I was reading on the front page of 3fc and decided I needed a kick in the butt. i went to ebay and bought a pedometer!! I hope this can be a good way to track how much (or little) i get around each day. Has anyone else used a pedometer, if so, how did it work for you? was it helpful?

I cant wait until it comes in the mail,..hubby thinks i am nuts because I am excited about something that small,..haha

heather: my pedometer and i are quite good friends. it's more of a personal challenge than anything else. it's amazing to see how far you're actually walking during the day - and it's one extreme or the other. you're either WAYYYYY below or WAYYY over what you think you're actually doing.

for most of us with desk jobs, it's amazing how little we move every day. so that full hour of walking every day - for me at least - is the only way i can hit the 10,000 steps!!!!

I'm with Jiff! I love mine, and since I too work a desk job, it challenges me to take the long way around the office whenever possible, make a point of NOT saving trips so I have to repeat steps, etc. It completely changes my attitude about forgetting something and having to go back for it, or offering to run and get things for others....I fine when I wear it I'm more active. I also love seeing those numbers jump after my walks as well. I put mine on first thing in the morning, and take it off right before bed. (I'm choosing to call that "enthusiastic" rather than obsessive. Humor me. )

can anyone recommend a good pedometer? i bought a little cheapy 5 dollar one at wal mart and i don't think it works right or i'm not wearing it right or something because i can count my steps and say like i counted 15 and the pedometer says soemthing like 12....????

I had a pedometer that was given to me through my health insurance's weight loss program. I really liked using it, unfortunately I would keep bumping it into things and resetting the counter. It pissed me off so much that I stopped using it. If I got a pedometer that I wouldn't keep resetting, then I might use it more often.

I use the Sportline 360, which is really highly rated for quality and reliability. It has a cover on the front so the buttons are covered. It has more features than I use, so I can't list them here, but off the top of my head, you can have more than have more than one "user," so say you jog and walk, you could set both strides and then toggle back and forth to get a more accurate reading of your distance total. It's great, and you can also turn it off so you can save the battery.

Also, it stays on your pants' waistband nicely, so it doesn't fall off when you go to the bathroom, for example. (I hated my last one!)

mine had a snug clip and it never falls off and i don't bump the buttons because they are set into the pedometer and you have to mash them pretty hard. i may give it another try though, before i trash it and get another one.

thanks for the input everyone!

I just got one a week or so ago and although i cant remeber the type-i dont have it on right now-it was $20 and much better than the first one i had. Everytime i opened the first one, it would reset, or if bumped into something. The step count was also way off. I finally quit, then decided to buy a different brand, and i love it. It works great. If you are having problems with the steps, see if you can adjust it. Otherwise mine said to take 100 steps and count them, then see how the pedometer averaged. Within a certain range i think it said is to be expected. (i cant remember what it was, i will see if i can find the instructions to tell you!) By big problem is the desk job. I rarely leave my builiding (even for lunch) and i sit almost all day. (i decided that when i go back to work, i will walk around the building once an hour and walk around for most of my lunch, we will see how it works out though!)

I just ordered a pedometer because I remember liking one when I used one. I'm looking forward to it because I have been trying to add a lot more regular walking to my daily activities.

I was thinking about the pedometer when i was trying to go to sleep last night (dont you hate it when you are trying to sleep and cant stop thinking??)
I was curious how it works? I mean, it is not attatched to your feet or anything, so how does it know whether you are walking or standing still, or how fast you are walking, etc?
I guess i will just have to wait until mine gets here? It just seems weird to me

Heather, when I used a pedometer before, I wore it on my waist. It uses the motion of your hips to measure how many steps you have taken. It should also have some kind of sensitivity adjustment so that you can adjust it to your stride. Basically what you do when you get it is put it on, then take a certain amount of steps, say 50. You count in your head and then you look at your pedometer. If your pedometer is off, you adjust it. It is an estimate of how many steps you have taken and different things can affect it, like climbing or descending stairs.

I hope this helps.

And, for distance, you enter the length of your stride so it can measure miles.

hmm,..i have no idea how big my stride is,.. i guess iw ill have to mess with it when it gets here and see what i can figure out,..lol

Heather, it should come with directions, but it's really easy. (Particularly if you have a ruler or a yardstick. I just had Lorraine mark the floor and then we measured.) Bada bing, bada bang.

Sarah - Pedometer around the office?! Brilliant.. just freakin' brilliant! I have a pedometer that I got in the Special K box a couple months ago that i've never tried.. Its probably not accurate but something to keep me motivated to move from my desk throughout my day! Here's to wearing a pedometer tomorrow!