Pedometers are the ideal exercise companions. They encourage you to go that extra mile. They nudge you to take more steps each day. They whisper ‘just a little bit further’ into your ear and they send you looking for the steps instead of the elevator. In fact, I know people who have lost weight and gotten fit with their pedometer than with all other diet and fitness plans together.
Inside a pedometer is a small pendulum type device. This device is what lets the pedometer count your steps. The pedometer I have, for example, is a small device that attaches to the waistband of my pants or to the band of my bra. For women, sometimes attaching it to the bra is more uncomfortable and you can just forget it is there as you go about your day.
My pedometer only tracks steps, but then I know that an average 1000 step is equal to about a half-mile. Other pedometers, will count the steps, the speed you traveled and how many calories you were likely to burn. The problem with those pedometers, at least for me, is that the fancier they are, the more likely they are to break down.
Besides, if you are tracking your steps – then you can set step goals. The 10,000 steps a day program is based on the idea that if you are walking 10,000 steps a day you will increase the numbers of calories you burn and you will lose weight, you will achieve greater fitness and you have a really easy way of tracking your progress.
Pedometer methods are best used combined with a journal or spreadsheet so you can write down how many steps that you take each day. You should attach your pedometer first thing in the morning when you get dressed and leave it there till you are ready to stop for the day.
You have to be careful though; just shaking them can fool some pedometers. There are more sophisticated pedometers that will sense when your foot hits the ground. These types usually need to know how long your stride length is. You can set them by taking ten normal steps and then divide the measurement by ten.
What I like about pedometers is they really do encourage you to walk more. When I started using mine, I kept a careful track of the steps I took each day and I was actually going further and further as time went on. It was a competition with myself. My husband liked the idea so much he picked up a pedometer for himself.
The 10,000 steps a day program aims for optimum fitness. Depending on how many steps you normally average in a day (sedentary adults take about 2,000 to 3,000 steps in a day) this can be more than enough to also encourage weight loss, better cardiovascular health and fitness.
What makes pedometers popular is that you get trim, fit and lose weight without exercising excessively. You are just increasing the steps you take every day. Think about it – chances are you walk your children to school, you walk them to playgrounds, and you walk in the grocery store, the mall and outside when you are doing your gardening.
If you like the idea of getting fit, trim and losing weight and you don’t want to invest in a costly gym membership or spend a lot of money on home equipment – buy a cheap pedometer to get started with. If you like the results, invest in the more sophisticated device. It’s an inexpensive way to achieve your fitness goals without learning complicated exercise routines or spending a lot of money that you don’t have.
The reason I encourage you to buy a cheap one to get started is to discover how quickly you can build your own encouragement. But pedometers definitely fall into the category of – you get what you pay for. They can sometimes under or over estimate your steps. But the inexpensive ones are a great way to get used to the idea of how the pedometer works and how you respond to the pedometer.
The better pedometers come from companies such as:
- Digiwalker
- Omron
- Sportline
- Sportbrain
Their high-end pedometers will have a seven-day memory and they will use mathematical equations to measure how many calories you burned. No matter how you look at it, if you can get more active and take more steps in your day – your small investment can reap you huge rewards. I like my pedometer – currently I average about 7,000 steps a day when I’m not exercising.
Not bad, eh?
Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks, as we will explore the different treadmills, elliptical, stationary cycles and stair masters in order to give you a good idea of what items give you the bang for the buck that you are looking for.
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