Has anyone heard of the 10,000 steps program? I bought a pedometer and try to get 10,000 steps in (a little more difficult since I am on winter break). Does anyone know if you have to break a sweat when you do the 10,000 steps? I use the steps that I get from walking around the mall or walking to the bus stop or around the grocery store. Does this benefit me at all?
no you don't have to break a sweat. you just need to get 10,00 steps in during a day. i wear my pedometer to work and on average, manage to get in about 15,000 in an 8 hour day. any activity benefits you. any movement burns more calories than non movement. your average american only gets in about 5000 steps a day. doubling that really has its benefits. when i first started trying to lose weight i concentrated hard on my 10,000 steps. while most days i would get that in at work, some days i would have to come home and go on a walk ( and later in my progress, a run). i really think that this helped me lose a lot of the 80 pounds that i lost. just keep moving.
No sweat required. The 10K steps are just a guide for how much movement we all should be doing as a minimum. These steps are for your health, not for weight loss or appearacne, just your heart and lung health (which affects everything else).
The pedometers are really useful tools as they are a pretty simple way to find out how lazy we all actually are with cars, buses, elevators (escalators and lifts in the UK). The low number most people normally achieve with their ped can often be a really good motivator for some simple lifestyle changes, like walking an extra bus stop...
Once you get used to doing the 10k every day you can start to have fun with more activity. If you know that you get 10k in your normal every day life then you know you have enough exercise to keep you basically healthy, warding off some of those age related conditions. Then you can start playing to get fitness and weight loss benefits.
As Laura said consider the ped as step 1 and enjoy progressing to step 2 and beyond as you feel fitter and healthier and find simple and enjoyable ways of including more activity in your daily life!
It's something that my work encourage, they gave out free pedometers to some people, I didn't get one . But I am going to get one next month, it's got a little radio in it, so I can bop along the street listening to music. I already walk a lot, so I will be interested to see how many steps I already do in a day!
I've just started wearing mine again -- I'm going to challenge myself to get in that 10,000 today!! Yesterday I only wore it for a few hours and only managed about 2,000 - but then went home to do my 4 mile WATP dvd -- anyway, I am with you!! Walk, Walk, Walk!
Well, on an average day...not actually trying to get steps I get about 7,000. When I try to I usually end up topping 10,000 steps. I got this walking book and it said that if your average was 7,000 steps you should aim for 12,000. So maybe that will be my new goal. YEY for walking!
I've recently started wearing a pedometer. Last night I wanted to see how long it would take me to walk 10,000 steps, so I got on my treadmill while watching the Oscars. At a steady 3 mph walking pace, it took me about 82 minutes on the treadmill to reach 10,000 steps. So, all in all I walked about 16,000 steps yesterday!
I just recently got my pedometer up and working again with a new battery. I was very curious how my average day would fit in with the 10,000 step thing. I ended up getting 15,000 steps yesterday on the first day I wore it all day!!! Woohoo!
Last edited by thin-n-strong; 03-03-2005 at 02:39 PM.
Reason: to fix code
10,000 steps
. But I am going to get one next month, it's got a little radio in it, so I can bop along the street listening to music. I already walk a lot, so I will be interested to see how many steps I already do in a day!
