Your pedometer may let you down

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A test of cheap pedometers shows that they don't show an accurate figure.
Taking 10,000 steps a day can help you lose weight and keep fit. That's why pedometers, which automatically count your steps, have become so popular. But a team at Ghent University, Belgium, now reveal that a pedometer doesn't always do its job.

They tested out 1,000 pedometers on a group of 35 volunteers aged between 20 and 60 years of age. Each volunteer checked out 30 pedometers against a sophisticated step counter. This was done by wearing five pedometers and the standard one every day for six days. Only one in four pedometers was in the acceptable ten per cent variation range. There was a tendency to overestimate steps taken - which suggests users may think they have taken enough steps to reach their goal, when they have not. This is not to say you should spend a lot on a pedometer. The researchers just want better quality control - so you can buy a pedometer with some kind of certification mark.

Source
British Journal of Sports Medicine Online First 20th June 2006

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