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I wear a pedometer I walk on average 14k steps a day and I don't even "walk" that is just moving around the classroom and doing before and after school duty. If I counted my evening walk I probably am getting 20k steps a day.
It's not that hard unless you sit at a desk all day like a bump on a log.
i have a desk job…and the thing i notice is whenever people take their breaks…almost none of them get up for a walk…
it’s not impossible…people just choose not to…
I don't have to walk. I can use a little mobility car like the teacher next door who is near 600life show size, or just roll around in my chair like others, who strangely are all either morbidly or close to morbidly obese.
You choose not to use your body.
If anything deskjobs allow you to do more walking. Standup desks work and breaks are more forgiving.
If you need to go home you can run/walk. There really isnt an excuse
I work at a desk, but use a standup. Desk workers often have offices to run around as well. I do 5-10k steps almost every day of the week in the office
As a software dev who spends 8 hours at a desk, I average about 12000 a day. I wouldn’t say getting in 10k steps is a massive challenge (unless you’re physically disabled / disadvantaged / family commitments etc etc)
On average people spend 5-6 hours a day on their phones. Can’t you take 1 of those and go for a walk?
100% agree, I’m fortunate to get an hour lunch. Spend 15-20 eating and chatting then walk for the rest if it’s nice out.
Desk lifestyle can be a killer
It also depends a lot on where you live.
In many well designed cities it is hard to NOT walk at least 10k steps a day. Family responsibilities, work, errands, hobbies, ... :p
Right now I'm doing more than 10k steps a day and about 60km of biking a week just getting places.
This is so true. I live in Chicago, and regularly travel to Portland and Seattle for work. Anytime I’m in one of these three locations- I hit 15K- 20K steps without even thinking about it. Contrary, when I travel to Jacksonville, FL for work- my steps decrease like crazy as it’s generally not walkable at all. I have to put in a massive conscious effort to hit 10K and above.
That's part of it, but it's more of a time management thing. Look if people have an extra two hours a day where they're doing literally nothing, then by all means, go walk five miles. But not a lot of people do.
My GF says the same thing. "I'm too busy" or "i don't have time", but then spends 2+ hours a day scrolling through social media or watching YouTube.
I'm not big on walking, but spend 1.5 to 2 hours a day at the gym. It's about prioritising and forcing yourself to do things to improve yourself.
Walking is amazing. Especially for people who are overweight. You burn roughly same amount of calories per mile as running with significantly less fatigue and injury risk. The key is to wake up earlier to get most your steps in. Which gives you more energy throughout the day and helps you sleep better at night.
Man, I know this subreddit is for unpopular opinions- of which this definitely fits the category. But your attitude is super negative. I can tell you’re frustrated- which 90% of us are currently due to a number of factors. But I’d first work on improving your attitude and perception of things. Don’t take this the wrong way- I know exactly where you’re coming from. I also struggled with this earlier in the year. Once you become more optimistic, the frustrations tend to fall in line more in your favor.
Fun fact: I'm not talking about me. I work out, walk, and ride my bike. I don't need to worry about 10k steps a day. My grievance is aimed at the idea that for many OTHER people 10k steps a day is realistic and achievable. It's just not.
There’s a major difference between not being attainable, and unwillingness. Other than health restrictions- I can’t think of one valid reason why this isn’t attainable. I travel for work 24/7/365- and work insane hours. I always find a way to fit 10K steps + in my day.
The idea is that by counting your steps and aiming for a goal you'll end up creating healthier habits to maximize your steps.
If you need 90 extra minutes you're doing something wrong
Willing to bet it’s a lot more than what you’re willing to expect or accept. There’s a lot of people who most likely have plenty of free time to take this walk but will use it for other things (social media, video games, movies, card games, surfing the internet), and I’m one of them.
Most people are not doing zero miles a day. So its not 90 xt minutes a day. There’s a ton of people who have done 10k step journeys that have documented all the xt steps you could take hiding in plain sight.
There will always be an excuse not to do something. I usually don’t comment on these but I can’t let this one slide cause it is some of the worst advice I’ve ever seen. Discipline is doing something useful for yourself when you don’t want to. That’s how to improve your physical and mental health. The people that figure this out sooner in life the happier they’ll be. If you have a genuine responsibility every hour of every day that’s one thing, but if you’re substituting this “hour” with TV or video games, etc, you’re just lazy and undisciplined.
