Pedometers are electronic devices that count your walking steps and from the same steps work out the distance you have traveled in the more advanced pedometer models.

The working of a pedometer largely depends on a motion sensing mechanism – which is implemented using a coiled spring set-up in the most basic models, a hairspring mechanism in the slightly more advanced set ups and a piezo-electric accelerometer mechanism in the most advanced set ups.

The main role of pedometers in personal fitness is motivation. Success breeds success, or so we are told. Noticing that you managed to walk 5000 steps yesterday, and then 6,000 today can motivate you to do some 7,000 tomorrow. That build up of figures can lead to a sense of accomplishment – which can be considered a form of success, even before the success starts to show up on the weight scales, for those who want to use walking exercises as a part of their weight loss effort. As it turns out, many people using other exercises for their weight loss would be glad to get such a way of getting motivation before their weight loss starts showing up on their weighing scale – and unfortunately, this is something that only people using walking exercise can get, thanks to pedometers. This is to say that through a pedometer, you get a way of enjoying the exercise journey, as well as the destination (weight loss) – which is consistent with the sage’s advice of enjoying the journey as well as the arrival at the destination.

The more advanced pedometer-models can convert the steps that one has walked into actual distance (in terms of kilometers and miles) and this way one can get a way of enumerating their weight loss efforts to their friends (or more usefully to their physician) in a way other people – even people who are not involved in weight loss efforts, can relate with. Saying that you walked 10,000 steps yesterday might be meaningless to someone who is not conversant with the recommended walking steps for weight loss. Saying to the same person that you managed to clock some 10 kilometers obviously sounds much more meaningful.

The even more advanced pedometer-models can even convert your walking in terms of calories (albeit approximations) you are likely to have lost through the effort. In this way, coupled with a monitored calories intake, you are in a position of working out whether your are expending the calories you are taking in your exercise regime and whether you are even going beyond expending the calories you are consuming to burn up those stored in form of fat in the body, which is what will ultimately result in weight loss from your exercise effort.

There are even pedometers that come with a memory feature – that they are able to keep a record of how much you have been walking, and perhaps even represent it graphically in the most advanced pedometer models. Now if watching your walking graph shoot up and up is not motivation, then there is really no telling what motivation is.