Communication is a Virus

10000 Steps

Where did 10000 steps come from?

About 40 years ago in Japan, the idea surfaced that walking 10,000 steps a day could help people keep fit and healthy without the need for additional exercise. The average person should be able to walk 10,000 steps every day – from their first step out of bed in the morning until their last step before they crawl into bed at night. Walking 10,000 steps in one day is equal to a distance of about 5 miles or 8 kilometres, depending on the length of your stride.

Research shows that walking 10,000 steps a day will significantly improve your health. Putting one foot in front of the other can build stamina, burn excess calories and give you a healthier heart. 

What's so great about walking?

Walking can be done almost anywhere, at any time, and in any weather. It's also a great way to get from A to B, which means you can fit walking into your daily routine.

How do I know how many steps I'm taking?

The average person walks between 3,000 and 4,000 steps per day, and 1,000 steps is the equivalent of around 10 minutes of brisk walking. To find out how many steps you take each day, buy a pedometer similar to the one in the video at the bottom of this page. You can get a simple one that tracks steps for as little as £4. Clip it firmly to your belt or waistband, and it will measure every step you take: around the house, across the office, window shopping, to school or the park. You might find that you walk almost 10,000 steps a day, or that you walk less than you think. Whatever your results, knowing how far you can walk in a day will help motivate you.

How many calories will I burn if I walk 10,000 steps a day?

A person weighing 70kg (about 11 stone) can burn about 440 calories by walking 10,000 steps briskly (3.5mph). If you're trying to lose weight, you should aim to burn 600 more calories than you take in through food and drink every day. This is best achieved by a combination of diet and exercise. 

What if I don’t take any exercise at the moment?

If you're not very active, increase your walking distances gradually. No one expects 10,000 steps on the first day! If you're worried about your joints or any existing health conditions, talk to your GP. If your joints are a problem, you can see if your local swimming pool holds exercise classes. The water helps to support your joints while you move, and once you lose a bit of weight, that will reduce the pressure on your joints.

Do I need any special clothing?

We recommend a pair of cushioned trainers, which most people have already.

What’s the best way to start?

Using your pedometer, find out how many steps you take during a normal day. It could be as little as 900 steps, or as much as 5,000 steps, depending on what you do. Record your daily steps over a week and use the total weekly number to work out a daily average.
Use this daily average to build your steps gradually, by adding a few more steps every so often until you're regularly walking 10,000 steps a day.
Read walking for health for more ideas on increasing your steps.

10,000 steps sounds a lot. How do I fit all that walking into my busy day?

Increasing your walking is easier than you think. Try these tips for getting more steps into your life:

• get off the bus early and walk the rest of the way home or to work
• walk to the station instead of taking the car or bus
• invest in a shopping trolley and shop locally if you can
• walk the children to school, whatever the weather
• get fit with Fido – walk the dog

For more tips and advice see the links on the right of this page.

I find walking boring. How can I make it more fun?

• find a walking partner so you have someone to chat to as you walk
• get an MP3 player and listen to your favourite music or podcasts as you go
• plan interesting walks during your days off
• join a walking group like the Ramblers 

How long do I have to keep walking?

The rest of your life! Being active is a lifelong health habit. It's great for preventing weight gain, lifting your mood, and reducing your risk of a raft of serious diseases, such as heart disease. It takes a while for a regular activity to become a healthy habit, so just keep going and it will become second nature. You’ll soon find yourself doing many more than 10,000 steps some days.

What if I can’t walk for a few days due to illness or a holiday?

Walking is a gentle form of exercise that is easy to get back into after a break. Just start again when you can, and build up slowly if you've been ill. The sooner you get back into the exercise groove, the better. When going on a holiday, choose one where you'll have plenty of opportunities to walk, for instance along the beach or in the countryside.

Is walking enough? Or should I think about other exercise as well?

The amount of exercise that is recommended depends on your age. Adults between 19 and 64 should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity – such as fast walking or cycling – per week. Learn more in physical activity guidelines for adults. Once you're feeling the benefits of 10,000 steps a day, you may start thinking about getting more active. You could visit your local fitness centre and see what's on offer. Some people enjoy competitive sports, others prefer sociable physical activity such as dancing. You can get more ideas in Get fit your way.

