How to use your pedometer properly

Many people wear their pedometer all day. By simply walking to a further parking space, walking your children to school, walking your dog, taking a stroll with a friend during lunch you can boost your number of steps from 4,000 to 10,000 on an average day without making walking a major activity. Your pedometer will tell you exactly how many steps you have completed. You can also use your pedometer just to track your number of steps, distance, calories and even your speed when taking walks. If the pedometer is keeping you walking or walking more, you are using it correctly.  

Here are some tips for successfully using your pedometer

• Wear it all day, but make sure it is comfortable against your skin.
   
• Clip firmly to your waistband or belt.
   
• Make sure you can read the display without removing it from your waistband.
   
• Take care not press the wrong buttons accidentally or you may erase all your data for the day.

How to use your pedometer to lose weight

• Use your pedometer for one week without changing your activity level. Just do what you always do. Every night before sleeping, write down how many steps you took that day. At the end of the week, get your average. This is your baseline.
   
• Ask yourself how you can increase the number of steps you take by 10-20 percent.
   
• You be the judge of how fast you can increase the number of steps you take until you reach 10,000-15,000 steps a day.
   
• If it's your first time using a pedometer and you discover that you are already taking 10,000 steps but you are overweight, you can either increase the speed at which you walk or increase the number of steps you take.
   
• There have been cases of people needing to walk 18,000 steps to lose weight, usually because they did not want to make changes in their eating habits.