Looking for a Good Step Counter?

A step counter is a device that has become popular in recent years among physical fitness buffs and sports enthusiasts.

This device is also widely known as a pedometer, while some insist on calling it a Tomish-meter, the tool having been invented no less by Thomas Jefferson or so it is claimed. What a step counter essential does is count each step that the person wearing it takes.

With the current advances in technology the step counter has become more portable and electronic or electromechanical in design.

A step counter is usually attached to the belt all day so that the wearer will know the total number steps he or she took and in the process determine the total distance walked the period.

Such figures can provide encouragement on keeping oneself fit and give a parameter for a weight-loss program.

For example, some fitness experts and weight-loss advocates benchmark a step counter reading of 10,000 steps a day, which is equal to 8 kilometers or five miles, as a positive indicator of an active lifestyle.

Recent advances in technology have enabled the step counter to be integrated into a growing number of portable electronic devices such as mobile phones and music players.

The more advanced step counter gadgets now available are also more accurate, unlike some older pedometers which erroneously register as “false steps” other body movements like bending and shaking.

For the device to be accurate, it is necessary that the user should calibrate the step counter to the length of his or her step, that is distance (in kilometers or miles) = number of steps / step length.

Hence, the accuracy of the user’s calibration will also determine how accurate the records registered by the device are.

A very accurate step counter for outdoor activities was discovered by physical fitness enthusiasts who use advanced Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver with an odometer mode.

This GPS device, unlike most step counter, does not use a pendulum system to operate and does not actually count steps.

Nonetheless, its odometer function can register the distance traveled within an accuracy of 1/100th of a mile.