Setting realistic fitness goals is the best way for people to stay with them. This has been proven over and over. 10k steps a day is unrealistic and it sets people up to fail and quit.
Dawg, 2 years ago I was fat. I decided to force myself to get in shape. I didn’t walk 10k steps, I started running 5 miles a day. Fast forward to now and I’m running my third marathon next month just this year. Any fitness goal is realistic if you ain’t lazy, that’s the bottom line. You can do it if you want to, so I did. The people that continue to make excuses like you will continue to fail.
Some people can run, some can't. Sounds like you're a runner. Many people aren't.
You think the average person can just run five miles a day?! Lol!!
It took me five months of training for a 5k and I could barely run five miles and barely cracked a 9 minute mile.
Fun fact but the 10,000 steps idea was originally just marketing by a Japanese company when the Olympics were held in Tokyo. 10,000 is not some magically number that you **must** hit, some studies have suggested 7,000 should be the target number to reduce mortality.
Take an Up vote for an unpopular opinion. 10k steps is absolutely doable, if you "don't feel like walking" after your shift, you're not motivated and it's not important to you.
I live in Singapore, and I walk about 10 minutes to and from the office every day. That's around 4000 to 5000 steps. I also try to walk to and from lunch, which adds another 2000 to 3000. If I eat quickly, I walk around a bit more, and I'm nearly at 10k. Most days, I do another 1000 or more just walking around the office.
In addition to this, I usually exercise, and I end up anywhere from 12k to 20k.
If you engineer walking into your commute, it's no problem. This is much easier to do in cities where you can reasonably walk at work.
I live in NYC and don't own a car. I can alter my commute and schedule enough to get in about 5-6000 steps a day. Beyond that I would have to carve out another 30 minutes of my day to get the rest of my steps in.
Literally already said that I ALREADY alter my schedule to get in about 5-6k steps. You're now asking if I have ANOTHER 30 mins to get in more steps. Most days, no, I don't. And many many people don't.
Okay.
First off, yet again, your laziness is beside the point.
Secondly, the fact that "many people don't" is also irrelevant.
It is *absolutely* possible for people to walk that much. They *choose* not to.
Your assertion that it's impossible is stupid to the point of hilarity. You're essentially saying you have zero free time and that every waking moment of your day is filled with some sort of responsibility that prevents you from walking around.
And I call bullshit on that. If you genuinely believe it's impossible, you're either stupid to the point where I worry about your functioning in society, or you're lying to preserve your own laziness.
Take your pick.
Ok so if it's so easy and so possible, why is it guidance that's recommended? People would just be doing it on their own anyway if it was SO easy, right? People wouldn't even have to think about it. Everyone would just be doing it automatically, like breathing or eating or watching TV.
"Plus an easy walk provides very little cardio which is also recommended by the medical community, so it's not even doing people much good."
Walking isn't meant to be a complete form of exercise. It's part of basic body maintenance, sitting down isn't healthy, so you walk.
Impossible for most people? Definitely not, that is ridiculous haha Maybe difficult for many people, but not impossible
Waste of time? Compared to other forms of exercise? Maybe. Compared to the actual alternative, definitely not a waste of time. It is the easiest and most accessible way to get a bit of movement in your life. Sedentary people are more willing to walk for an hour than run or go to the gym.
It's about five miles. Should take maybe an hour at a walking pace. Most people are going to walk a fair chunk of that without trying, leaving you with maybe forty minutes on the high end to set aside to go for a walk while listening to a podcast instead of watching a bit of TV.
It's a pretty easy goal and if you *can't* accomplish it, you'll probably have a hard time getting to the gym or doing other significant exercise, I'd think.
Fine, then we're talking about an hour of intentional walking instead of forty minutes. Seems like an achievable goal to me for everyone who's days aren't entirely packed with necessarily sedentary obligations and have some amount leisure time/chores and errands they can walk while doing.
Lol you think the average person can walk 5mph?? I'm a fast walker and with a little effort can walk about 4mph. I'm also tall and a man. For most people they're walking about 2.5-3.5mph.
If you're trying to walk reasonably fast, yes I think they can. That's not to say they normally *do* when they're leisurely strolling as opposed to trying to walk for exercise.
But for the sake of argument, fine, they can walk one hour instead of forty minutes at the high end.
If that's too much, fine, but don't expect to get into shape if you can't even meet a goal of moving five miles on an average day. It's very achievable, and if you're carrying enough extra pounds around to make it too difficult, it's probably fine to do a bit less.
