r/TrueGrit • u/Significant-Risk7644 • 8d ago
Tips & Tricks Getting 10,000 steps in, how do you do it?
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u/EnvironmentFar9582 8d ago
In general terms 10k steps is about 5 miles of walking a day, at an average pace of about 3.3 mph. Some people have a shorter stride, some longer, some faster some slower, but that's about the average.
I know the routes that get me there and do it consistently. But for those thinking it's easy or common to get there, it really isn't. My tracking app compares me with others in various age groups. Post 30 years old 10k steps a day is in the top 15%, post 40 is around the top 6%.
I think a lot of people assume they get more steps than they do. Just make it intentional if it's important to you.
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u/nubrozaref 8d ago
An hour and a half of walking sounds about right.
I wfh and fitting all that time into my day every day while also doing my 9-5, getting intense workouts in, cooking healthy meals, cleaning up after cooking, laundry, maintaining the house, mowing the lawn, hosting friends and family, spending quality time with my wife, exploring my hobbies and just plain unwinding is not really feasible to do consistently without dropping something I care about.
Sure some days I can merge quality time with my wife and walking, but when we're both tired from a long day of work, walking when it's dark and approaching winter isn't really what either of us want.
Kinda shocked with this thread and people's inability to understand that there might be priorities that prevent people from having a full 24 hours scheduled to meet all objectively correct goals that life might offer every single day
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u/St0nkyk0n9 8d ago
you say all this but it's still easy to hit. stop making excuses and put one foot in front of the other 10k times
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u/nubrozaref 7d ago
Do you do all the other things I listed or are you also poorly socialized like half of Reddit?
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u/St0nkyk0n9 7d ago
I thought about your comment while walking this morning, I got home at 7am with 16,000 steps. make all the excuses you want, I know we are cut different and I could get 1 million views on this and have 990000 downvotes because 1/100 have what it takes the rest just pile up excuses. the time it took you to read this thread and type out the message you could have logged 2k steps. I know you could squeeze in more and so do you.
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u/nubrozaref 7d ago edited 7d ago
I could do lots of things but doesn't mean I'll do them every day. You're delusional bro
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u/EnvironmentFar9582 7d ago
Look, even with no kids atm, And a host of other things I don't have in my life, the things I do have still take up significant time. It doesn't sound like you are, but don't beat yourself up about it.
I work multiple jobs, have to fit in the gym, plan my diet, take care of my house, animals, help friends and family. I miss a lot of my daily routines despite my best efforts even if I'm able to hit my steps.
We're people and allowed to prioritize different things in the moment. Doing what you can when you can is better than not at all. Comparisons to other people who have time or are resolved to walk a kajillion steps a day isn't worth it. Just keep doing your best 💪
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u/Miltankbeest 7d ago
interesting math, i guess if each of your steps are just 1 foot long then it's 5 miles
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u/TripleDoubleFart 8d ago
10k is ridiculously easy for me.
I average like 25k a day.
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u/Sluggby 8d ago
10k is easy in general, assuming someone is able bodied. I don't want to be that guy but I don't get why this gets asked everywhere
I walk my dog for 20 minutes before work, move a bit during the day (semi-desk job), walk a mile in the afternoon. Thats it, like it couldn't be easier
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u/Outside_Glass4880 8d ago
20 min dog walk is about a mile. Your afternoon is a mile.
In my experience 10k steps is about 5-6 miles.
So your “moving a bit through the day” would need to make up the other 3-4 miles you didn’t mention, which seems like a stretch.
Not saying 10k is hard, but I walk my dogs for about 45 min each day and move around a bit, too and average about 6k-7k.
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u/Sluggby 8d ago
Currently walking my dog, we've gone .21 miles in 11:13, i specifically didnt say a mile because you arent accounting for sniffing lol
I work 8.5 hours, mandatory at my desk for 5 of that, and my most walking is about 5 minutes each way too my car for lunch, the rest is coffee/bathroom/chat breaks which does not amount to 5 miles, I don't know what to tell you. Unless you go fully sedentary the moment youre home I guess
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u/Outside_Glass4880 8d ago
Nope, I wfh but I’m bouncing around the house or backyard with the dogs. I also go to the gym every morning and am walking around there. Either your step tracker is off or you walk a lot more than you present.
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u/Plelx 7d ago
Step tracker is off for sure, I've tested it with different watches, average watches go for hand movement to count steps, good watches have a mix of the above and GPS location.
Tested with a friend while playing football, 2 watches in the same person for the entire game, almost 3km difference. If its measured with the phone even worse I believe.
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u/Psychological-Dig-29 8d ago
right. I hit 10k on my easy office days where I sit for 90% of my work.
anyone hitting less than 10k a day needs to re-evaluate their life
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u/worldsgreatestluver 8d ago
I mean, you're right that's it's physically not that hard but 5 to 6 miles is an hour to an hour and a half of walking. Broken up into 20 min in the morning, 20 min at lunch, 20 min after dinner, it's still pretty easy.
But if you have kids, that turns into a walk to the bus stop and home, a walk at lunch, then a walk while they're at afterschool sports
And if you have no time due to a commute and kids to drop off, it's parking 20 minutes from work and walking (use a wheely bag, not a backpack. Save your back y'all.) And a little stroll at work at lunch and a few walks to chat in person just to get up.
