Do you need a pedometer?

Recently I purchased a pedometer
(the little gadget that counts a number of steps you do each day).

 I went on Ebay and found the most expensive one.
I thought, well, if it's expensive, it must be good.

And I was right.

The brand of this pedometer is Omron 152 and it comes in 3 colors: red, white and black.

It can count your steps, skip into an aerobic mode, count how many calories you burn while walking, convert them into the grams of fat you burned from your body, store all your data for 7 days so you could compare the results, it has a clock (I don't wear a wrist watch so this is a good addition for me), and it updates your step counter (and resets your steps back to zero) every midnight. How clever is that!

It also comes with 3 year guarantee and it costs £15-20 pounds (or $15-20; depends if you are buying it in the shop or Ebay).

Looking at other pedometers on the market, Omron has the most number of fantastic features that I listed above. Since I bought it, I carry it on my belt every day.

It motivates me to walk whenever I can. Even while I'm waiting for something, like the printer at work or when cooking at home, I try to do some steps on the spot.

The 'healthy' requirement for your walking is to do 10.000 steps a day, and if you want to lose weight, then 12.000-13.000 steps.

I've noticed that if I do not go for a walk in the afternoon or evening (I work in the office all day), or go to the gym, I can make around 4.000 steps a day (home-work-home). However, I do think that before I had this pedometer I probably did less steps because I simply didn't care about it. 

When I go to the gym or go for a half-hour walk, then my step count grows to 8.000.

This just shows how most of us do not meet any 'health' requirements that supposed to help us to be healthy and live longer. And I am very motivated to slowly increase the number of steps to at least 10.000 a day.

So do you need a pedometer?

Yes, if you like walking anyway. The gadget will motivate you to walk for longer.
Yes, if you are going to a gym. The gadget will set the aerobic mode so you can see how many grams of actual fat you burned in one session.
No, if you are a 'couch potato' and you think that a pedometer will motivate you to get out and walk. It might do in the first week or two, and then it will probably be somewhere in the box sadly forgotten by its owner.
But then if you were a couch potato, you probably wouldn't read a blog about pedometer.

So get one and start walking!!!