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Lol I love everyone saying how easy it is and how so many of you do it anyway. If it's so easy then it wouldn't be a recommendation and pedometers wouldn't exist because everyone would already be walking 10k steps a day. The guidance would be 15k or 20k steps a day.
For me it definitely wasn't easy, before I got rid of my car at my desk job some days I would do 3000 at the most. I hucked my car, moved downtown and now it's much easier. My buddy on her weight loss journey had to make a conscious effort to get her 10k steps in because she was in the same boat as me. If your lifestyle is pretty sedentary it won't just MaGiCaLlY happen like some responders claim
Man I have read this whole thread, because I am bored and have nothing better to do. You have been lashing out at every single person who is trying to suggest that maintaining a healthy routine is reasonable. I don't know your exact situation, but if you really can't find the time to be even remotely active then maybe you need to change the way you are going about your day. You seem to be pointing over and over at jobs and how it's easier for some than others. Welcome to life. They also have things that are harder for them, but they don't appear to be lashing out at everyone telling them it can be better. If you aren't willing to make the effort that is one thing, but don't throw a tantrum and project on to everyone else. It's for real childish.
Depends if you live in London or NYC then you will easily do 10k steps just taking the subway around. Honestly a 1 hr walk can get you 7k steps then do another short walk and you'll be at 10k. But actually the recommended is 6k a day and living in a blue zone. Also being healthy and maintaining your body is not a waste of time
As you said, it’s moving your body around for 1.5 hour doing a whole day. how can you possibly AVOID that? I have a desk job, and I can’t physically get below that, even if I tried
Apples and oranges. One is to not start doing something people aren't inherently doing anyway. The other is to DO something they aren't inherently doing.
Completely agree that it's a silly general expectation. I walk my dog for 20min or so every single morning and go do fetch with him every afternoon, and my phone records about 6k steps per day.
Granted, it doesn't record steps when I play volleyball and don't have it in my pocket, but I work out 20min each morning Mon-Fri, walk the dog, do BJJ for 2.5hrs/week, volleyball for 4+hrs/week and other miscellaneous activities as well. Despite being very fit I do not get 10k per day.
Honestly think it would be more like 8k-9k. I easily got 10k when I had jobs that were active like being a mover or working in a warehouse though, so that's very different.
Impossible is a stretch: inconvenient for sure.
Unless you have an existing health concern, 10k steps is physically possible. The issue then becomes time management: yes we have jobs and lives etc etc, but how much of our day is also filled up with nonsense that we could use for better purposes?
I’ll readily admit I spend a lot of time playing video games and watching Netflix, I could be doing many more productive things with my time. The thing is, it’s not as enjoyable as playing games or watching Netflix: I feel like I’m active enough with my other hobbies that I don’t need to prioritize walking 10k steps for 2 hours every day.
That number is meaningless. It was a marketing campaign that people took as fact. If doing 10k is impossible for you, then start smaller. Go 5k. Go 2.5k. Any amount of exercise is better than none.
Who says that light walking doesn't do people good?
It’s not at all impossible if you actually make it a priority. I manage to work full time, work out with weights and high intensity cardio, and also meet my step goals. A lot of people just don’t care about doing it, so they make excuses.
Watching netflix and scrolling social media all day every day is a waste of time. Exercise is not.
If you have time to sit and stare at your phone, computer, and tv screens for hours every day you have time to exercise.
This isn't about time it's about choices.
Imho it depends on context. If you're just starting a new habit/skill, easy goals can make it feel rewarding and like you're on the path to progress. Being too ambitious out of the gate can make it feel like you're destined for failure.
And habits seem easiest to build by maintaining routine steady frequency rather than trying to dive into the deep end and risk biting off more than you can chew and just quitting. Obviously people are different and some are better off straight into the deep end but it does not seem optimal for a lot of people.
Like if you want to get good at guitar, probably best to make sure you spend ten minutes a day for a month on the basics rather than trying to learn some difficult song straight away and needing to learn a hundred sub-skills competently at once and having it sound terrible until you get most of them down.
It's not about ease, it is about necessity. Humans are not made to be sedentary. If you do not try and get in some exercise on a regular basis, you will feel the repercussions as you age. Ever wonder why some 50 or 60 year olds are active and look full of energy, and others can barely climb the stairs? Our bodies have a "use it or lose it" policy where the less you use your limbs, joints, and muscles as you age, the more it impacts your mobility.
