Pedometer that doesn't need a smart phone

emilychris13

Hi all! I'm hoping to help my mom get healthier and more active, and I'd love to be able to give her a wearable fitness tracker/pedometer... but all the major brands (FitBit, Garmin) are so app-based and she doesn't own a smartphone. Any suggestions of a reliable tracker I could get for her that she could either use independently or that could be connected to a computer via USB to upload data? Thanks!!

festerw

Garmin can be synced with usb via the charging cord and when I had a Fitbit it came with a Bluetooth dongle to allow sync through usb.

suzmosb

I would suggest going to Walmart and checking out the fitness aisle. I got a cheapo $5 pedometer there a few years back (I just checked online- they still have it). All it does is count steps. If the goal is to see "where I am" and adjust it to "where I want to be" that's a nice cheap starting point.

autumnblade75

My local Dollar Tree usually carries mechanical pedometers. For a dollar. If you wanted to do more than verify 10k steps per day, you'd have to use paper and pencil to chart daily totals. Also, you'd have to push the button to reset it, manually, every day. Nothing fancy, and no real "technology" involved.

How does your mom feel about this idea? It won't work if she doesn't want to do it.

Annie_01

I use an Omron and have been really happy with it over the years. I tried a cheap one once...it gave me steps when all it did was stand up...so I took it back.

Amazon has Omrons in all different price ranges. I haven't checked Walmart or Target but they probably have them too.

Machka9

suzabrown wrote: »

I would suggest going to Walmart and checking out the fitness aisle. I got a cheapo $5 pedometer there a few years back (I just checked online- they still have it). All it does is count steps. If the goal is to see "where I am" and adjust it to "where I want to be" that's a nice cheap starting point.

This! I had one I used for years like this. It was fine.

Just this year, I joined a walking challenge at work, and we were all issued pedometers, so now I have a new one and this one is a bit better than the Walmart ones. I'm not sure where they got it ... maybe a fitness store or something.

marieamethyst

If you think she'd like to track more data than just steps, you can just use a Fitbit with a computer. When I first got my Flex 3 years ago my phone wasn't compatible with the app, so I used it for 2 years just connecting via my laptop at the end of the day. (The default goal is 10,000 steps a day, and it has 5 lights - every 2,000 steps it shows a light, so you can just tap your wrist and have a general idea of where you're at for the day. Once you reach 10,000 steps it vibrates for a second to let you know. You can set your own goals for the day/week too.) The Flex is one of the small bracelet versions and via the dashboard/website you can see steps over a period of time, calorie burn over a period of time, sleep amount, weight loss and progress to goal, etc. They're less than $70 on Amazon now. It's been the perfect tracker for me since the tracker is basic compared to some of the newer ones with all of the bells and whistles, but I had access to more data than the basic tracker I had originally bought when I first started losing weight that just counted steps. Plus I've been able to add many of my family and friends on the Fitbit website to help motivate me to get my step count in since you can see a ranking of where everyone is at for steps.