What is the best pedometer on the market? To answer this question you have to take into account what you’re looking for in a pedometer. Pedometers can range in features from simply counting steps, to measuring your heart rate, or playing music. There are a few factors that you should take into account when looking for a pedometer. They are:
1. Pedometer Accuracy
2. Pedometer Size
3. Extra features
Accuracy
Now by definition, a pedometer measures steps. If it doesn’t measure steps it’s not a pedometer. But not all pedometers are equally accurate in counting steps. Of course, you want to get a pedometer that’s as accurate as possible.
The most basic pedometers count steps by using a weight on a pendulum. Every time the weight moves up and down it counts a step. This works pretty well when you’re out for a walk. However, some pedometers will measure steps when you’re driving in the car and you hit a bump. Of course this isn’t really a step and it shouldn’t count.
Some pedometers get around this by not counting steps until you’ve taken four or five steps in a row. If you hold the pedometer where you can see it and shake it up and down, you’ll see that for the first four steps the counter doesn’t change. Then the counter will go up by four steps and as you continue to shake it, it will start to count your steps normally, one at a time. This feature can be both good and bad. It’s good because it doesn’t count the times the pedometergets bumped when you are not walking. It’s bad because if you only take a few steps at a time while walking around the room, it won’t count them.
The most accurate pedometers are the ones that use an accelerometer. The most widely available pedometer that uses an accelerometer is the Omron HJ 112. An accelerometer doesn’t use a weight on a pendulum to measure your steps. It has a piezoelectric crystal that measures movement, so it’s much more accurate. I wear my Omron HJ 112 in the car all the time and it never picks up extra steps while I’m driving.
Size
For some people, the size of a pedometer is not a very important factor. If you look at the pedometers out on the market, they range in size from very tiny, about 2 inches by 1 1/2 inches to larger ones that measure about in. by 4 in. If you don’t mind having a big pedometer on your belt, then by all means you could go with a larger one. Other people don’t like having a large pedometer on their hip though. So for them, a smaller pedometer is a better buy. There’s even one pedometer that you don’t have to wear on your belt, the Omron HJ 112. Since it has an accelerometer, you can put it in your pants pocket, shirt pocket, or even a bag or purse. It isn’t the smallest pedometer on the market, but since you can hide it away in a pocket, I think it’s a fair trade-off.
In part 2 of what is the best pedometer, we’ll look at what extra features to look for when buying a pedometer and what the top choice of pedometers on the market today is.
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