Pedometer - Have you Done your 10,000 Steps?

Posted 16 February 2009

If you want to lose weight and get fit, you just need to take it step by step - time to get a pedometer.

A pedometer could be all you need to give you a healthy heart and reduce body fat. In fact, using a pedometer will help you track and achieve the 10,000 steps a day the British Heart Foundation recommends. It may sound like a lot, but it is achievable - 10,000 steps is the equivalent of five miles. And using a pedometer every day to count your steps is a great way to monitor, and change, your lifestyle. If you're a few steps short, working out longer walks, incorporating dedicated power walks, swapping the car to walk to work, walking the children to school or taking the stairs instead of the lift can all help. And a pedometer could give you the incentive you need to ensure you're squeezing in as many steps as you can.

Pedometer Power - Best Foot Forward

A pedometer is simply the size of a matchbox, it doesn't cost the earth and combined with expert guidance and help using an online resource such as Fitbug, the humble pedometer could solve the UK's obesity crisis. A pedometer partnered with a healthy diet is an achievable way of transforming lifestyles. And unlike other exercise regimes or diets, healthy eating and walking are lifestyle changes we can take with us throughout our lives, whatever our age or income. The pedometer is one of the most democratic of devices.

Pedometer - Changing Habits

In the UK we are used to multi-million pound health campaigns, spending thousands on gym memberships or throwing money at home exercise regimes, diet books, DVDs, and other fads that may work temporarily but often fail to shake us out of our long-term couch potato lifestyles. A pedometer and healthy diet could be all it takes, because unlike the other fads, these are two things that can be naturally incorporated into our busy lives. And unlike some exercise, walking is enjoyable and good for our mental well being, making us more inclined to pick up a pedometer than a gym bag.

Time to Get a Move on with a Pedometer

The lazier we get, the fatter we get, the more prone to disease we become. A pedometer can help stimulate people to walk more, making a real difference to our health and waistlines. If you think you don't need a pedometer, think again. Research shows most of us do on average just 4,500 steps a day - a pedometer will give you the added guideline and motivation to reach your target. The fact we are becoming more obese is generally thought to be associated with the reduction in walking over the years; we walked 255 miles in 1975 every year, compared to around 192 miles today. A pedometer can be enough to make you change your routine to incorporate more walking - whether it's getting off your bus or train station a stop earlier, or ditching the car to walk to work. Around 37% of coronary heart disease deaths are to do with inactivity - isn't it time you got your pedometer?

Interested in Using a Pedometer? Fitbug can Help

Using the Fitbug pedometer you can get the right structure and motivation to keep you on the straight and narrow. You can choose a walking programme to suit your level and fit your schedule. If you are the sort of person who likes concrete evidence of how they are getting on, print out your programme, stick it on your fridge and cross off each power walk as you complete it. To find out more, call: 0870 228 4949