A Step-by-Step Guide
Pedometers Keep Track of Kids' Movement
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How many steps do you take in a day? If you wear a pedometer -- which counts every step or bounce you take -- you can find out for sure. And it's a good number to know.
Fitness experts say that kids should take at least 7,500 steps a day. The more steps you take every day, the fitter you will be. That matters because being overweight as a child makes it more likely that you could develop serious health problems when you grow up. That's a little scary since there are twice as many overweight kids today as there were 20 years ago, and there are three times as many overweight teens.
Taking 7,500 steps in one day might seem like a lot. After all, walking a mile equals about 2,000 (grown-up) steps. But it might not be as hard as you think -- and it can be lots of fun. KidsPost gave pedometers (pronounced peh-DOM-utt-ers) to nine kids from around the region and asked each of them to wear one for a whole day and record the results.
We think they might have done a little extra running around at recess; even so, we found a pretty active group of kids. Congrats to them! Any kind of movement counts, so activities including basketball, jazz dancing, ice skating and just playing outside pushed everyone's numbers higher than the government's recommend minimum.
Here's how many steps each kid took, along with a listing of their activities for that day. Use this chart to estimate how many steps you think you take in a day -- and then use a pedometer sometime to check for sure. Notice that you get a higher number if you play soccer after school than if you play on a computer.
So, get moving and aim for that high number. It's good for you!
-- Margaret Webb Pressler
