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Comment by cozzyd | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how remote work has impacted the average number of steps per day. I normally get ~5k steps from my commute (walk from home to train, walk from train to office and vice versa) without doing anything else. On days I work from home I'm definitely much more sedentary. Yes I can go on a walk to compensate, but I usually don't...

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Working from home has increased my physical activity. I'm able to go to parks and walking trails near by during breaks. Weight lift during lunch break and since I no longer lose 2 hours a day to commuting I'm able play sports like golf and hockey more frequently, not relying only on weekends to do these sports is amazing. Golf more because I am available more during day light time and hockey more because I am able to get other things done which frees up my night time.

I highly recommend “walking to lunch”. Assuming you eat at home just pick a certain location nearby to walk to and back either before or after you eat, tying it to lunch made it more reliable, at least for me. I don’t do it anymore now that I have the habit down and walk plenty every day but it really helped me get started.

WFH allowed me to get a dog.

That made me start running every day.

I am now on day 240 of my daily run streak (https://www.runeveryday.com/)

Dogs are an excellent reminder to get off your butt twice a day.

Nice work! Keep it up, you're well on your way.

Sounds like fun but I don't know if I could stay motivated in the winter.

Thank you! Once you start running, you realize weather is not really a factor.

I wear pretty much the same clothes even if it is -10C. Just need a beanie and some thin gloves.

But it may help to start running during summer. Once you are past 3-4 weeks of running it is harder to stop than to continue.

I do run. I also have no problem stopping in winter. I'm not nearly as hardy as you.

Though I do get a few runs in on an indoor track.

Biggest change for me was going from a city, where there was some walking every day—the train stop, grocery, meetups with friends—to the suburbs. Doesn't matter if it's WFH or commute, in most 'burbs the only required walk is to the garage.

My wife is working in healthcare and I'm working from home and we go for walks during lunch before she heads out for the evening shift. Not only am I getting up and moving around, we're spending more meaningful time together. If I was commuting to an office every morning, we would hardly see each other during the week.

During the pandemic era, I deliberately went for a one to two hour walk to nowhere in particular every evening after work for precisely this reason (at the height of the restrictions in Ireland, you had to stay within 2km of home, so I went in circles). Honestly it's about all that kept me going.

People move around way less.

There's a vocal group though, that will tell you how – finally – they're able to hit the gym four times a week.

It's less, but people think it's more. It might be true for some, some of the time for some months, but of course movement will decrease.

There probably should be data on this from Fitbit or something, no? Obviously biasd from the type of person who has a Fitbit but maybe Google or apple has less biased surveillance data...

You have a pretty pessimistic view. Regardless of WFH or going to office you need to make a conscious effort to move more.

Listen to good books while walking.

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