Pedometers ...Are Your Friends!

Some food for thought! Having had a trainer who was huge on us wearing a pedometer and then joining Jenny Craig for all of last year we got to love our pedometers LOL First pedometers are not very expensive and you could get a very good one for 15-20 dollars. As soon as i get up i put my pedometer on my pj's and it moves onto my clothing after my shower and doesn't come off till my feet hit the bed that night.  I know exactly how much walking i do in a day and i never have to guess, didn't reach my goal of 10K steps a day we would walk after dinner around our neighborhood or do the treadmill.  i.e. 1 mile =2000 to 2500 steps        10,000 steps = 4 to 5 miles One city block is about 200 steps Most people walk about 1200 steps in 10 minutes 2000 steps burns on average 100 calories! The reason i thought i would bring this is up is exercise is a huge part of  our success in this process and even just being post op it is very important to be moving and burning calories. Today i am 5 days post op and have 3700 steps, so i burned an extra 150 calories today. It starts to become a challenge before you know it to reach the goal you set for yourself in steps per day.  You might even be surprised at how much steps you get in a day just doing things around your house! Give it a try! I bet you will be nicely surprised. Description. A pedometer senses your body motion and counts your footsteps. This count is converted into distance by knowing the length of your usual stride. Wearing a pedometer and recording your daily steps and distance is a great motivating tool. You can wear a pedometer all day, every day and record total steps. Or you can wear it just when you go out for a walking workout. All pedometers count steps, although they may use different methods to do so. These include (in general order of accuracy): piezo-electric accelerometers, a coiled spring mechanism, and a hairspring mechanism. Beyond showing the step total and/or calculating the distance, features abound. The top features are: Calorie estimates, clocks, timers, stopwatches and speed estimators, 7-day memory, pulse rate readers. The simplest pedometers only count your steps and display steps and/or distance. This is all you need to track to keep yourself motivated. Set a goal of distance or steps for each day. The recommended number of steps is 6000 for health, 10,000 for weight loss when you count all steps during the day. For weight loss, an uninterrupted walk each day of 4000-6000 steps is recommended. Sorry this was a bit long Hugs Brenda

Brenda, I am following you because I have  surgery on Friday the 18 in San Diego... and you have seem so brave.... I don't want to sound like a nit wit but do you have trouble getting your pedometers to work... could you name a good brand... my last one never seem to work.. Thanks Cate 48

Wow thank you for the wonderful compliment. My bravery as you call it comes from really reading and listening to many people on here including my DR. My pedometer is from Jenny Craig and honestly they make a great one!  Walmart, any sports place will sell pedometers.  Don't bother with those under 5 dollar ones you see in the check out aisles they break very fast.  Spend about 20 to 25 dollars and you will get a pretty good one. You will be shocked but it will give you the info you need to make sure you are getting in enough exercise for health and weight loss in a day. Hugs Brenda

Hijack~ Are you having your surgery at Scripps through Pac Bar? Which surgeon??  I'm very excited for you!! I'll be thinking about you and praying for you!         hugs, Becky

Brenda....great post!!! I have a couple of them and was shocked at the amount of steps I do each day! You keep up the great work...you are going to a wls super rock star!!!  

Thanks Janine! Everyone has been so helpful to me i thought any information i may have that might be helpful could also be a "pay it forward" Hugs Brenda

ok...good idea i found one in a parking lot and have  never used it. think I will start now. one question though...what if your stride is only a few inches long, it there one where you can set your stride length?

Annette

Hey Annette, I bought mine at jenny craig it is really durable with a cover and it was like 20 bucks we had to set our stride on them as well. Check out the traveling chicks lw post to vegas.   Hoping you and hubby can make it.