As January ends the pedometer steps newbies are having differing issues which affect their abiities to keep on track. Not to say that there hasn’t been great success. One man has lost 4 kilos (8.8 lbs) and is ranging from 5,000 to 17,000 steps a day. The significant difference in those numbers relates to the vagaries of back to work behaviour.
Another pedometer steps starter has just found the delight that comes from having a ’special’ day, one where the normal range of 3,000 to 8,000 was unexpectedly broken with a landmark 11,000 step day!
These deserve celebration! The object of walking for weight loss is to make those significant days, where results peak over the 10,000 pedometer steps in one day, the norm.
Extras Tips:
Sometimes the pedometer will record extra steps if an activity is jerky. For instance, if you are dancing and moving your arms vigorously, this may make a double action which increases the steps recorded. Should you have a day where the steps seem out of proportion to the amount of exercise you did think back to what sort of activity may have made the difference. The reverse is also likely where substantial exercise is under reported by your pedometer.
Another benefit of keeping track of the daily pedometer steps total is to note the types and length of activity to give yourself an idea of what contributes most to the number of pedometer steps recorded.
You will learn that a 9,000 step day with a weights session is a lot better than a 9,000 step day without the weights class, etc.
If during non-working days of the paid variety you find it difficult to generate steps within the work day, you can add dedicated walks designed to get the pedometer steps up on those days e.g. before, after work or at lunch hour.
An alternative is to use the averaging process and track each day’s steps but look for an average of 10,000 plus. This might mean that for 5 days at work steps are slow, maybe around the 7,000 mark, but over the 2 day weekend with a hike or long walk, or extra activity just from household chores and a social life you are able to generate enough extra steps to make up for the poor week day showing.
May 15th, 2010 at 9:02 am
I have never thought about it this way.