The skinny on pedometers

A pedometer is a great exercise tool if used properly. Now, by properly, I don't mean pushing the buttons the right way and keeping a fresh battery in it. Rather, I refer to how this step-measuring device can be utilized to increase your daily physical workload.

Let me give you an example -- The average person walks about 100 steps per minute. Great. By the end of the day, depending upon how much time you spend on your feet on average, these minutes add up to several thousand steps. Have you burned calories? You bet you have. But are you going to lose weight?

Understand that a pedometer simply measures your current effort level. So, let's say that you walk 5,000 steps per day. This would then mean that in order to lose weight, this is the starting block. Merely calculating your daily steps does not then magically cause you lose weight, it requires you to AT LEAST walk your 5,000 steps (or whatever your own personal daily average may be) and then go above and beyond that number.

Fortunately, research from a Journal of Clinical Oncology study shows that most people are hip to this. In said study, scientists found that women who used pedometers for 12 weeks increased their activity level by three times as much as those who did not one.