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Comment by dan1234 | Hacker News Reader

I've never understood the fascination with counting 'steps' - a smaller person will cover 10,000 steps before a taller person, due to stride length.

Why not just tell people get 30mins (or whatever today's recommendation is) of brisk walking in? They wouldn't even need to buy a pedometer/smart watch!

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For folks like my wife and me, who are really bad about regular exercise and have lots of competing demands, I‘ve seen step tracking actually be the prompt for that 30m walk. Seeing a particularly low step count later in the day has often been a motivator to get out.

I think there's value in game-ifying activity (makes it more fun). Also consider that this is a blanket recommendation considering ~80-90% of Americans don't meet leisure activity guidelines. I agree that the time should also be presented - and steps may be useful too to help people realize that it can be distributed throughout the day and doesn't HAVE to be a time consuming/strenuous 30 minute bout to see significant benefits.

Because it's a situation where an approximate measure works better than a precise, but fussy one. Timing your walking is not exactly comfortable, while pedometers... just work.

(One could also make a point that effort is also relative to size, but truth be told it really doesn't matter - just having a rough idea that you're moving is ok)

But then the article starts debating the fussy details about 7k vs 9k vs 10k steps. Generalising, without strong reason to believe otherwise, any western adult would probably benefit from more activity regardless. Don't scare off baby steps by making 10k a quantum goal but also don't placate minimal effort by applauding 7k - or having walking as your only source of exercise.

Some people needs to be gamed to do something. I find turfgame.com to be my carrot to get out more but that one is best in Sweden and as long as you live in a halfway big town. You take zones, your neighbour blocks you and takes them back.

Others are happy when they can compare number of steps to their co-workers I guess.

I love this concept! Sadly, no one plays it near me

It's an old game so might need some fresh blood. You could do some flyers, there are some on the forum to download and print :-)

I usually stop and talk to people when they look at me funnily. You do look funny when you come on the bicycle - stopping in the middle of nowhere, stand still for 15 seconds and then run off again. They are all curios what you are doing and how it works, especially older people and some even start turfing after a while.

I did play a game similar to that called Ingress (I think it was by Google, and they were presumably collecting GPS data to improve their pedestrian mapping).

I'll check out turfgame when I get a chance!

Respectfully - Ingress is by Niantic, the same company behind Pokemon Go (and maybe that Harry Potter version?). They share data between the two games - points of interest tagged in Ingress still usually map to Pokemon Go Stops and Gyms; energy (can't remember the name for it - the golden energy you collect by walking near) usually maps to individual Pokemon spawn locations. They get their raw map data from OpenStreetMap; I'm not sure if anyone knows where they get their specific data on user/internet use density which informs some of their map features, but Google GPS analytics is probably a fair guess.

I used to play a lot of Pokemon Go, but plenty of things made me drift away; as for motivating me to walk, it kinda helped, but really just ended up with a lot of "walk 300 ft. (~100m), stop and stare/tap at your phone for several minutes", vs. the more enjoyable and directly beneficial (towards distance/time/step goals) uninterrupted pattern.

It can be a bit scarse on zones so if you can't find any zones in your area, suggest some in the app and then go to the forum and lobby for them [1]. The name of the area and why it's a nice place for a zone is a good start. The zone makers are all working on spare time so can take a while until you get your zones but they will add them sooner if they are easy to find :-)

[1] https://maqqansturf.wordpress.com/2020/05/29/zonemaking-2-0/

For the same reason you do n reps in anything fitness related. Running for 30 minutes is going to be healthy, no doubt about that, but someone getting in 6000 repetitions is going to be more healthy than someone getting in 4000.

It's a good cumulative measure of activity that might be spread over a day. Living in a dense urban area I can easily accumulate 5000 steps just running a few errands. It's a bit harder to track and add up segments of "moving time."

pedometer is easier than stopping/starting timer.

the phone’s built in pedometer replaced run trackers like Strava for me for this reason. i found “start run” too overt. now i’ll go on a spontaneous detour just to collect a few more steps.

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