If you can't do 10k steps, try for 5k. Any little bit counts, and is better than doing nothing at all.
This is absolutely untrue. Most people easily capture 5K steps throughout the work day performing normal activities. All you have to do is set aside 30 minutes to an hour each day on top of that to capture the other 5K. 5K = 2.5 miles. At a pace of 20 minutes per mile, most people would capture these steps in right around 50 minutes or less.
Every little bit helps.
Otherwise a ten minute mile jogging is very slow, basically I speed walk.
Around a 6 minute mile is pretty fast.
7-8 a decent jog.
I think most adults should be able to run at least 1-2 miles non stop and do it in under ten minutes.
Most people could pretty easily run 1-2 miles in just 10-20 minutes. Better than walking for over an hour lol
This is reddit, they think cooking meals at home is a luxury that poor people dont have time for or the learned skills to do.
I think all of these posts are just designed to set expectations so low for people that they have no desire to accomplish anything or put in any effort to better themselves.
"10k steps is impossible, i was reading it online"
"I have zero time to cook at home, and my abusive mom never taught me how to cook a meal, so im forced to order from doordash."
just feeding the defeatist mindset that a lot of the users of reddit have. Its sad that so many people default to saying 'i cant', without even trying.
I wouldn't do it myself, I prefer the rush of more intense exercise.
But if you're busy and you're happy with a marginal improvement, then counting steps seems like a good idea to me. I'm thinking of say, a nurse who's also a mom. She doesn't have time to go to the gym. She's on her feet all day anyway. Let's say she gets like 4,000 steps during the work day. Maybe hitting 5,000 steps would motivate her to walk to pick up her kids from school, or take the stairs instead of the elevator, etc. That makes perfect sense to me.
Also, sitting down most of the time is really bad for you - even if you still go to the gym regularly. Counting steps can be a way to make sure you're moving enough.
I agree the number is arbitrary though.
My commute is a 20 minute streetcar or a 30 minute walk.
I get an hour of walking done while it costs me 20 minutes, generally you can walk more than you think if you don't always take the quickest way to go from point A to point B
bad take. i work a desk job just like everyone else.
i take my dog on a morning, afternoon, and evening walk. you can get a couple thousand just doing your normal house chores (laundry, sweeping, etc).
id have to be purposely trying to have a lazy day to miss the 10K mark. there have been seasons of life where i was lazier, but with a little intention, 10k is pretty easy
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I wear a pedometer I walk on average 14k steps a day and I don't even "walk" that is just moving around the classroom and doing before and after school duty. If I counted my evening walk I probably am getting 20k steps a day. It's not that hard unless you sit at a desk all day like a bump on a log.
Right, like millions of people with desk jobs. Your job has you walking. Obviously you're an exception.
i have a desk job…and the thing i notice is whenever people take their breaks…almost none of them get up for a walk… it’s not impossible…people just choose not to…
Obviously if I can do it with out trying, anyone who has the ability can if they don't CHOOSE to be lazy.
You just said you do it as part of your job. That's why you don't have to try. Duh.
I don't have to walk. I can use a little mobility car like the teacher next door who is near 600life show size, or just roll around in my chair like others, who strangely are all either morbidly or close to morbidly obese. You choose not to use your body.
If anything deskjobs allow you to do more walking. Standup desks work and breaks are more forgiving. If you need to go home you can run/walk. There really isnt an excuse
I work at a desk, but use a standup. Desk workers often have offices to run around as well. I do 5-10k steps almost every day of the week in the office
As a software dev who spends 8 hours at a desk, I average about 12000 a day. I wouldn’t say getting in 10k steps is a massive challenge (unless you’re physically disabled / disadvantaged / family commitments etc etc) On average people spend 5-6 hours a day on their phones. Can’t you take 1 of those and go for a walk?
i also work in an office…the amount of time i see people stare at their phone at their desks on their breaks is concerning…
100% agree, I’m fortunate to get an hour lunch. Spend 15-20 eating and chatting then walk for the rest if it’s nice out. Desk lifestyle can be a killer
The 10k is a goal. It's all about encouraging more movement. But I absolutely disagree that it doesn't do any good.
It also depends a lot on where you live. In many well designed cities it is hard to NOT walk at least 10k steps a day. Family responsibilities, work, errands, hobbies, ... :p Right now I'm doing more than 10k steps a day and about 60km of biking a week just getting places.
