Unquestionably, the BioTrainer is the most unique and advanced exercise monitor available today. This compact and personal companion contains a powerful microcomputer chip and a super-accurate motion sensor. This is the same type of sensor that NASA uses to measure the body movements and physical activity of astronauts in space flight.

The important distinction between the BioTrainer personal exercise monitor and a simple pedometer is that the pedometer is expressly used to measure walking and simply counts the number of steps you take, while the BioTrainer is a scientifically proven medical-quality monitor that very accurately computes and stores both your physical activity and the calories you burned during all types of daily exercise routines.

Although pedometers are very cost effective, their main disadvantages are that they do not record the intensity or velocity of your body movements, nor do they have memory storage, which restricts their use to simply counting steps. Additionally, pedometers generally have lots of set-up buttons and rely on complicated programming operations that require you to enter your gender, height, weight, stride length, workout time and estimated distance. Some pedometers attempt to measure calories burned, but this is only an estimate, which most often gives inaccurate results.

Despite the appeal and popularity of pedometers, they also have serious mechanical and functional limitations. Most pedometers use a simple spring suspended lever arm (sensor) that moves up and down and makes contact as you walk. Some pedometers require the user to set the tension of the sensor arm for accurate step counting. Improper adjustment seriously affects the accuracy of the device producing significant over-counts or under-counts. In addition, pedometers generally underestimate the number of steps taken during higher intensity running and typically show consistently more errors during slow walking.

Since pedometers are designed to display steps taken over a period of time, they are not able to store or recall single-day values over a period of many days. Thus, daily written records must be kept and the pedometer must be reset manually. Pedometers are also not very accurate for people who do a fair amount of bending and/or who are overweight, as the pedometer tends to move away from the person’s body and the mechanical sensor will not accurately detect or properly score steps.

The main overwhelming problem with the pedometer, however, is that that these inexpensive units do not measure the intensity (how hard), duration (how long), or frequency (how often) physical activity occurs.

But for those who want an accurate account of all their DAILY PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, the BioTrainer is in a class by itself. This single-button “press-n-go” device uses a space age accelerometer sensor to accurately detect and measure whole body movements from the slightest motion to vigorous exercise. Plus, it samples these movements 40-times each second and very accurately computes your physical motion into activity counts; and, secondly, converts the energy you expend into calories burned. Whether you’re sitting at your desk, puttering around the house or exercising, each and every movement of your body is captured by the BioTrainer's unique motion sensor. In contrast, the pedometer cannot measure physical activity or other forms of “Lifestyle Exercise” - it only counts steps you have taken.

The BioTrainer exercise monitor employs a patented and scientifically-proven measuring technology that has been supported by a Clinical Study, which was directed by the United States Department of Health, published in prestigious medical journals and has been shown to provide an extremely high level of accuracy for objectively assessing your daily physical activity.

The BioTrainer in Action:

The following will recount a recent comparison test between a pedometer and a BioTrainer user:

Two people were instructed to walk; one with a pedometer set to measure calories burned and the other wearing a BioTrainer. After comparing the results of a 1/2 hour walk, at a pace of about 4 mph, the walkers both had their respective monitors clipped to the same position at their waist.

At the end of the workout, the pedometer walker read that she had burned over 1,000 calories, but the BioTrainer walker reported 201 calories burned. As both walkers were about the same height and weight (150 lbs), published calorie burn charts indicate that for this walking speed and distance, the average calories burned should be in the range of 190 to 202. Obviously, while the BioTrainer was right on the money, the pedometer was not counting correctly or was incorrectly adjusted or programmed thus producing an 80% error.

This type of recording error highlights the advantages and precision of the BioTrainer monitor. It never needs programming or adjustments and each unit is built and tested to a factory standard.