Average Daily Steps of a Typical 12-yo Boy

[Anonymous]

if your son wears one? i bought a activity tracker for my overweight son as suggested by his ped at last appointment. he obviously doesn't go out of his way to be activity but isn't sitting around all day either. we initially set 10k steps as the goal but he reached it very easily by just shooting hoops ~20 min once in the morning and once in the afternoon. what would be a reasonable target for him next?

(i know eating is bigger part of the equation but that's another topic.)

[Anonymous]

My 12 yo averages 17K steps a day.

[Anonymous]

Mine is averaging 17k each day except days when he has soccer practice or runs. On run days, it’s more like 20k and on practice days, it’s usually about 24k.

[Anonymous]

If he easily reaches the 10k set 15k as the next goal, go up from there in increments of 5k until everyone is happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he easily reaches the 10k set 15k as the next goal, go up from there in increments of 5k until everyone is happy.

What does that mean until everyone is happy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If he easily reaches the 10k set 15k as the next goal, go up from there in increments of 5k until everyone is happy.

What does that mean until everyone is happy?

Apparently Mom & kid want goal to be challenging, so until they are both satisfied with the goal/progression.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 12 yo averages 17K steps a day.

Anonymous wrote:Mine is averaging 17k each day except days when he has soccer practice or runs. On run days, it’s more like 20k and on practice days, it’s usually about 24k.

thank you PPs. may i ask what kind of activity and for how long when your boys avg 17k steps a day? especially in the summer when presumably no organized games/practices?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 12 yo averages 17K steps a day.

Anonymous wrote:Mine is averaging 17k each day except days when he has soccer practice or runs. On run days, it’s more like 20k and on practice days, it’s usually about 24k.

thank you PPs. may i ask what kind of activity and for how long when your boys avg 17k steps a day? especially in the summer when presumably no organized games/practices?

Mine does some camps in the summer, so I was thinking back to school year averages. Mine does go with me to walk our dogs every morning, and he and his friends race around playing Nerf, shooting hoops in the driveway, flashlight tag, and other similar activities. He also goes up and down the stairs in our house an absurd number of times every day.

[Anonymous]

Oh, our daily dog walk nets us each about 5500 steps and takes 30-45 min, depending on how long we spend talking to the other people out walking their dogs.

[Anonymous]

My son gets about 17,000 steps too. Funny how the kids are all similar, and I struggle as an adult to get 10-12,000.

[Anonymous]

Interesting! Looks like 17k is a very reasonable target for his age group.

[Anonymous]

If all he s doing all day is 40 min of shooting around with little running or other movement it doesn’t sound like ha tracker is accurate.

[Anonymous]

My 10 yo gets around 20,000 on a normal summer day. He doesn’t wear it for his one hour swim team practice or in the pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If all he s doing all day is 40 min of shooting around with little running or other movement it doesn’t sound like ha tracker is accurate.

Yeah, um, might want to make sure, uh, how do I put this... it's not being worn on his dominate hand. Since he's 12 and all.

I've had mine buzz to alert me I've hit my goal while doing lots of back and forth motion with my hands, like during a presentation.

Before we got one for my dad he used the one in the Health app on his iPhone. He kept boasting about how easily he got 15k steps and didn't understand why everyone else was shocked by his data and couldn't reach 10k. Then we realized what it was... he keeps his phone in his pocket and he bounces his leg while on the computer. The bouncing motion was increasing his steps by thousands!

Also, if you have a pet, make sure he's not attaching it to the pet's collar. My overweight niece was cheating this way while SIL wasn't looking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 10 yo gets around 20,000 on a normal summer day. He doesn’t wear it for his one hour swim team practice or in the pool.

Outlier. And younger.