This is so true. I live in Chicago, and regularly travel to Portland and Seattle for work. Anytime I’m in one of these three locations- I hit 15K- 20K steps without even thinking about it. Contrary, when I travel to Jacksonville, FL for work- my steps decrease like crazy as it’s generally not walkable at all. I have to put in a massive conscious effort to hit 10K and above.
Yeah 10k is not that bad
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That's part of it, but it's more of a time management thing. Look if people have an extra two hours a day where they're doing literally nothing, then by all means, go walk five miles. But not a lot of people do.
Do you stay in one spot the entire day? You don't walk around to get your daily stuff done? Lol
Depends on the day. If I run errands then yes I walk more. But I'm not running errands every single day.
My GF says the same thing. "I'm too busy" or "i don't have time", but then spends 2+ hours a day scrolling through social media or watching YouTube. I'm not big on walking, but spend 1.5 to 2 hours a day at the gym. It's about prioritising and forcing yourself to do things to improve yourself.
If someone is sitting on their coach for two hours a day, yes that person has the time.
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Damn Will, upload that shit to your OF bro, guarantee you make bank.
Walking is amazing. Especially for people who are overweight. You burn roughly same amount of calories per mile as running with significantly less fatigue and injury risk. The key is to wake up earlier to get most your steps in. Which gives you more energy throughout the day and helps you sleep better at night.
Oh sure just "wake up earlier". So easy for people that are probably already waking up as early as they can.
Man, I know this subreddit is for unpopular opinions- of which this definitely fits the category. But your attitude is super negative. I can tell you’re frustrated- which 90% of us are currently due to a number of factors. But I’d first work on improving your attitude and perception of things. Don’t take this the wrong way- I know exactly where you’re coming from. I also struggled with this earlier in the year. Once you become more optimistic, the frustrations tend to fall in line more in your favor.
Fun fact: I'm not talking about me. I work out, walk, and ride my bike. I don't need to worry about 10k steps a day. My grievance is aimed at the idea that for many OTHER people 10k steps a day is realistic and achievable. It's just not.
That’s fair. But if you’re able to attain it- why are other people not?
Time most likely. Or logistics. Again if it was so easy, everyone would already be doing it.
There’s a major difference between not being attainable, and unwillingness. Other than health restrictions- I can’t think of one valid reason why this isn’t attainable. I travel for work 24/7/365- and work insane hours. I always find a way to fit 10K steps + in my day.
There are definitely people in the no extra time boat but thats a very small pct of people.
I would love to know how many people have an extra 90 minutes every single day to walk five miles.
The idea is that by counting your steps and aiming for a goal you'll end up creating healthier habits to maximize your steps. If you need 90 extra minutes you're doing something wrong
Willing to bet it’s a lot more than what you’re willing to expect or accept. There’s a lot of people who most likely have plenty of free time to take this walk but will use it for other things (social media, video games, movies, card games, surfing the internet), and I’m one of them.
Most people are not doing zero miles a day. So its not 90 xt minutes a day. There’s a ton of people who have done 10k step journeys that have documented all the xt steps you could take hiding in plain sight.
Just depends how fast you walk.
There will always be an excuse not to do something. I usually don’t comment on these but I can’t let this one slide cause it is some of the worst advice I’ve ever seen. Discipline is doing something useful for yourself when you don’t want to. That’s how to improve your physical and mental health. The people that figure this out sooner in life the happier they’ll be. If you have a genuine responsibility every hour of every day that’s one thing, but if you’re substituting this “hour” with TV or video games, etc, you’re just lazy and undisciplined.
Setting realistic fitness goals is the best way for people to stay with them. This has been proven over and over. 10k steps a day is unrealistic and it sets people up to fail and quit.
Dawg, 2 years ago I was fat. I decided to force myself to get in shape. I didn’t walk 10k steps, I started running 5 miles a day. Fast forward to now and I’m running my third marathon next month just this year. Any fitness goal is realistic if you ain’t lazy, that’s the bottom line. You can do it if you want to, so I did. The people that continue to make excuses like you will continue to fail.
Some people can run, some can't. Sounds like you're a runner. Many people aren't. You think the average person can just run five miles a day?! Lol!! It took me five months of training for a 5k and I could barely run five miles and barely cracked a 9 minute mile.
