Get Active » How Many Steps Do You Walk Each Day?
HOW MANY STEPS DO YOU WALK EACH DAY?
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HOW FAR IS 10,000 STEPS? The average person's stride length is approximately 2.5 feet long. It takes just over 2,000 steps to walk one mile, and 10,000 steps is close to 5 miles. |
Wearing a pedometer is an easy way to track your steps each day. Start by wearing the pedometer every day for one week. Put it on when you get up in the morning and wear it until bed time. Record your daily steps in a log or notebook. By the end of the week you will know your average daily steps. You might be surprised how many (or how few) steps you get in each day.
A sedentary person may only average 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day. For these people adding steps has many health benefits. A reasonable goal for most people is to increase average daily steps each week by 500 per day until you can easily average 10,000 per day.
Example: If you currently average 3000 steps each day, your goal for week one is 3500 each day. Your week 2 goal is 4000 each day. Continue to increase each week and you should be averaging 10,000 steps by the end of 14 weeks.
WHAT'S A HEALTHY WEIGHT FOR ME?
Check out your body mass index. This is a measure of weight based on height and is a great number for you to know so you can better understand your health risks.
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
HOW MANY CALORIES DO I BURN?
People often overestimate the calories they burn doing physical activities. For example, walking a mile briskly only burns about 92 calories for the average person. That's equal to about 8 ounces or 2/3 can of a regular soft drink.
Log your daily activities and see how many calories you are, or are not, burning at MyPyramidTracker.gov.