I am pretty obsessed about walking. Perhaps obsessed is a strong word, but what else would you call someone who loves knowing just how many steps she takes a day? So yeah I bought myself a pedometer and used it till I discovered Pacer. Obviously this is way better cuz truth be told, pedometers are kinda clunky and ugly and you have to clip it to your waist like it’s some kinda fanny pack.

Walk your way healthy…

Pacer is an app that claims to help you lose weight by tracking your walking and running – whether or not you actually lose weight with it depends on how much work you put in. It merely tracks it for you. However keep in mind the wise words of Peter Drucker, “What gets measured gets managed.” Studies have shown that tracking your food and exercise can double your weight loss!

Pacer also allows you to keep track of your blood pressure – but we’ll get to that later. First up, the pedometer function. Now since this app allows you to track and lose weight, you begin by entering your current weight, sex, height and year of birth. And then that’s pretty much it; the app automatically tracks your steps and logs it.

You can carry it in your hand, in your pocket, in your jacket or armband – it claims to have the accuracy of an actual pedometer. I’ve been using Pacer for a while along with a real pedometer and it’s not as accurate as a good quality pedometer but I guess one must allow for some leeway for a free smartphone app.

The first thing I noticed when I started using a pedometer is that I do not walk as much as I think I do. And I have this idea in my head that to be healthy I have to walk 10,000 steps a day but even after an hour long, five kilometer walk I’ve only taken about 6000 odd steps. So yeah, it can get stressful. Luckily Pacer also comes with some built in plans that you can subscribe to or purchase (starting at €1.79 till €11.99) that will get you walking 10,000 (building from 4000 steps), a plan to walk off the weight, a customizable plan and a premium data plan.

Best of all for me is that it synchs up with MyFitnessPal and automatically updates any calories you’ve lost from walking. Now as for the blood pressure tracker, you just enter your blood pressure and pulse and it will keep track of it. To be honest I did not use this feature at all so I can’t sing its benefits. However in my opinion, for a free app, Pacer is worth the download. It might not track your steps as well as a $100 pedometer, but what it is, it’s great!