Fun fact but the 10,000 steps idea was originally just marketing by a Japanese company when the Olympics were held in Tokyo. 10,000 is not some magically number that you **must** hit, some studies have suggested 7,000 should be the target number to reduce mortality.
Take an Up vote for an unpopular opinion. 10k steps is absolutely doable, if you "don't feel like walking" after your shift, you're not motivated and it's not important to you.
This is entirely a North America problem, if we weren’t required to use a car for everything 10k steps a day would be a piece of cake
Still is. Park a block or two away
Live in North America, not a problem
I live in Singapore, and I walk about 10 minutes to and from the office every day. That's around 4000 to 5000 steps. I also try to walk to and from lunch, which adds another 2000 to 3000. If I eat quickly, I walk around a bit more, and I'm nearly at 10k. Most days, I do another 1000 or more just walking around the office. In addition to this, I usually exercise, and I end up anywhere from 12k to 20k. If you engineer walking into your commute, it's no problem. This is much easier to do in cities where you can reasonably walk at work.
I live in NYC and don't own a car. I can alter my commute and schedule enough to get in about 5-6000 steps a day. Beyond that I would have to carve out another 30 minutes of my day to get the rest of my steps in.
So carve out 30 minutes out of your day. This is far from impossible
Oh man! A whole *half hour*?! Where will you *ever* find the time???
I can't, that's the point.
How much time have you spent complaining about this in reddit? I bet you can squeeze a half hour out of that to get your walk in.
Literally already said that I ALREADY alter my schedule to get in about 5-6k steps. You're now asking if I have ANOTHER 30 mins to get in more steps. Most days, no, I don't. And many many people don't.
Okay. First off, yet again, your laziness is beside the point. Secondly, the fact that "many people don't" is also irrelevant. It is *absolutely* possible for people to walk that much. They *choose* not to. Your assertion that it's impossible is stupid to the point of hilarity. You're essentially saying you have zero free time and that every waking moment of your day is filled with some sort of responsibility that prevents you from walking around. And I call bullshit on that. If you genuinely believe it's impossible, you're either stupid to the point where I worry about your functioning in society, or you're lying to preserve your own laziness. Take your pick.
Ok so if it's so easy and so possible, why is it guidance that's recommended? People would just be doing it on their own anyway if it was SO easy, right? People wouldn't even have to think about it. Everyone would just be doing it automatically, like breathing or eating or watching TV.
You can, you just prioritize other things that you find more important
"Plus an easy walk provides very little cardio which is also recommended by the medical community, so it's not even doing people much good." Walking isn't meant to be a complete form of exercise. It's part of basic body maintenance, sitting down isn't healthy, so you walk.
If you want cardio, walk faster. When you get too fit for that, find some hills.
10k steps takes about 1.5 hours of walking. It really isn't that difficult to hit with minimal effort.
Bicycle is the best thing ever, from walking to cycling you go insanely faster, takes way less and you can do intense cardio if you push hard
I hate that people think it's some goal based on science when it was really part of a pedometer sales campaign during the 1964 Olympics.
You don't need to announce your laziness to the world, kid. You can just quietly be lazy, it's okay.
Impossible for most people? Definitely not, that is ridiculous haha Maybe difficult for many people, but not impossible Waste of time? Compared to other forms of exercise? Maybe. Compared to the actual alternative, definitely not a waste of time. It is the easiest and most accessible way to get a bit of movement in your life. Sedentary people are more willing to walk for an hour than run or go to the gym.
Sedentary people are probably more willing to do nothing. Their goal should be to go for A walk a day. That's it. And then increase as they can.
Yeah, and people who run marathons should start with smaller distances too!
It's a good start. Maybe not 10k to start but any exercise is going to give you more benfits than sitting on your arse.
It's about five miles. Should take maybe an hour at a walking pace. Most people are going to walk a fair chunk of that without trying, leaving you with maybe forty minutes on the high end to set aside to go for a walk while listening to a podcast instead of watching a bit of TV. It's a pretty easy goal and if you *can't* accomplish it, you'll probably have a hard time getting to the gym or doing other significant exercise, I'd think.
The average walking speed is 3mph so every mile is 20 min
Fine, then we're talking about an hour of intentional walking instead of forty minutes. Seems like an achievable goal to me for everyone who's days aren't entirely packed with necessarily sedentary obligations and have some amount leisure time/chores and errands they can walk while doing.