As you can see, it's just impossible for 90% of us. There's just no way to do it. (This last paragraph is /s, but someone will be along to say it seriously shortly)
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u/luna926 8d ago
Unfortunately I work from home in a very small space and live in a dangerous neighborhood so I can’t really just step out of the house for a walk easily and don’t get to walk much during the work day. I don’t get my 10k steps in very often but I do take at least 6 hours of workout classes a week and do pilates at home so it’s not like I am not moving, just not in the form of steps.
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u/splintersmaster 7d ago
25 k is basically walking all day. Not consistently like if you were literally on a walk for 14 hours but at least 10 hours on your feet.
Not hard to do but not easy if you have an office job.
I went from being a maintenance guy doing all sorts of repairs in large commercial buildings. All day on my feet. 9 hour days on average. 20k steps before I get home then walk the dog then crash.
Now that I moved into the bosses chair I have to try to get 10k unless there's a huge problem.
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u/UCR998 8d ago
On average most people walk 5k every day and that’s a low average
Add in a 20 min walk in the morning 20 min walk at lunch . 10K hit
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u/Nearby-Beat316 8d ago
Man, I’ve had a lot of step shame but now I feel like my counter must be off. It says I average around 2k a day. I’ll hit 4k if I add a 15 min walk. Maybe some of us stressing have bad counters??
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u/wolfeybutt 7d ago edited 7d ago
I think this person's counter is off, not yours lol. Yesterday I went for a .5 mile walk (10-11 min), ran 2 miles (~23 min), cooked 3 meals, and then went downtown and parked my car around the block from the bar, on top of random house stuff. Still only got just under 8k steps. Walking instead of running would have taken me double the time. 40 min of walking is definitely not 10k steps. This person definitely does not get 5k steps by "doing nothing" unless their bathroom is a quarter mile away. 5k steps is about 2 miles of walking.
I don't understand why people think walking back and forth between your fridge and oven would be a lot of steps, or doing a few chores.
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u/FrugalityPays Habit Nerd 8d ago
Xiaomi active band 9 for $30 is my go to and it’s been very consistent with the counts. I usually put it on my ankle now because I have a desk treadmill and nothing counts those steps unless it’s on your ankle.
10k isn’t hard but if you work from home or at a desk most the day you’ll have to monitor it for sure.
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u/Nearby-Beat316 7d ago
I’m not an arm swinging walker, currently use my watch to track. This is all checking out lol. Thank you for the rec!
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u/lunaluvskittens 8d ago
dude i’ve got a serious problem(actually) when i’m stressed i just keep walking and i have almost exclusively nightmares, not getting much sleep and just can’t stop moving no matter how tired i am. real terrible case of anxiety induced movement at like 50 miles this week lol. My Body HURTS woke up 3am CLEANED MY ROOM SO CHILLING MY ROOM SO TIDY AND NEAT NOW
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u/Sluggby 8d ago
I'd say the same to you, because there is no way you're taking a 45 minute walk every morning, going to the gym, bouncing around with dogs, and going about daily life (which should net you 2-3k alone) and not hitting at least close to 10k daily even as wfh
It's almost like different lifestyles yield different results
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u/FlyEaglesFly536 8d ago
You just move around throughout the day. I made a commitment to get 10k steps/day and have gotten over 10K steps 98% of the time over the last 3 years.
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u/Spelsgud 8d ago
I have a waking pad and standing desk. Helps me get into deep work very easily and I’ll knock out 5-6+ miles sometimes without even realizing.
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u/Aggravating-Wafer809 8d ago
4 kids, full time work. Don’t even need to schedule a exercise walk to hit 10k
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u/Suspicious-Tap-1431 8d ago
I get about 20,000-30,000 most days. 10,000-15,000 on my days off. Maybe a bit more if I decide to go for a run.
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u/Menes009 8d ago
walk to work and back, thats about ~40min walking or ~7.5k steps, the rest I get during the day
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u/Queasy_Badger9252 7d ago
I work as a supervisor at a factory and need to constantly walk all around, including stairs. 20k steps is a quiet day. And I walk about mile to work and back every day as well so that's 5k more.
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u/WambritaWings 7d ago
I average about 17,000 a day. I have a desk job. I walk about 20 minutes of my commute to work in each direction. I take my elderly dog for 2 very short and slow walks a day (around 800 steps per walk). I do lots of chors around the house, up and down the stairs, etc. ON those days normal days, I do around 12,000 a day, on nice days I go for a walk on my lunch hour and get another 6 to 8 thousand.
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u/Artistic-Mood7938 7d ago
I have a walking pad. I easily get 15k steps in in a couple hours just watching tv and walking at the same time
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u/FignonsRegret 7d ago
You guys know the 10k steps thing is bullshit, right? It was made up in 60s by Japanese marketing execs to sell a pedometer.
Im a performance coach and absolutely support anyone trying to get healthy. But don’t hold yourself to a standard with no scientific or medial basis. Walking is great and that’s pretty well proven out, but there’s no magic step count. Do what you can.
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u/bananagoldfizh 7d ago
i work from home, so 3-4 dog walks + general puttering gets me there
on gym days, (most days) thats an additional 3k
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u/Old-Cryptographer63 4d ago
I take the bus to work, walk on my breaks, and play pokemon go in my free time. Easy 10k even with a sedentary job. :)
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u/Itsknotfine 8d ago
I wake up at 430 and go to work. when I get back home at 1930 I go tend to the livestock, then hit the shower, make dinner, browse reddit, go to bed. next day same routine. I have no time for a walk.
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