Walk It Out: Not Your Grandmother’s Pedometer

If you ask any of the FBGs what the perfect exercise to start with is if you’re wanting to go from newbie to fit chick, you’ll get one answer: Do something you love! And if you’re not sure what exercise you love (or think it’s all dreadful), walk! We all know how to walk, it doesn’t require anything but a pair of tennis shoes, and it gives you a really good opportunity to go outside and get some vitamin D!

While most of you are probably familiar with pedometers and know the recommendation that we should all log 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day (most of us unfortunately don’t get that), you probably think of the walking-tracking tool as something for older people or something that is really easy to cheat with. (Remember those pedometers from McDonald’s? You could just shake them and rack up the points. Not that I did that…) But these days there are some awesome pedometers on the market.

We recently tried the PaceCoach, which is like a pedometer and personal trainer in one. You simply click the little device on your waistband, and it continuously monitors your walking speeds. It even suggests if you should speed up or slow down so that you’re getting the best cardiovascular walk possible with a little beep. By following its prompts to change up the pace of your walk, the manufacturer says you can shed up to four times more body fat and five times more belly fat than maintaining the same speed every walk. The little coach retails for $19.95 and is pretty easy to use. It’s a great tool for beginning walkers or those who seem to do the same walk workout day after day. (Gotta mix it up!)

Do any of you use a pedometer? Walk for your choice of exercise? Tell us about it in the comments! —Jenn