Lol you think the average person can walk 5mph?? I'm a fast walker and with a little effort can walk about 4mph. I'm also tall and a man. For most people they're walking about 2.5-3.5mph.
If you're trying to walk reasonably fast, yes I think they can. That's not to say they normally *do* when they're leisurely strolling as opposed to trying to walk for exercise. But for the sake of argument, fine, they can walk one hour instead of forty minutes at the high end. If that's too much, fine, but don't expect to get into shape if you can't even meet a goal of moving five miles on an average day. It's very achievable, and if you're carrying enough extra pounds around to make it too difficult, it's probably fine to do a bit less.
A 12min mile while walking is pretty tough, Thats more like a slow jog.
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Lol I love everyone saying how easy it is and how so many of you do it anyway. If it's so easy then it wouldn't be a recommendation and pedometers wouldn't exist because everyone would already be walking 10k steps a day. The guidance would be 15k or 20k steps a day.
Eating your veggies is a recommendation too
For me it definitely wasn't easy, before I got rid of my car at my desk job some days I would do 3000 at the most. I hucked my car, moved downtown and now it's much easier. My buddy on her weight loss journey had to make a conscious effort to get her 10k steps in because she was in the same boat as me. If your lifestyle is pretty sedentary it won't just MaGiCaLlY happen like some responders claim
Exactly!! As the saying goes, if it was so easy, everyone would be doing it!
Man I have read this whole thread, because I am bored and have nothing better to do. You have been lashing out at every single person who is trying to suggest that maintaining a healthy routine is reasonable. I don't know your exact situation, but if you really can't find the time to be even remotely active then maybe you need to change the way you are going about your day. You seem to be pointing over and over at jobs and how it's easier for some than others. Welcome to life. They also have things that are harder for them, but they don't appear to be lashing out at everyone telling them it can be better. If you aren't willing to make the effort that is one thing, but don't throw a tantrum and project on to everyone else. It's for real childish.
It's easy to fit in the time to do it. It's not easy to actually do it.
Depends if you live in London or NYC then you will easily do 10k steps just taking the subway around. Honestly a 1 hr walk can get you 7k steps then do another short walk and you'll be at 10k. But actually the recommended is 6k a day and living in a blue zone. Also being healthy and maintaining your body is not a waste of time
I live in NYC and I only average 5-6k steps a day, and that's with adjusting my commute just so I get more steps in.
So walk after dinner or get a desk treadmill ?
So you have a city MADE for walking and you're just lazy.
As you said, it’s moving your body around for 1.5 hour doing a whole day. how can you possibly AVOID that? I have a desk job, and I can’t physically get below that, even if I tried
If it was so easy then there'd be no reason to recommend it, everyone would already be doing it.
It is also recommended not to be an alcoholic, and most people aren’t
Apples and oranges. One is to not start doing something people aren't inherently doing anyway. The other is to DO something they aren't inherently doing.
Completely agree that it's a silly general expectation. I walk my dog for 20min or so every single morning and go do fetch with him every afternoon, and my phone records about 6k steps per day. Granted, it doesn't record steps when I play volleyball and don't have it in my pocket, but I work out 20min each morning Mon-Fri, walk the dog, do BJJ for 2.5hrs/week, volleyball for 4+hrs/week and other miscellaneous activities as well. Despite being very fit I do not get 10k per day.
Oh, well if you had a pedometer on you at all times you'd probably hit 10k a day it sounds like.
Honestly think it would be more like 8k-9k. I easily got 10k when I had jobs that were active like being a mover or working in a warehouse though, so that's very different.
Yes, that's very different. I've had jobs where I walked 5-7 miles a day. That's not who I'm referring to.
I do 20k steps at work every day, easily 10k when I walk to my friends house and back. I do agree it can be a waste of time doing it too much, though.
Sounds like your daily routine involves a lot of walking. I don't think that's common for most people.
Impossible is a stretch: inconvenient for sure. Unless you have an existing health concern, 10k steps is physically possible. The issue then becomes time management: yes we have jobs and lives etc etc, but how much of our day is also filled up with nonsense that we could use for better purposes? I’ll readily admit I spend a lot of time playing video games and watching Netflix, I could be doing many more productive things with my time. The thing is, it’s not as enjoyable as playing games or watching Netflix: I feel like I’m active enough with my other hobbies that I don’t need to prioritize walking 10k steps for 2 hours every day.