These are some other websites i found with useful information on too:
http://health.mylaunchpad.com.my/heart-health/gallery/articleid/1121
http://www.h2g2.com/approved_entry/A20460584

I downloaded a free pedometre called moves which is very good and seems to be accurate. These are screen shots from my days while using the pedometre. It tells you how many steps you have done in how long it has took you and what pace you was doing it. This is the first day I logged it:

It shows you when and where you have walked and also how you will know how long you have taken transport for etc...

Then i worked out that you can also check how long you have been walking for in total and how fast you have been walking there this would be very good information to see how fast you are burning off calories etc...

Research of  Fonts

This is my research on the typefaces, for the posters etc... I like the hand drawn one but I think ones such as the Quick Run would be more fitting for our brief. Although, maybe all capitals need to be used to get the message across as if you are shouting at them. Maybe we need more of a blocky type, which we have now decided on Alex's research font of Bebes Neue.

Colour Schemes:

From most of these I have realised that I wanted to use black & white as the main colours and maybe one additive colour. I think this grabs your attention more especially the bottom one. I think it may be have to be a neon colour or maybe a colour related to the subject, like mustard? Although, I do like the black white & green as it looks very fresh and professional. Finally if we use black, white and a bright colour then it will make it easier to design and become more unified within the design for the group.

Further Research Into Calories & How many steps its takes to burn it off?

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," goes a Chinese saying quoted by Chairman Mao. And knowing the calories burned by a single step can help you translate pedometer readouts into a gauge of your overall activity.

Effects

You'll burn one calorie for every 20 steps you burn, indicates the website of Shape Up America!, a nonprofit that attempts to combat obesity by promoting extensive walking. Shape Up America! encourages a goal of taking 10,000 steps per day to burn 500 calories, which equals a pound of fat over the course of a week.

Considerations

Feature-rich pedometers will provide a calorie-burning estimate as well as number of steps and distance traveled; some even use GPS to calculate these figures. Actual calories burned will depend on whether you are walking on flat floor and ground or covering hills and varied terrain.

Benefits

Use a pedometer to record your baseline level of activity. The McKinley Health Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign indicates that 2,500 steps or less per day is very inactive, up to 5,000 steps in inactive, 5,000 to 7,500 steps is moderately active, 7,501 to 10,000 steps is active and more than 10,000 is very active. To improve your calorie burn, try to add 2,000 steps, the equivalent of a mile in distance and 100 calories in energy expenditure, each day once you find your baseline number of steps.

Instructions

1) Figure out how many steps you took during a given day. At the end of the day, check the digital counter and write down the amount of steps displayed on the counter.

2) Figure out the distance-to-calories ratio. For example, walking 1 mile will burn approximately 100 calories. 

3) Keep in mind the fact that 1 mile equals approximately 2,000 steps. Therefore, it takes 2,000 steps to burn 100 calories, or 20 steps to burn 1 calorie.

4) Take the number from Step 1 and apply it to the logic in Step 3. For example, if you walked 1,000 steps in a day, you burned 50 calories. 

So most forums i have looked at say that one mile = 100 calories around about depending on length of stride how fast and weight differences.

Food Measurements

I am working this out by classing each step as to burning 25 calories as this is the average weight calculations.

Big Mac- 540 Calories = 13,500 Steps

Krispy Kreme Donut (Millionaire Shortbread)- 389 Calories = 9,725 Steps

Medium Banana- 100 Calories = 2500 Steps

There the steps make the calories seem harder to work off than they actually are as it has also shocked myself on how much i walk in a daily routine as i only walk to the bus stop then to college from the bus stop outside college & back again.

I have downloaded a iPhone app which counts the amount of steps and for how long. I am a very fast walker so therefore will burn more calories as i have longer steps and i have walked 3351 steps which is a lot as i have only walked 25 minutes throughout the day. Here are the screenshots of the app and my log...

 

Research into Stairs to make them interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f91Z-5iUw0

This is the Louis Vuitton stairs they was a massive tourist point although they wasn't allowed to go up them unless working there. They attracted a lot of attention and I am sure they would have gone up them if they and the chance therefore this worked. But this is not something we could do as we wouldn't be able to install something on to the stairs, but this has given me the idea of having something built up so it makes a picture on the stairs when looking at them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L72BUsMb3ss

This video actually shows the stairs working to attract attention over the escalator. Although this would have took a lot of engineering. This has given me the idea of telling them well done or some motivational speech when they reach the top of the stairs. Which would make people want to get to the top for them to here it.

