Post Thanksgiving Resolution, Take A Walk And Record It

The Future Pundit has and excellent suggestion on this day after the big feast, take a walk and then record it. According Dr Dena M. Bravada of Stanford University, in her study evaluating the association between pedometer use and and physical activity, Pedometers radically increase their users physical activity, particularly when the devices compare performance to goals.

From her study, Get a pedometer to measure your walking and adopt a goal.

Dena M. Bravata, M.D., M.S., of Stanford University, Calif., and colleagues evaluated the association between pedometer use and physical activity and health outcomes among adults. The authors searched databases for studies and articles on this topic, and identified 26 studies with a total of 2,767 participants that met inclusion criteria (eight randomized controlled trials [RCTs] and 18 observational studies). The participants’ average age was 49 years and 85 percent were women. The average intervention duration was 18 weeks.

In the RCTs, pedometer users significantly increased their physical activity by 2,491 steps per day more than control participants. Among the observational studies, pedometer users significantly increased their physical activity by 2,183 steps per day over baseline (2,000 steps is about one mile). Overall, pedometer users increased their physical activity by 26.9 percent over baseline. Among the intervention characteristics, having a step goal was the key predictor of increased physical activity. The three studies that did not include a step goal had no significant improvement in physical activity with pedometer use in contrast to increases of more than 2,000 steps per day with the use of a 10,000-step-per-day goal or other goal.

Intervention participants significantly decreased their body mass index by 0.38 from baseline. This reduction was associated with older age and having a step goal. Participants also significantly decreased their systolic blood pressure by 3.8 mm Hg, which was associated with greater systolic blood pressure at baseline and change in steps per day.

The Future Pundit recommends:

Use technology to give you immediate feedback in progress toward goals. Makes sense.

I'm thinking I ought to get a pedometer.Go for the the pocket Omron HJ-720ITC or the corded Omron HJ-112? Does the pocket one work as well?

Sounds good, I think all add Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer with Advanced Omron Health Management Software to my Christmas List. The software looks to be a MS .Net application with a Access backend, I'll look over the software to get a better idea of how it works and links back to the Pocket Pedometer via a standard PS2 to mini PS2 connector.

I could stand to loose about 50 pounds or so and if I can plug this into a project, I might just get into it, I've got an idea about and even more effective way of tracking goals and performance.

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