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Top 10 Best Pedometers

By , About.com Guide

Updated September 29, 2009

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

What is the best pedometer? Pedometers count steps. Step counting is a great way to keep active, aiming to increase your steps by 2000 per day towards a goal of 10,000 steps per day. The best pedometers can calculate and display other interesting stats such as distance, calories burned, speed, elapsed time, steps per minute, and function as a stopwatch and alarm. Some pedometers have fancy features such as talking, playing music or reading your heart rate.

1. Omron HJ-112 Pedometer

Omron HJ-112Wendy Bumgardner © 2007
This advanced design lets you wear it on your belt or carry it in your pocket, clip it to your bra, or wear it anywhere it is perpendicular to the ground. The Omron HJ-112 counts steps, calculates distance and calories burned. It also tracks aerobic steps separately when walking or jogging more than 60 steps per minute or more than 10 minutes continuously. The Omron HJ-112 has a 7-day memory, a feature I prize greatly. It is absolutely silent - no clicking or rattling! It comes with a security leash to ensure you don't lose it. It is top rated for accuracy by a consumer magazine.

2. Yamax Digiwalker CW-701 Pedometer

Yamax Digiwalker CW-701 PedometerWendy Bumgardner ©
The CW-701 is the update to the highly-accurate SW-701. Beyond step counting, it displays distance, calories burned, clock and activity time. Yamax beefed up the mechanism with a long-lasting spring coil and heavy coated pendulum, which they claim improves accuracy 2.5% over the SW models. The belt clip is now made of sturdy metal. But the biggest change is in the display, with two lines to show multiple data. It now has a 7-day daily memory for steps, distance, calories, and activity time. It keeps a 2-week total for each as well. This is a great upgrade.

3. Omron HJ-720 ITC Pedometer

Omron HJ-720 PedometerWendy Bumgardner © 2007
The Omron HJ-720ITC Pedometer Pedometer is a full-featured pedometer (steps, distance, calories) that also allows you to upload it all to enjoy graphs and charts of steps, aerobic steps, distance, calories and fat burned. The pedometer is of an advanced design that tolerates more tilt than many. It is also absolutely silent and very accurate. For the same price as other advanced pedometers, you also upload the data to your own computer to set your goals and see your progress. You keep the data on your own computer, rather than uploading it to a web site as with some other pedometers.

4. New-Lifestyles NL-2000 Pedometer

New Lifestyles NL-2000Wendy Bumgardner ©
A great pedometer for those who want to count steps and estimate calories burned. The automatic seven day memory helps you track your walking. It ranked tops for accuracy both for tracking daily step counts and for walking on a treadmill.

5. Yamax® Digi-Walker™ SW-200 Pedometer

Yamax Digiwalker 200Photo courtesy of Pricegrabber
It only counts steps, but is considered the gold standard by pedometer researchers who use it as their most accurate reference. You can't go wrong - there is only a reset button.

6. Sportline Fitness Pedometer 360

Sportline 360 PedometerSportline 360 Pedometer
Loaded with features yet it is small, quiet, and accurate. The dual-line display shows distance and the other data - steps, calories, speed, steps-per-minute, time of day. It times your workout and can display the total for the past 7 days. The clip holds it securely to your belt, better than some models. The flip case protects the buttons.

7. Sportline Pedometer 330

Sportline 330 PedometerCourtesy of Pricegrabber
Only counts steps, for a very inexpensive price. Perfect for those who want to count their steps each day with a small investment. Cover prevents you from accidentally resetting it. Rated tops for accuracy and reliability.

8. Walk4Life Elite Pedometer

An excellent multi-function pedometer to count steps and walking time, and calculate calories burned and distance. Was shown to be 99% accurate in counting steps on a treadmill, less so for wearing all day.

9. Freestyle Pacer Pro Pedometer

Freestyle Pacer Pro© Wendy Bumgardner
It's tiny, it's quiet, and I found it to be quite accurate. This pedometer counts steps, measures time spent exercising, calculates distance and calories and speed. It has a flip case to prevent pushing buttons accidentally.

10. Sportline Talking Safety Alarm Pedometer

Sportline 344 Safety Alarm Pedometer© Pricegrabber
Don't want to look at your pedometer? The Voice Announcement speaks your calories burned, number of steps taken, distance traveled and total time. Set the Auto Voice Announcement and the pedometer speaks the numbers displayed on the LCD once you reach your programmed goal. If you need to sound the alarm, pull the pin and the personal safety alarm blares out a loud alarm siren. I liked this unit for the big numbers and loud-enough voice announcement.
How do you rate your pedometer? Come share your reviews and opinions in the Walking Forum. Read what other walkers have to say about their pedometers.
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