Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Pedometer-based walking intervention

I love these names--if I recommend pedometers, and I do, then I am conducting pedometer-based walking interventions. Visions of two wild-eyed pedometer experts swooping unannounced into your workplace, grabbing you one arm apiece, and carrying you out to the parking lot where they install a pedometer on your waistband and drag you screaming, half-walking/half-kicking around the parking lot until you hit 10,000 steps.

Anyway, scientists from the Dept. of Family Medicine conducted a meta-analysis of PBWI's which means that they not only searched six electronic databases for weight loss outcomes in nine different studies that compared the pedometered with the pedometerless to see who lost the most weight, but they also contacted real-life pedometer experts just in from field interventions to interpret the results. Their conclusion?

Pedometer-based walking programs result in a modest amount of weight loss. Longer programs lead to more weight loss than shorter programs.

I trust the experts were pleased.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The profundity of this conclusion leaves me speechless. . .

Anonymous said...

Woo-Hoo!

"his-self" said...

So....maybe I can walk less but wear a pedometer when I walk less and lose more? That pedometer must weigh a bunch of pounds!

dorsey said...

I've tried 2 pedometers, one free, one expensive. I've put them on my hip, the top of my pocket, in my pocket, and on my shoe. I get them perfectly calibrated (supposedly), then go for a walk, see after that I've gone 5 steps, or I cross the room for 100 steps. I know yours works and I'm impressed but I think I'll have to keep track in my head. which will be even more exercise, as I'll have to go back and start again every time I lose count. I do think their conclusion is quite funny.

Mauigirl said...

LOL about the intervention, I can just see it.

Am catching up over here - sorry to have been missing in action recently, work has been out of control! ;-)

Thanks for the "following!"