Steps to better health

With the addition of exercise as an element of the new food pyramid, health officials are encouraging people to add exercise to their daily routine and help combat obesity and disease in the process.

Walking often provides that exercise. It is "so beneficial because it's low stress and you don't need any equipment except a good pair of shoes," said Sandie Howells, health and fitness coordinator at Saint Francis' Fitness Plus.

But how much should you be walking? Taking 10,000 steps has long been the standard.

Ron Sutton of Accusplit Inc., a California-based business that sells pedometers, said the mission shouldn't be to reach that goal the first time out, but to get active.

"Wear a pedometer for a week and count your step activity," he said. Adding just 10 or 15 percent more steps each week can easily help a person reach weight loss goals.

Most of the participants in Shape Up Cape are using walking as their daily activity, said coordinator Nicole Rodriguez. "I'd say that about 95 percent of the logs have walking. That's by far the most popular."

But how do you know if you're doing enough?

"There's nothing magic about 10,000 steps," said Debbie Leoni, manager at Main Street Family Fitness Center in Jackson. "What's magic is that you're doing more than what you were doing today."

She suggests that people wear a pedometer for a week to get an average number of daily steps. "They are a measurable motivation" and often encourage people to change.

Howells said most people who wear pedometers regularly take an average of 2,000 steps more in a day than people who don't wear one.

But how accurate are pedometers? Choosing the right pedometer can make a difference in your walking routine.

Leoni said you have to account for some inaccuracies depending on individual strides. She suggests people walk a measured mile while wearing the pedometer to determine how many steps it equals. "But you're just getting a baseline. I don't care about miles. You need to move more than you moved today."

Americans have a sedentary lifestyle today, and getting exercise is more important than ever. What pedometers offer is concrete feedback, Leoni said.

Pedometers were first created in Japan. All the pedometers created in Japan have to be accurate according to government standards. Dr. Yoshiro Hatano came up with the 10,000 steps standard because he wanted to know how many calories a person would need to burn in order to lose weight simply by walking.

But the 10,000 marker is not as strict as might think, Sutton said. Obviously it can change depending on how much or little weight a person carries on their body.

Julia Havey, a master motivator from E-diets.com, said it's not difficult for any person to take 10,000 steps a day. Pedometers "have an amazing effect on someone who wants to lose weight," she said.

People live in denial and rationalize their lack of activity or excess weight. Pedometers are an awareness tool, she said, particularly for people who think they're getting enough exercise to lose weight.

So often diets set people up for failure because they require drastic changes from the outset. Wearing a pedometer doesn't, she said.

"If you want a healthy body and want to live healthfully, then exercise is just part of an active life," Havey said.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126