The Best Pedometer

Finding the best pedometer, might as well mean finding a good one, and sticking with it. Test it yourself a couple of times, and see just how accurate it is. Know that while you are standing in place, and not walking, when you shift your weight from one foot to the other, the pedometer may calculate this is as a step you have taken, from the movement of your hips. Once you have chosen the pedometer you want to use, put it through your own test, find out how accurate it is, and calculate yourself how many steps you have taken, and how many it counted. Play with your pedometer and know what it counts as step, that may not actually be a step at all. Knowing this will help you get them most from your pedometer, and your walking.

While everyone may think they have the best pedometer, buying a good one will give you better results. Not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either, should do you fine. Be sure that you can return the pedometer for a full refund if you are not happy with the results. This way you can test it out to see how accurate it is, and know that you are not wasting money if it proves to be really inaccurate.

Finding The Best Pedometer

With all of the available pedometers, how do you know which one is best for you? Pedometers have swept the country with a new way to electronically calculate how many steps you take in a day. With this new little device, everyone who owns one is more and more motivated to take those few extra steps for a healthier lifestyle.

Pedometers are supposed to accurately count the number of steps you have taken according to the movement of your hips. However, finding the best pedometer to do this accurately can be a bit challenging, as not all pedometers are as accurate as they claim to be. The leaves you wondering still, how far, and how many steps did you walk today? Would you be better off counting your steps in your head?

Buying the most expensive pedometer, will ensure that you get the best pedometer, right? Not always. Sometimes, and in this particular case, price does not always matter. The best way to ensure that you get an accurate pedometer, will be to read the reviews that others who have tried and tested any particular pedometer have written. When you read the reviews for pedometers, you might find that not everyone's pedometer has tested the same. While no pedometer can give you exactly the correct number of steps you have taken on any given day, most of them are able to come close.

Pedometer Set Daily And Weekly Goals

Those with pedometers increased their steps by about 2100 per day, or 20 minutes of steady walking, a 30% increase in daily steps. They walked almost twice as many blocks as those without pedometers. People using a pedometer also tend to stick much longer with a walking routine.

To get the most out of your pedometer, set daily and weekly goals. Start by setting a baseline number of steps. To do this, simply wear the pedometer for a few days. Don’t try to aim for a certain number of steps. All you are doing at this point is measuring how many steps you take in a normal day. Calculate the average number of steps you take any given day. Next you want to start taking 500 to 1000 steps each day. You can easily accomplish this by taking a little walk around the block, parking a little further away during errand and at work, as well as walking to a college’s office instead of calling him or her. Each week, or every two weeks increase your steps and additional 500 to 1000 steps until you reach a minimum of 10,000 steps per day. If you are walking to lose weight, work yourself up to 12,000 to 15,000 steps per day.

Walking is one of the easiest ways to exercise every day and a pedometer will help you track your progress and motivate you to keep walking. All you have to do is put on some comfortable shoes, clip on your pedometer and put one foot in front of the other. I encourage you to give walking and using a pedometer a try.

What's A Pedometer And Why Would I Need One?

A pedometer is a great inexpensive exercising tool that tracks your progress and keeps you motivated to stick to your daily workout. Let’s take a look at what exactly a pedometer is and why you need one.

A pedometer is a small electronic device, about the size of a pager or smaller. The basic function of a pedometer is to track or count how many steps you take. Most models will also convert our steps into the number of miles you walked and calculate how many calories you have burned. More advanced models will save several days worth of date and some will even connect to your computer so you can chart your progress through software provided as well.

So the pedometer helps you keep track of how many steps you walked. I find that I'm much more motivated to take a little walk through the neighborhood, or park a little further when I'm running errands when I'm wearing my pedometer.

A recent study by the University of Minnesota shows that people wearing pedometers tend to walk more. The study split people up in two groups who were both encouraged to walk each day. Only one group was given pedometers to track their steps.

Use A Quality Pedometer

Set daily or weekly step goals. I'm sure you've heard all the talk about 10,000 steps per day programs 10,000 steps per day can be a great goal if you are already active. If you are more of a couch potato than a weekend warrior, you may not want to start with 10,000 steps. In fact, that may do more harm than good. Set goals and ramp up slowly, and use your log to help you.

In setting a goal, you need to first establish a baseline. Wear your pedometer for a week without changing anything else in your lifestyle. Document the daily steps taken in your log and at the end of the week average the daily counts. Your next week's goal should be 10 to 15% higher than your current weekly average. You can continue setting weekly goals until you've reached what you feel is an appropriate level of activity.

Use a quality pedometer. This does not mean that you have to get the most expensive pedometer available. Often, the expensive pedometers are expensive because they come with extra features. These features are generally not very useful, and may distract you from what you really need, which is just counting steps.

a better quality pedometer will be more accurate in its step counts and other functions. Having a more accurate picture of your activity level each day will let you set more helpful goals. You will also be better motivated to continue setting new goals and striving to reach those.

There are many pedometers available which will have accurate step counting and which will motivate you to improve the level of your daily activity. Using your pedometer regularly in increasing your step count over time will help you on the path to discovering the many health benefits of pedometers.

Five Tips to Getting the Most from Pedometers

In case you have not heard, pedometers may just be a "secret weapon" against aging, disease, stress, and early death. Yes, it's true. There are tremendous health benefits to be had by donning a pedometer and using it regularly and properly.

