A new study reveals that wearing a pedometer may help increase step counts even when they couldn't see the step count.
With almost half of American adults not meeting recommended physical activity
levels, researchers discovered that simply putting on a pedometer was motivation enough to get people to take more steps.
The study was published in the American Journal of Health and Behavior. The study involved 90 participants. Researchers wanted to determine if just tracking fitness changed the person's behavior. The team was able to use the default step tracking feature on the iPhone to get a baseline of how many steps the subjects had the previous week.
Some of the participants were given a pedometer without a display and then the rest were not told the purpose of the study. After a two week period, researchers collected the step data from the iPhones again and found that those wearing a pedometer had a higher step count and averaged 318 more steps a day than those without a pedometer.
So if you need a little extra "kick" in your step, get yourself a pedometer to help you pick up the pace!
