I just started walking last week and I am really enjoying it! I never thought I'd say that. I was the most unactive person you ever met. I didn't even want to go out on my lunch breaks. I'd order in and read and eat and never once leave my desk except to go to the bathroom. (Never want to be that person again!) Anyway, I bought a pedometer because I thought it'd be really cool to monitor how many steps I take and the total calories burned and such, but how accurate can it be? I mean, I turned it on when I left my house this morning to travel to work and it says I took over a thousand steps. I seriously don't think I took so many steps. It must be wrong. Does anyone else use pedometers? Could I really have walked that much?

They certainly can be accurate, but often you have to set it for your "step". Does yours also say how far you walked? one way to check it is to walk a distance you know is accurate and check... (how far is it to work? for me about 2400 steps in a mile...)

But in the end, as long as yours is CONSISTENT, then you can track your progress over time! See if tomorrow it logs the same number of steps for the same walk.

CONGRATS!!

I have a couple of pedometers. I read all the directions for setting them. Neither one of them is anywhere near accurate. They count about one out of every five steps on me. That is very discouraging,which is bad, since I am so easily discouraged when it comes to exercise.

To test your pedometer, wear it while walking 100 steps. Attach it to your belt, either to the side or in front, or clip onto the center of your bra. Your pedometer should be at least 85% accurate, logging between 85 and 115 steps. If not, you should move it to another part of your body and test again, until you determine where is the best place to wear it.

This article on choosing a pedometer may be of help

Hi,
I don't understand how people wear the pedometer all day and claim it is accurate when doing chores,errands or even taking a nap. This would be great and give me some chance of getting in 10,000 steps but it never seems to work out as only when walking at a steady pace does it seem correct. Has anyone else noticed this? Have you found a solution? Thanks.

Sheridan

Perhaps it depends on your pedometer. Mine tracks all steps, but also has a setting to track aerobic steps (moving for at least 10 min straight).

You know, come to think of it, my pedometer probably measured all the bumps on the bus and everything. I don't get how people can wear it all day either. I think it should be started before every walk and then turned off and restarted when we walk again. Maybe I should keep a little memo pad in my pocket to keep track of it all since my pedometer doesn't have a memory. Thanks everyone for the advice.

Well, the cheap ones are not really accurate in my experience. I bought one for about $15 and it does indeed track every step and tracks aerobic steps walked and length of time you were walking aerobically. I wear mine all day and I am getting in between 9500 and 11500 steps a day. When I started trying to move more each day, I was if I remember correctly doing under 4000 steps a day.

Putting it on in the morning and forgetting about it works for me. You need to figure out what works for you.

I agree that the cheaper ones are not accurate... BUT (and I think I have the same one Heather has)... when I bought a more expensive one that was recommended here by others I have found it to be very accurate. I have actually counted up to 1000 steps and it was pretty much right on. Mine also measures regular steps and aerobic steps both.

Yep, we have the same one! Made by Omron (I forget the model). I don't wear my all the time anymore, but it's great. I think I paid in the $20 range for it. I like that you can put it in your pocket!

HM - maybe I should get a better quality one. I've never been able to get one to work for me!

I bought mine on Amazon -- and if you click thru from the 3fc site, 3fc gets a bit of cash to keep things running!

I just found some calculations on the net translating the 10,000 steps into approximate distances. That way, I can walk those distances and know that I am about right. So, for the average person 10,000 steps is 5 miles ... 5,000 steps is 2.5 miles, etc. I just deduct a reasonable amount for daily activities and walk the rest as a seperate physical activity.

I love my pedometer. Mine measures miles, not steps. I find it to be fairly accurate, though not 100%. But I'm okay with it. I like seeing it climb up, so I'm always trying to add in some extra steps to do so. And it does go up when I move, and that's all I care about. It doesn't go up at all when I hit bumps or what not. It's the movement of my hips that does it.

I don't need to know exactly how many miles I'm walking - just that I'm moving.

Thanks for that tip Suzanne! I had to buy a new Omron because I couldn't get my old one to work anymore, and then I couldn't get the new one to work. I dug it out, clipped it to my bra as you suggested, and it's working perfectly!