You’ve all no doubt heard that little bouts of exercise throughout the day can add up big in terms of fitness and weight loss. Parking further away in a parking lot, making extra trips to bring in the groceries, doing jumping jacks during commercial breaks can really help in burning calories and increasing your health and fitness.
I always like to say, with incidental exercise, “lose weight by being inefficient.”
These little bouts are hard to track, though, which is why I recommend pedometers.
A pedometer is a tiny little device that you can clip to your waistband or put in your pocket, that counts each step you take throughout the day.
Not only do these little guys count what you are already doing, they motivate you to move more. A recent study by the University of Minnesota shows that people who wear pedometers tend to walk more than those that do not. The study split people into two groups and encouraged them to walk. One group was given pedometers to track their steps, the other was not.
The group with pedometers walked an average of 2,100 steps more per day than those without pedometers, which totals about 20 minutes of steady walking. The logic behind this is just being aware of how much you are doing, makes you strive to do more. People are competitive by nature, so you start to recognize more opportunities to move, and rack a higher number. Its like each day is a test to try and beat your high score. (Video game reference, forgive me.)
Pedometers turn walking into a challenge. Its fun to see how many steps you take and to try and beat your total from the day or week before. You’ll probably find yourself marching in place while watching TV or doing lunges while you are on the phone.
You’ll want to set daily or weekly goals. Wear the pedometer on an average day to see how active you are, and increase your daily total by 500 or 1,000 steps per week. For weight loss, you want to aim for about 12,000-15,000 steps a day. It may seem like a lot, but you’ll be surprised how many opportunities for extra steps there are throughout your day.
Pedometers cost anywhere from $7-$25 and you can get them at any sporting good store and most department stores, like Target or Fred Meyer. I would recommend a cheap one- they are all pretty accurate, and you’ll probably drop it in the toilet and step on it more often than you’d think. They also count every movement, so if you are sitting on a stability ball bouncing up and down like I am right now in front of your computer- it’ll count those as steps too. Standing up and sitting down usually racks up a few steps, and so does bending over, so leave room for error.
Every little bit of exercise counts, so grab a pedometer and let it count for you.
Comments
No comments.