Here are some tips to help you get the most from any pedometer.
Wear it all day long. This will help you track your total activity throughout the day. Numerous studies have shown that short periods of exercise have the same cumulative effect as one longer session. That means you don't have to set aside a dedicated exercise time you can get the benefits of exercise throughout the day.

Look at the pedometer regularly. This will provide you the extra motivation you need to take more steps throughout the day. You will have the opportunity to find ways to take extra steps, like parking farther from the store, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and walking down the hall to see your coworker instead of picking up the phone or sending an e-mail.

Keep written documentation. A written record will help you better track your progress. You will become aware of areas where you can improve. You may also be able to identify times when your lack of motivation led to a lower step count. Overall, you will be able to see how you are progressing over time, which will help your motivation.

Diabetes Walking Tips

Walking is a great exercise for a diabetic person to participate in. If you have diabetes then you should set a goal to walk each day about two miles or more. You should take it easy when you first start your walking exercise program. Don’t jump in too fast but start slow. A diabetic should gradually increase their walking to their goal. Just remember that participating in exercise is an excellent preventative measure to take against the diabetes disease.

Walking Shoes and Pedometer for the Diabetic
A person with diabetes should make an investment in a good pair of walking shoes and also a pedometer. The pedometer is a small device that is attached snug onto the person’s belt. The purpose of the pedometer is to count each and every step that the diabetic takes. This will enable the person to see how many steps they take during their daily walk. The steps can then be converted into miles. It is a very good way to monitor your exercise progress.

The Diabetic Should Gradually Increase the Walking Distance
As previously mentioned, the diabetic needs to start your walking exercise slowly if you are not in shape. Start with one hundred steps and increase at a comfortable rate each day. Write down the number of steps you take each day on a sheet of paper. You can easily determine how many steps you should take each day by looking at your recorded pedometer information.

More Walking Tips For The Diabetic

The following are tips that can help the diabetic improve their physical conditioning through daily walks.

1. You should always wear good walking shoes. Replace them when they start to get excessive wear.

2. Take your walks with a friend. This will help you enjoy the walk. A family member or good friend is a likely choice.

3. If you work outside the home environment, take your walk during your lunch hour instead of just sitting around. The diabetic needs to make certain they get their daily exercise every day.

4. Walking up and down stairs is another good form of exercise. You can help improve your fitness level by taking the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator.

5. Try to increase your steps measured with the pedometer so that your total walking distance increases each week to your goal level. It’s possible to improve your fitness level by turning your walk into a slow jog.

6. In addition, try parking your car so that you have a longer walk through the parking lot to get to your work building or store. Stay away from the close-up parking spots.

Walking For Weight Loss And Fitness - Pedometer Basics

A pedometer is a neat little gadget that will help you track how much walking you have done in a day. It can be a helpful tool in getting into and sticking with an exercise schedule. Let’s take a look at how you can use a pedometer to get into shape.

Why should I walk? Walking is one of the easiest forms of exercise to get into. You don’t need any special equipment, just a pair of comfortable shoes. There are no new techniques to learn, since you already know how to walk. Walking is a very low impact activity, that doesn’t put much stress on your joints. You can start out at any pace that is comfortable to you and walk for as long as you’d like. Over time you will gradually increase the intensity of your walking workout by walking for longer periods of time, increasing the speed as well as the incline you walk at.

What should I keep in mind when purchasing a pedometer? You can spend anywhere from $10 - $100 and more for a pedometer. A basic model will work just fine, as long as it tracks your steps accurately. Basic models may only give you the number of steps you walked, while more advanced models will also calculate the distance walked, calories burnt and usually also keep track of several days worth of walking. Some even come with some tracking software you can use on your computer. It will be up to you to decide how many bells and whistles you would like on your pedometer.

Pedometer Is Very Useful For Walking

How do I wear the pedometer properly? There are two ways to wear a pedometer that have been working well for me and have given me very accurate results. The first is to wear the pedometer on your belt or directly on your waistband right over your front pocket. The pedometer should be in line with your foot. The second option is to clip the pedometer to the top of your shoe. On the side, right below my ankle is the most comfortable position for me. Some people also get good results by carrying the pedometer in their back pocket or clipping it to their waistband on their side. Try something that seems comfortable to you and walk 100 steps. If your count and the pedometers count are within 5 steps of each other, you’re in good shape.

How do I get started? Establish a base figure of how many steps a day you take right now on average. To do this, wear your pedometer each day for a week and record your daily steps. Calculate your daily average by adding up all the steps you walked for the week and dividing the number by 7. Now that you have a base figure to start with, let’s see how you can increase the steps you take each day.

How should I increase my steps? Increase the amount of steps you take by adding 1000 – 2000 extra steps per week until you reach 10,000 steps if you are trying to stay fit and healthy or 12,000 if you are trying to loose weight. 2000 extra steps may seem like a lot at first glance, but you can spread them out over the course of the day. Park a little further away while running errands or when you go to work. Take a quick stroll during your lunch break or walk around the block with your spouse in the evening. Chase your kids around the yard. Once you get started, you will find all sorts of creative ways to get a few more steps in here and there.

Now what? Once you have worked your way up to your target steps, stick with it. Of course there will be days when you can’t walk 10,000 steps, but do your best to average 10,000 a day during the week. If you didn’t walk much during the week, go for a hike on the weekend. Pretty soon walking will become a habit for you and you will miss your daily walk when you can’t work it in.