My friend has stairs like this and to be honest I hate them and it makes me not want to go up them but they look very effective and cool, which is what we need within the university as it is an art college. So everyone has creative minds etc...

Stickers on the stairs would be a good idea and placing them in a position where you have to be at the top of the stairs for it too work as that could be the reward of when you have climbed the stairs. Could be a sentence that is read back to front at the bottom but at the top makes sense etc...

We decided to try and get the attention on to the stairs rather than in the lift. As getting them interacted with the stairs is better to get them up them rather than the attention in the lift as that will make you want to go into the lift. All these are past campaigns that have been done. We can't do this due to the nature of doing it in the college and not been able to deface the college. We could use stickers on the stairs which could be an option we take upon ourselves to work out.

I have decided if we do something on the stairs we need to make sure you can only make it out or they receive an award once they have got to the top because people just go to look and then get in the lift up to the other floor.

Flyer Research:

This is very close to what we want to show, although we believe that if we show it in steps it will be more shocking as it seems longer than it is. I like the idea of the big number with the writing smaller next to it as it makes them really stand out. And this is what we want the concentration and the shock to come from.

I like this idea of showing how much you have climbed by making part of the picture visible. And gives you and idea of how much you have done not through numbers but through more simple terms which you can work out from a quick glance. I think i will play with this idea, but in with the way of how much of the food you have worked off etc...

I really liked this idea of how there is a box as promotion and then you can have a leaflet inside. We could have heres your zero calorie pizza. And then inside giving you information on how many steps you need to take for each slice of pizza maybe even in different types for each slice.

I like the look of this one. I like how they have put writing on the missing piece. I could write the calories for that one slice. etc... Although this would not go with the style of the current posters and therefore wouldn't successfully in the group project.

Viral Advertising:

This is a good idea that has helped the Kit Kat become viral due to the face of god in the biscuit became highly feed news and was in most newspapers and therefore was exposed to a large audience. This could have been genuine but more than likely set up by the Kit Kat firm to gain more publicity.

I like the use of the actual object used within the campaign viral ads. The half ball on the bat, this reminds me of the children in need fluffy balls with faces on ribbon to advertise the charity. Because the ball is real it catches your attention on to how they have done it etc.... I think these would need to be put all over the city and placed specifically to the target audience meeting points.

I think this is a very good way to make something viral, as it travels all around the city and if they are interesting they do catch your eye and makes you want to know more. This one especially would make you want to get into it due to the steamy windows and hands to see if there is anything happening inside. Then this would get passed on through word of mouth saying 'I seen a cab other day that looked like there was something going on inside'. Although this is not a possible idea for us as we wouldn't be able to afford to get anything printed onto the taxi in a wrap, or find a taxi in the first place to put it on.

I like this idea, of making a concertina for flyers to be put in and then you can hand these out to people you think this could apply to. This was the idea of a postcard been passed around but they would have many rather than just one passed around. This maybe something we should think about to put in the leaflet. But the only problem is our target audience of students going to be bothered to pass something on?

Lift Pranks:

This one is a very good prank, and it would definitely not want you to get back into a lift again. The shock on there faces say it all. And this could possibly work, this is an obvious unable to do this not only do we not have the props or the actor. But also our most used lift is made of glass so wouldn't but as scary.

This is a really big play on the quote of hate awquard silences in the lift. I can imagine this to be very awquard, and you wouldn't know what to do for that one time. But i don't think this would be a long life change. As it not very shocking, just uncomfortable.

This one is just a funny option that the boys in the group would have probably done. Although its the same as before as it won't necessarily be a long life change, as it is just an awquard moment for that one lift ride. Also, its not stopping them using the lift as they have to be in the lift to experience it.

I think that we need to put the emphasis on the stairs rather than the lift as all the pranks or things i have looked at you will be in the lift to experience them and therefore not stopping them goingi in the lift just making people go in them to experience it as people will be like oh there is a corpse in lift etc... I believe the emphasis needs to be on the stairs as then they will be like have you seen the stairs near the toilets and then make their friends go up the steps too. And maybe if there is some kind of reward they may keep going up them.