4 ms·

So the conclusion was benefits start to plateau around: for women ~7500 and men ~8000 steps. Truly 10k not a bad estimate. So the answer is yes roughly, get out

by foxes 5y ago

So the conclusion was benefits start to plateau around: for women ~7500 and men ~8000 steps. Truly 10k not a bad estimate. So the answer is yes roughly, get out and be active.

vinni2 5y ago
The point is 10000 steps is not scientifically grounded.
- leipert 5y ago
  But it still isn’t bad advice. To be honest the difference between 8.5k and 10k is not that much (maybe 10 to 15 minutes if you are on a walk anyway). I also think that 10k can serve as a psychological goal. Anyhow recently I heard a someone say: Don’t become a slave to the metric, the glass is half full. If you did 7k steps, that’s still better than 3k. It’s not about fulfilling the 10k, more about searching for opportunities where you can get your steps „for free“. Ordering food? Maybe get it as take away. Using the elevator to go to the 11th floor? Walk up the first two or three.
  - samhain 5y ago
    To reference the top comment right now… I’d imagine if you are looking at the metric at all, you’ve already lost. This, coming from someone who’s mother was walking 10-20k steps per day for decades, and seeing them fully stop walking after a few weeks with a Fitbit.
    - teekert 5y ago
      Why would the fitbit make her stop walking and how do you know she did 10-20k steps before the fitbit... And I have more questions after you answer this one :) The steps are a proxy metric for activity, you can correlate it with how you feel or with the amount of backpain you experience in the evening. I don't see how I'm loosing looking at this metric.
    - helmholtz 5y ago
      Could not disagree more. Yeah, yeah, stop and smell the roses and all that, I get it. But there are a tonne of people, my mother included, who are spurred on greatly by the need to fill out the rings on their Apple watch. It's the thing that gets them out of the door, the metric. We bought the watch for her hopeful she would actually use it, and not leave it buried somewhere in a drawer, and it's worked an absolute treat. She's walked more, and more strenuously, since she got the watch. She loves sharing the graphs of her hikes/walks, and the km covered. Even for me, as much as I hate giving away my medical data, I love compiling GPX files of hikes I've been on, or keeping streaks of commuting by bike everyday. Metrics are great, and I don't think it's as simple as a dichotomy between being all about number crunching, vs all about feeling the grass under your feet. One can do both.
- stavros 5y ago
  This claim is factually true, for some version of truth, but also harmful. Someone reading "10k steps is not scientifically grounded" might think "well then screw walking, I'll just watch TV", whereas the actual truth is "It's not 10k, more like 9k". Sure, 10k might not be scientifically grounded, but it's close enough and has a big enough benefit that it's not worth refining the estimate.
Bancakes 5y ago
If those are averages, it makes sense a lot of people will be below average, and more steps would be OK.
- thisgoodlife 5y ago
  I just knew it! It’s entirely possible that 1k steps is enough for me. :D
d_silin 5y ago
A snippet of data from myself (year: steps/day) 2018: 9411 2019: 9250 2020: 9933 2021: 9277 In my case, pandemic changed absolutely nothing in my lifestyle. I live in major North American city FYI.

by foxes 5y ago

So the conclusion was benefits start to plateau around: for women ~7500 and men ~8000 steps. Truly 10k not a bad estimate. So the answer is yes roughly, get out and be active.

vinni2 5y ago

The point is 10000 steps is not scientifically grounded.

leipert 5y ago
But it still isn’t bad advice. To be honest the difference between 8.5k and 10k is not that much (maybe 10 to 15 minutes if you are on a walk anyway). I also think that 10k can serve as a psychological goal. Anyhow recently I heard a someone say: Don’t become a slave to the metric, the glass is half full. If you did 7k steps, that’s still better than 3k. It’s not about fulfilling the 10k, more about searching for opportunities where you can get your steps „for free“. Ordering food? Maybe get it as take away. Using the elevator to go to the 11th floor? Walk up the first two or three.
- samhain 5y ago
  To reference the top comment right now… I’d imagine if you are looking at the metric at all, you’ve already lost. This, coming from someone who’s mother was walking 10-20k steps per day for decades, and seeing them fully stop walking after a few weeks with a Fitbit.
  - teekert 5y ago
    Why would the fitbit make her stop walking and how do you know she did 10-20k steps before the fitbit... And I have more questions after you answer this one :) The steps are a proxy metric for activity, you can correlate it with how you feel or with the amount of backpain you experience in the evening. I don't see how I'm loosing looking at this metric.
  - helmholtz 5y ago
    Could not disagree more. Yeah, yeah, stop and smell the roses and all that, I get it. But there are a tonne of people, my mother included, who are spurred on greatly by the need to fill out the rings on their Apple watch. It's the thing that gets them out of the door, the metric. We bought the watch for her hopeful she would actually use it, and not leave it buried somewhere in a drawer, and it's worked an absolute treat. She's walked more, and more strenuously, since she got the watch. She loves sharing the graphs of her hikes/walks, and the km covered. Even for me, as much as I hate giving away my medical data, I love compiling GPX files of hikes I've been on, or keeping streaks of commuting by bike everyday. Metrics are great, and I don't think it's as simple as a dichotomy between being all about number crunching, vs all about feeling the grass under your feet. One can do both.
stavros 5y ago
This claim is factually true, for some version of truth, but also harmful. Someone reading "10k steps is not scientifically grounded" might think "well then screw walking, I'll just watch TV", whereas the actual truth is "It's not 10k, more like 9k". Sure, 10k might not be scientifically grounded, but it's close enough and has a big enough benefit that it's not worth refining the estimate.

Bancakes 5y ago

If those are averages, it makes sense a lot of people will be below average, and more steps would be OK.

thisgoodlife 5y ago
I just knew it! It’s entirely possible that 1k steps is enough for me. :D

d_silin 5y ago

A snippet of data from myself (year: steps/day) 2018: 9411 2019: 9250 2020: 9933 2021: 9277 In my case, pandemic changed absolutely nothing in my lifestyle. I live in major North American city FYI.