While loosening your belt after Thanksgiving dinner, you may want to clip a
pedometer to it. The reason: Just wearing a step counter leads to weight loss
and lower blood pressure, according to research released Tuesday.
The researchers found that a pedometer is an unusually good motivator to get
people to walk more.
People who used a pedometer for 18 weeks walked an average of seven additional
miles weekly and shaved 0.4 points from their body mass indexes, a measure of
weight that considers both pounds and height. That decrease is the equivalent of
2.5 pounds for a 5-foot-6 person with an initial weight of 195 pounds, according
to the report in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.
The device "is a great little motivator," said Stanford University internist and
lead author Dr. Dena M. Bravata. "I never anticipated such a small intervention
could have such a big effect."
Two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, and more than half of all
adults do not get the 30 minutes of daily exercise recommended by the Department
of Health and Human Services, the report said.
A pedometer, which can cost less than $10, is an inexpensive tool to get people
walking, researchers said. If 10% of U.S. adults began a regular walking
program, $5.6 billion in annual heart disease costs could be saved, according to
the report, which was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging.
Bravata and colleagues from Stanford and the University of Minnesota analyzed
results of 26 studies of pedometer use, with a total of 2,767 participants. Most
were female, overweight and relatively inactive before they started their
walking programs. The average duration of the studies was 18 weeks.
The walking programs varied considerably. Nearly all programs included a step
goal and diary in which participants recorded their daily activity. Many of the
programs included physical activity counseling, and five of them were centered
in the workplace.
Researchers found that participants who wore pedometers increased their activity
by 27%, or by more than 2,000 steps daily, the equivalent of one mile.
Systolic blood pressure fell an average of 3.8 millimeters of mercury, a sizable
improvement because the blood pressure of participants in general was not that
high, Bravata said. A reduction of 2 millimeters is associated with a 10%
reduction in the risk of death from stroke and a 7% drop in the chance of
cardiovascular death, the study said.
Researchers found that participants who were given step goals or kept diaries
increased their activity the most. Although most participants did not meet their
goals, just having one to shoot for was a "potent motivator," Bravata said.
Workplace programs were associated with smaller increases in activity, probably
because people attracted to the programs were already fairly active, researchers
said.
Dr. Allan Abbott, a professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC who was not
connected to the study, said that the report changed his mind about pedometers
and that he planned to add them to his patients' walking programs.
"This clearly shows the benefit of using pedometers as a motivator of physical
activity," said Abbott, who focuses on fitness and physical activity.
Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale
University, said that although the amount of weight lost in the study was small,
the cost of a pedometer was also small.
"The real issue is whether people out there on their own -- not part of a
program where there is an expectation that they will use a pedometer -- will use
the device long enough to achieve lasting benefit," he said.
