10,000 steps - maybe!

June 21st, 2006

There has been a “10,000 steps a day” campaign running in the UK over the last few years, which has boosted people’s awareness of exercise and the amounts required on a daily basis to make a difference to their health.

To monitor the number of steps, many companies were selling belt worn pedometers, and at one point, they were even given away with a breakfast cereal.

Even now, a couple of years into the campaign, you can still see people wearing pedometers on their belts as they go about their daily business.

This is encouraging and I’m sure that its helping many people improve their general health and fitness, however there is now a bombshell - many, if not all, of these cheap pedometers are inaccurate and overestimate the number of steps taken.

Its probably not a surprise, as these are very cheap devices, and I have wondered how many people took the trouble to calibrate these devices to their average step length in the first place (I didn’t when I wore one briefly).

At least the campaign is making people fitter and healthier and that is a good thing, even if they have to walk further each day as a result of these findings.

Entry Filed under: Fitness