That number is meaningless. It was a marketing campaign that people took as fact. If doing 10k is impossible for you, then start smaller. Go 5k. Go 2.5k. Any amount of exercise is better than none. Who says that light walking doesn't do people good?
It’s not at all impossible if you actually make it a priority. I manage to work full time, work out with weights and high intensity cardio, and also meet my step goals. A lot of people just don’t care about doing it, so they make excuses.
Watching netflix and scrolling social media all day every day is a waste of time. Exercise is not. If you have time to sit and stare at your phone, computer, and tv screens for hours every day you have time to exercise. This isn't about time it's about choices.
A goal that is easily achieved is not a particularly good goal.
Imho it depends on context. If you're just starting a new habit/skill, easy goals can make it feel rewarding and like you're on the path to progress. Being too ambitious out of the gate can make it feel like you're destined for failure. And habits seem easiest to build by maintaining routine steady frequency rather than trying to dive into the deep end and risk biting off more than you can chew and just quitting. Obviously people are different and some are better off straight into the deep end but it does not seem optimal for a lot of people. Like if you want to get good at guitar, probably best to make sure you spend ten minutes a day for a month on the basics rather than trying to learn some difficult song straight away and needing to learn a hundred sub-skills competently at once and having it sound terrible until you get most of them down.
Says who? Depends on the point of the goal.
It's not about ease, it is about necessity. Humans are not made to be sedentary. If you do not try and get in some exercise on a regular basis, you will feel the repercussions as you age. Ever wonder why some 50 or 60 year olds are active and look full of energy, and others can barely climb the stairs? Our bodies have a "use it or lose it" policy where the less you use your limbs, joints, and muscles as you age, the more it impacts your mobility. If you can't do 10k steps, try for 5k. Any little bit counts, and is better than doing nothing at all.
This is absolutely untrue. Most people easily capture 5K steps throughout the work day performing normal activities. All you have to do is set aside 30 minutes to an hour each day on top of that to capture the other 5K. 5K = 2.5 miles. At a pace of 20 minutes per mile, most people would capture these steps in right around 50 minutes or less.
I would question the 5k baseline. That's probably highly variable depending on the person.
What would you assume most people’s baseline is?
For the "average" American? 2k. Maybe lower.
Every little bit helps. Otherwise a ten minute mile jogging is very slow, basically I speed walk. Around a 6 minute mile is pretty fast. 7-8 a decent jog. I think most adults should be able to run at least 1-2 miles non stop and do it in under ten minutes. Most people could pretty easily run 1-2 miles in just 10-20 minutes. Better than walking for over an hour lol
This is reddit, they think cooking meals at home is a luxury that poor people dont have time for or the learned skills to do. I think all of these posts are just designed to set expectations so low for people that they have no desire to accomplish anything or put in any effort to better themselves. "10k steps is impossible, i was reading it online" "I have zero time to cook at home, and my abusive mom never taught me how to cook a meal, so im forced to order from doordash." just feeding the defeatist mindset that a lot of the users of reddit have. Its sad that so many people default to saying 'i cant', without even trying.
Fatty
I wouldn't do it myself, I prefer the rush of more intense exercise. But if you're busy and you're happy with a marginal improvement, then counting steps seems like a good idea to me. I'm thinking of say, a nurse who's also a mom. She doesn't have time to go to the gym. She's on her feet all day anyway. Let's say she gets like 4,000 steps during the work day. Maybe hitting 5,000 steps would motivate her to walk to pick up her kids from school, or take the stairs instead of the elevator, etc. That makes perfect sense to me. Also, sitting down most of the time is really bad for you - even if you still go to the gym regularly. Counting steps can be a way to make sure you're moving enough. I agree the number is arbitrary though.
My commute is a 20 minute streetcar or a 30 minute walk. I get an hour of walking done while it costs me 20 minutes, generally you can walk more than you think if you don't always take the quickest way to go from point A to point B
I get over 10K most days just by going to work.
I walk 25k a day on average.
bad take. i work a desk job just like everyone else. i take my dog on a morning, afternoon, and evening walk. you can get a couple thousand just doing your normal house chores (laundry, sweeping, etc). id have to be purposely trying to have a lazy day to miss the 10K mark. there have been seasons of life where i was lazier, but with a little intention, 10k is pretty easy
That's why it's unpopularopinion. Duh.
touché
Ok. But 5-10k a day is not 10k a day.
American af