow that he never gets his heart pumping to burn of the calories and now very obese. I’ve seen the same in my local gym, treadmill at 2kph... and eating sweets afterward and wondering why it’s not working for them...

The option I went for was HIIT( running on spot fast/slow with squats, press-ups etc) only 10-15 but helped me achieve my goal of fully revering my insulin resistance, but very hard work to achieve with over 40kg in rapid weight loss, allowing me to return to a normal diet.  Also because I was keep forgetting to move I got an Apple Watch that kept reminding me to get up and move and set new goals each week to achieve.

These days I go to the gym just to maintain my shape and fitness, but I noticed I need to eat lots of carbs these days before I go to the gym or I end up with feeling dizzy and my body struggling with 3.7/3.9 to 4.2/4.4 even the next day. I now found it best to eat to what my body needs adjusting to activity.

Sorry for the long post, I have lots to share on my success, and really hope  this helps.


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## nickinwarwick (Oct 16, 2017)

Absolutely agreed. Going to work, I'm walking briskly to (a) catch the train then (b) get to office for a set time. At the end of the day I probably wander more slowly, but the Fitbit gives me the heartrate for the walk so I know when I've taken it too easy or not.


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## phonic2k (Oct 16, 2017)

Radders said:


> Great going with the steps! I find that they have a much greater impact on bringing my levels down if I walk fast enough to get slightly out of breath. I can't maintain it for a long distance so I do it on any uphill stretches as a kind of interval training.



High Intensity Interval training(HIIT) ( going fast to get the heart going then slow) is found to burn fat for longer and internal fat way after you finish the exercise,  and the main reason I when for it.

 It’s amazing how it affects her body, not just in the short time of lowering levels but long term as well.


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## phonic2k (Oct 16, 2017)

nickinwarwick said:


> Absolutely agreed. Going to work, I'm walking briskly to (a) catch the train then (b) get to office for a set time. At the end of the day I probably wander more slowly, but the Fitbit gives me the heartrate for the walk so I know when I've taken it too easy or not.




Keep it up!  These smart devices really do make a difference in the way we exercise.


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## clive555555 (Oct 21, 2017)

Hi Nick hope you have found the way to electronically lower the AIMS of your Fitbit, I have found the "Happy Hobbit Setting", I  am nailing and crushing everything, plus I have loads of Badges. cheers all the best clive55555


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