Understanding what the steps on your pedometer means is sometimes what will make the difference of getting great results from your pedometer or in a couple of months time it gathering dust in your junk draw. So lets find out with the help of Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke how active you really are:

Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke is an Associate Professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in 2009 she set about researching people’s daily step counts in order to establish standard activity categories.

Based on her findings she identified the following categories:

• Under 2,500 steps a day can be classified as “basal activity”.
• 2,500 to 4,999 steps a day can be classified as “limited activity”.
• 5,000 to 7,499 steps a day is typical of daily activity excluding sports/exercise and might be considered “low active”.
• 7,500 to 9,999 steps a day is likely to include some exercise or walking (and/or a job that requires more walking) and can be be considered “somewhat active”.
• 10,000 steps to 12,499 a day, the individual can be classified as “active”.
• More than 12,500 steps/day, the individual can be classified as “highly active”.

Are you shocked? Most people are! It is very common to think you are doing more steps then you really do! Prepare to be horrified…I sometimes get in to the Walk with Attitude office at 5.30am and not leave till 8pm and on days I am unable  to go for a couple of walks, my step count is around 3,800 steps – I know when I first saw that number I was in shock, so much so I shook my pedometer to make sure it was still working! I was at work for 15 hours and that is all the steps I did! That’s alot of sitting and not alot of moving!

Great news is though where ever your step count is today, tomorrow it can be better, and the next day and the day after that too… all you have to remember is our ‘Step Golden Rule’ - ‘Beat yesterdays steps’  if you do that every day for the next few weeks you will stepping up the Activity ladder in no time. Remember, even if its only by 100 steps each day – in 7 days time you will be doing 700 steps more then today!

So clip on your pedometer and get those feet moving

Happy Stepping!

Ref:
*Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke 2009 Paper: Steps to Better Cardiovascular Health: How Many Steps Does It Take to Achieve Good Health and How Confident Are We in This Number?