Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)PROS:
inexpensive yet reliable
7 days of memory
1.5 years of battery life
for me: a great motivator for walking more
CONS:
automatic stride setting was not accurate for me
no USB interface with your computer to record statistics (like HJ-720 has)
no distinction between aerobic steps and strolling steps
only 7 days of memory
This pedometer records the number of steps you take in a day. That number is always correct, and is probably most useful for setting goals.
It also attempts to tell you how many miles you have walked, but of course that depends on how big your stride was for each step, and it has no way of measuring individual steps: it simply multiplies the steps by the pre-set stride length. The automatic setting of stride length is based on entering your height: from your height it estimates stride length. It estimated my stride about 10% too high, so the miles walked was inaccurate until I walked a known distance (4.0 miles, determined via google maps), and divided steps by distance in inches.
It estimates the number of calories burned, based on a body weight you enter and the distance you walk. I think this is also inaccurate, in the sense that it counts running, walking, and climbing (as in a steep hill or mountain) the same in terms of calories. Obviously you burn more calories per step when increasing altitude at the same time.
But estimating miles and calories are just convenience features: what matters most is the number of steps you take in a day (10,000 is a good target) and how fast and long you were walking without interruption, to gain the benefit of aerobic exercise. Walking 10,000 steps every day does not take as long as you might think (most can do it in less than 90 minutes), and it has many important health benefits, such as helping you lose weight (along with watching your diet), reducing your blood pressure and cholesterol level, strengthened cardiovascular system, making it easier to sleep at night, reducing stress, and increasing tranquility. In short, increasing your life span and making that life more worth living!
I have owned the Omron HJ-720 pedometer before this one. HJ-720 is actually better for my purposes than this one, though it is 50-100% more expensive. (My HJ-720 did not fare well after going through the washing machine. I let it dry then replaced the battery, but getting the sensor wet has made it less accurate. Not a complaint; it's my own darn fault. But the data was still there!) I prefer the HJ-720 because it does distinguish between aerobic walking and strolling, and you can move the data to your computer for long-term viewing and analysis. The software measures goals according to aerobic steps and total number of steps, and it records exercise over any length of time, and it has at least a month's worth of memory, so you don't have to connect it to the computer very often to record statistics.
Without the extra features of the HJ-720, this unit is still good enough for many people.
If you find walking as exercise boring, consider getting an MP3 player and load it with interesting material. Besides music, consider books on tape (I'm currently "reading" Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, free from [...]), language lessons (I have practiced 27 lessons of Thai language, as well as basics of a few others), or podcasts, which are available on many subjects that are bound of interest to you (just google on your interest and include the word "podcast"). Others would say it is better to focus on your breathing and pace, or to pay more attention to the nature around you, which I also try to do. I love to walk in the twilight before dawn, before all the joggers and cars come out.
Happy walking!
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