A pedometer is the best walking buddy and will be with you every step you take – however a pedometer doesn’t make a good cycling partner and certainly makes a hopeless swimming coach. So how do you translate those sort of activity into steps?

If you did a quick Google search on this topic you will find activity list and and equations telling you this or that – so it can get confusing. What is really important is to find one conversion method that suits you and then focus on increasing your steps over time.

As you are no doubt aware our company has pedometer step tracking sites for individuals (www.WalkingwithAttitude.com) and workplaces (www.10000StepsAustralia.com) and our members use an ‘easy to use’ Log step calculator that converts other activity into steps by using intensity. But even then it’s impossible to list every activity.

So to make it easy for you, if you own or have just purchased a pedometer, here is a really simple calculation that will convert your ‘other activity’ into steps.

Ohh! That reminds me about Double Dipping…

Make sure you don’t accidentally ‘double dip’ your steps – what I mean by this is if you are using the calculation below make sure you are not wearing your pedometer for that activity as well. Otherwise you will end up with an unrealistic daily step count – as impressive as that may look it wouldn’t be your true step count

The Activity step conversation calculation below requires you to guesstimate your intensity , we use the talk test to help you do this…

1 min Low intensity (gentle) = 85 steps
Talk Test: at this intensity you can sing your favourite song or hold a conversation without noticing an increase in your breathing.

 1 min Moderate/Brisk intensity (comfortable) = 150 steps
Talk Test: at this intensity you can exercise and carry on a conversation but you do notice you need to breathe deeply every few words

1 min High Intensity (tolerable intensity but not for a long period of time) = 200 steps
Talk Test: at this intensity your breathing is heavy and you would struggle to hold a conversation

1 Min Vigorous/Supersonic Intensity (uncomfortable intensity)   = 265 steps
Totally out of breath, gasping for air - not recommended!

All you have to do now is multiply your exercise minutes by the intensity.

Example: 45 mins of moderate exercise x 150 steps = 6,750 steps

So there it is – a really simple and fair calculation to convert all that other activity you do into steps.

Enjoy and happy stepping!