10, 000 steps a day? With my fitbit

It has been said that we should walk 10,000 steps a day for health, fitness and weight loss.

How far is 10, 000 steps? Based on our average stride of 2.5ft  (76cm) a stride, it works out to approximately 5 miles or 8 km.

Is that possible for a normal person who doesnt include exercise in their daily routine?

I would say: No.

I am not a sedentary person. But neither am I all that active. But I am absent-minded. As a result, I find I am going up and down those steps in my home to retrieve things. I average 12 flights of steps a day. In the first week, I averaged 6300 steps a day. In the second week, a dismal 4800 steps. The number of steps for the 3rd week is not representative as I walked 13 km over 3 days as part of my effort to get more exercise into my routine. (in the first two weeks, I only swam).

My friends with pedometers have posted average readings of 4000 steps a day.

For most people with a desk-bound job, I think it is most difficult to achieve that 10,000 magic number.

In the 3 weeks that I have had my fitbit, I have only managed to exceed that magic number 4 times.

The first was on a day when two of my children had medical/dental appointments, and for both, I took the stairs instead of waiting for the lift, and on that day I had walked half a kilometer to the shops and back. And I took public transport down to town for a bit of shopping plus dinner with my girlfriends. All that just to touch that magic 10,000.

And for the other 3 occasions that I managed it, was when I did a 3- 5 km walk in the morning.

That's how difficult it is to be fit, healthy and get some weight loss!!

So, if you want to lose weight, like my fitbit always flashes me: Burn it, move it, Vamoose!!

Me and my Fitbit.

I know I am not active. I try to be, but no where near where I would really like to be.

Recently I have seen my friends post their pedometer readings on FB for a record of their "activity" level.

That got me curious as to how active I really was. Then a friend told me about Up by Jawbone.

It monitors your activity level, as well as sleep.

I tried to get it at but was unsuccessful but got it's competitor instead - the Fitbit.

The guy at the shop couldnt advise me on how to use it, but I managed to figure it out from help on-line.

I have had it for slightly more than a week and I got my first fitbit report this week.

I am nowhere near the recommended 10,000 steps a day, but definitely better than my friends' average of 4000+ a day.  I average around 6300 steps a day which works out to approx 4.1km!! My most active day for the week was 9300 steps which unfortunately falls short of the 10,000 I was hoping for.

I also found out that I climbed on average 12 flights of stairs a day. I tell you, this is due to my absentmindedness!! I forget something, and I have to go back up to get it.

Another thing which it monitors is my sleep. I only sleep an average of 6 and a half hours a night. Sad. I used to average 8-9 hours. I need to get in more sleep. But somehow, my body clock automatically wakes me up each day. I reckon it has to do with age.

I tried logging in my food intake, but gave up after the first couple of days coz, by the time I got to logging in my breakfast and lunch, it tells me I have exceeded my recommended calorie intake for the day. And that's even before I have started on dinner!! Guess I have found the reason for my weight gain. I must walk/exercise more, coz I cant cut down my food consumption. I really dont think I eat that much on the average, but the fitbit obviously thinks otherwise.

One good thing about this gadget is that what I will do now is: nearing the end of the day, when I take a look at it and see that I havent walked much during the day, I will just climb a few more flights of stairs - just for the sake of increasing my activity level!!

How active are you??