Problems with dodgy pedometers?

Bob Parnass said:

The concept of a pedometer seemed like a good idea until I saw the problems in actual use.

I think pedometers are great, but I use mine to give me an *approximate* number of steps per day. I
find that mine is accurate within about 100 steps per day, provided that I wear it on a tight waist
band near my hip bone. This is plenty accurate for me, since I take between 5000 and 20000 steps per
day. I occasionally find that it is not counting my steps, so I move it to another location on my
waist and think of it as motivation to move even more that day to make up the extra steps that
didn't get counted.

BTW, my pedometer is the model that comes free in the special K box, so it's not some expensive GPS
model; the retail value is CDN $15.
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Colleen

I have been testing a pedometer designed for the waist to be used on the shoe. So far it seems to be
working fine. I have it attached to the laces so it cannot bounce unnecessarily. I have managed to
do this in the past with one's I bought for $20-$30. The one I am testing, I hope to turn into a
fundraiser.

Erin-Joi

***************************************************
If you think that something small cannot make a difference---try sleeping with a mosquito
in the room.

If I told you that I was walking 35 or 39 miles in 2 days to help women with undetected breast
cancer find out early enough to survive, would you support me? erinjoi.pledgepage.comerinjoi.pledgepage.comOpen ↗ Feel
free to forward my pledgepage to anyone interested in the walk or the cause. "Colleen"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bob Parnass said:

The concept of a pedometer seemed like a good idea until I saw the problems in actual use.

I think pedometers are great, but I use mine to give me an *approximate* number of steps per day.
I find that mine is accurate within about 100 steps per day, provided that I wear it on a tight
waist band near my hip bone. This is plenty accurate for me, since I take between 5000 and 20000
steps per day. I occasionally find that it is not counting my steps, so I move it to another
location on my waist and think of it as motivation to move even more that day to make up the extra
steps that didn't get counted.

BTW, my pedometer is the model that comes free in the special K box, so it's not some expensive
GPS model; the retail value is CDN $15.
----------
Colleen

"C-Beeby" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Greetings to you all!

Am I the only person who can't find a reliable pedometer?

(snip)

Quoted message said:

I have discussed this with the owners of several outdoors and sports

shops,

Quoted message said:

and they admit to having a large number of returns on pedometers. They say

I

Quoted message said:

have to just keep buying them and returning them until I find one that works.

(snip)

I've been back to the best outdoors shop in town and got another pedometer, along with some advice
which I shall pass on now:

1. Pedometer springs can take a day or two to bed in, so you can't really buy a pedometer and then
test it by walking up and down in the high street. You need to take it home and try it for a
week to give it a fair chance.

2. If you want an accurate measure of distance, forget the instruction to "measure 10 steps and
divide by 10" that it says on the box. You want to walk a mile and divide by your number of
steps. Much more reliable.

3. Yes it is only going to be a rough guide to how far you have walked.

Let's see how we do with this one!

Regards,

Helen.

C-Beeby said:

Greetings to you all!

Am I the only person who can't find a reliable pedometer? I have bought three in recent months.
They all worked on the principle of a vertical pendulum arm attached to a spring, and they count
steps by counting pendulum oscillations. I would guess this design is standard as they were all
different makes. The first just plain stopped after three days (I think the spring came off the
pendulum). The second counted too few steps (spring too stiff?) the second counted too few (spring
not stiff enough?).

I have discussed this with the owners of several outdoors and sports shops, and they admit to
having a large number of returns on pedometers. They say I have to just keep buying them and
returning them until I find one that works. Call me grumpy but this seems unsatisfactory. It wastes
my time and makes mail-order completely impractical.

Have I just been very unlucky or is there a better solution?

I am in the UK Midlands btw.

Regards,

Helen.

"It's the wrong trousers Gromit! And they've gone wrong!"

I have two pedometers, (fit-pro, from Argos, £10) well one is in the house somewhere!, the other is
always to hand and i find it very reliable. I think it is reasonably accurate, is very easy to use
and has five or six functions.

I use mine for walking and running/jogging..