How do I get to 15k-20k steps a day with a full time job ?

[ijustlovejesus]

@happilyretired Sounds like you are making excuses. You want to walk 15k-20k per day, but you won't wake up and dedicate time to walk prior to work. You won't walk during your lunch; meal prep the night before, take 10 minutes to eat, and walk the rest. I guarantee that if you are working from home, you are not glued to your work the entirety of 7 hours. Get up, go outside for 10 minutes and walk.

Okay, good, you walk for an hour after work, bad, the mentality that walking at a relaxed pace will take from fat instead of glycogen. Are you walking at at least 135bpm? If no, don't even consider that your body is taking from fat stores.

If you want 15k-20k steps, only you can do this yourself. There is no hack in trying to get more steps. Just go out and get the damn steps. Stop making excuses. You're going to say you have no time, you're wrong. You have the time, you just have to switch your daily routine to find it. Don't be lazy.

 

[adrianwalker]

@happilyretired I’m usually around 8000 at the end of the day, is there a reason you want to walk that much other than the weight loss, because there’s other ways to do low impact. You can always keep your walking and add low impact exercises, even if you don’t have a gym/equipment there’s other things you can do with just your body weight that will help

 

[hjw]

@happilyretired Walking desk, add the treadmill into your gym routine, do an hour and a half walk instead of an hour.
I wfh and use my 30 mins for walking and just eat while I work (could work if your job allows it might not be able to if it involves calls etc)
You don’t have to wake up that early but even an extra 30 mins in the morning will get your steps up or starting half an hour later shouldn’t change your routine too much

 

[greenteaa]

@happilyretired I purchased a walking pad and I try to walk at a quicker pace for at least 10-15 mins in the morning and 10-15 mins when I get home from work/after lunch. Sometimes I'll even bust it out and walk at a slow pace when watching tv. This has really added up quickly and I can easily reach over 10,000 steps on a more relaxed day. Good luck!

 

[shortyj74]

@happilyretired I work from home too and 8k is pretty impressive if you’re not running at the gym. All I do at the gym is the treadmill and on gym days I do around 12k a day but non gym days I struggle to manage more than 6k.
Diet is key. I’m currently doing intermittent fasting which seems to be working but slowly. Average a couple lbs dropped a week. No eating or drinking until 11:30am and then I stop at 7:30pm. Maybe give that a try

 

[dikkilona]

@happilyretired But 10k step is the ideal, why do you set yourself for failure????

 

[emdee]

@happilyretired 20k steps sounds unsustainable for most people, so sticking to your deficits and walking 8k-10k steps a day is more than good enough to reach your goal weight.

It’s better to stay consistent with a smaller goal than to overwork yourself and give up. You’re honestly doing great, especially since building muscles at the gym will help you burn even more fat in the long run.

 

[andyh106]

@happilyretired I'm in healthcare and work 7 days a week (weekdays outpatient 9am-6pm, weekend inpatient shifts vary but are also 8-9h long). 3 days a week, I wake up super early around 5ish, shower/get ready, then drive to a specific grocery store roughly halfway along my ~14-mile commute. I walk the remaining 7 miles to work carrying a backpack with my scrubs and toiletries, stop in an office building about a block from my office to change and freshen up, then walk the final block and start my work day. At the end of the day, I change back into my T-shirt and leggings to walk the 7 miles back to my car. Usually get there around 8-8:30pm, grab food from the grocery store if needed, then drive home. Combined with the walking I do throughout the day (my office is on the clinic's ground floor but I use the upstairs bathrooms, fax machine, and fridge to get some steps in), I average 16-17 miles or 35-40k steps (I'm short) on those days...which I tell myself makes up for the 6-8k/day I get the rest of the week lol.

 

[zman0101]

@happilyretired You could try jogging instead of walking which would burn more calories and reduce the steps you need to take to get your goal.

Or jump rope which is a great workout. Start off doing one minute on one minute off. Then move to two on one off. Keep increasing until you’re doing five minute sessions.

 

[mathewpalathunkal]

@zman0101 Yup. Even a block of a slowish jogging will get you a chunk of steps along with cardio benefits. I find my appetite is suppressed after cardio too. I think 20K steps might be setting yourself up for failure though.

 

[gbooster]

@happilyretired Try to "work to deserve every meal". Before you get to eat your food, you need to go out for a walk, or complete a set of the exerciee of your choice , whether it is push-ups, or squats...surprisingly effective, and will also callous your mind.

 

[dawn16]

@happilyretired Become a professional runner.

 

[toodle]

@happilyretired Walking 20K steps at a normal pace isn’t going to burn up fat. I have a job that requires much walking. I average 8K steps a day and up to 12K max. I wouldn’t lose weight without a calorie deficit. 20K steps isn’t going to burn calories unless it’s at a rapid pace with a calorie deficit. Start using the stairs over the elevator. At the gym, focus on 30 minutes of weight lifting and 30 minutes of cardio. Jogging on the treadmill, or walk at the max incline at 4.0 speed. Do aerobic exercises, leg raises, push ups, sit ups, planks. You have to sweat and breathe hard to burn the fat. There is no easy way to burn fat without sweat and hard work. Weight lifting needs to be vigorous where you are tired. You can do 20 or 30 reps of a lighter weight until you’re tired.

 

[fishdf]

@happilyretired Maybe get a job which requires a lot of walking e.g. gardener/grounds maintenance. Pay is shit but you're guaranteed a fair bit of exercise I used to do around 20-30k steps a day during the summer

 

[jede289]

@happilyretired Make no excuses. If you had a full time job and you met this gorgeous chick you wanted to wife up. I bet youd still make time. Majority of the people that say they dont have time usually mean they dont know how to manage it. Trust me. The avg person is usually not short on time in a day.

 

[jede289]

Looks like some ppl cant accept the hard truth. If a full time job is keeping you so busy u cant do sht else. Thats a you problem that you need to figure out. You think elon musk complains about no time running 3-5 businesses? Its all excuses. People train for marathons with a full time job, people have kids while maintaining a full time job. Yall honestly have no excuse with simply just a full time job. Honest you could have got in like 1000 more stepz instead of putting this reddit post together