I was easily over 20,000 every day before I had this. I would have told you, if asked, I wasn't active enough and could do more exercise for my health. I ticked the mildly active or sedentary categories on quizzes. Because everyone around me was fitter and more active still.
When I first got this wrist band I was struggling and wanted something to tell me whether I'd done anything at all in a day, it felt like I'd done nothing at all. I was not able to hit the 10,000 steps and thought that was pathetic for me. I'm a firefighter, a world traveller, a physicist, a go getter, so of course I'd be doing more than the 'minimum average for health'. But my rock hard willpower, the thing that has never let me down before, only ran me into the ground.
Where I live, you can't walk anywhere without walking up down or along a slope. You can't do anything without carrying loads. Everything is manual.
I worked my way up to 8000 a day with that willpower, good days and bad (but not crashes when my body simply wouldn't).
Someone had to tell me that 6000 is more normal for a mild case, that office workers only just manage this. What a relief! When I cut down my steps I could finally read my emails again. I could finally live through a day without disabling pain. I could stand my husband walking around without wondering why he tortured me.
Now I do try to keep my physical activity up and sacrifice the mental, in hopes that I can not entirely lose condition and get all the health risks I gather that entails. But some days I splurge and live online, for sanity.
So, I may be reducing my steps further, allowing myself a little more brain in exchange for another loss of fitness. 2000 seems more naturally sustainable (except that it's hard around here to do only that if I want to eat and pee). My world was designed around fit and active.
My fear is that I may be higher functioning now becasue my previous high level of fitness means that things don't count as exertion at too low a level. I've lost condition surprisingly slowly. I am not what a doctor would call deconditioned if you test me. Not at all on the first day. The second day is an entirely different thing.
I know/think/fear/believe that every increment I drop back, is not coming back. But I'm starting to think that the less I do the more I can do. Bank more energy and get out of debt. Opposite of my healthy constitution.