USA: Step Counting May Be An Effective Strategy In Weight Management

TORONTO, Canada (Body & Health Canada), November 12, 2007: Looking to improve your fitness level but finding it hard to meet your goals? Pedometers, those increasingly popular gizmos that count the number of steps you take each day, could help, according to a study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise Researchers at the University of Tennessee wanted to see if previously sedentary women would be likely to get more exercise when they were told to take a brisk 30-minute walk most days of the week or when they were told to take 10,000 steps per day. To find out the answer, they randomly assigned 58 women with an average age of 45 to two groups, one of which was instructed to aim for 30 minutes of walking a day, the second to aim for 10,000 steps. Prior to the study, all of the women walked an average of 7000 steps or fewer per day. For two weeks, all of the women wore pedometers that had been sealed in order to prevent them from reading the results, while women who were counting their steps also received a second, unsealed pedometer. So at the end of the study period, who had a step up? While the women told to walk for 30 minutes a day averaged close to 10,000 a day on the days they walked, the number of steps they took on non-walking days was no different from their sedentary days. But women who were told to walk 10,000 steps a day and who could see their pedometers throughout the trial managed nearly 12,000 steps a day on walking days and 8,000 steps even on non-walking days - more than 2,000 more steps, on average, than the women who couldn't see their pedometers. "Pedometers are quite popular now, and with good reason," note the study's authors in a press release. "Our study shows they provide an incentive for people to increase their activity levels. Study participants who monitored their daily steps with pedometers tended to walk more every day, even when they were below their goal of 10,000 steps per day." While the study wasn't long enough in duration to show whether this pedometer effect encourages people to keep walking in the long term, it does show that counting your steps may be a good strategy to upping your fitness level. So even if you don't have time for a full work out, try to walk, rather than drive, when running errands - or squeeze in a walk over your lunch hour. After all, when it comes to improving your fitness level and preventing obesity, every step counts! Source: Canada.com