What's your fitness age?

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
21

So, further to my comment on how lifestyles leading up to individuals’ cardio respiratory fitness (that the calculator attempts to reproduce) might be somewhat different from the demographic used in the studies the calculator is based on, check this link (from the article)…

So, a period of assessment during the 1980s.

I’m going to suggest that, no matter that American Lifestyle diseases seem to be catching on in other parts of the World these days, it was very different back in the times those Norwegians tested were growing up.

22

Go to a CrossFit gym and watch a “younger” class. One of the things that attracted me to CrossFit, besides the varying workouts, go “all gas” for 10-15 minutes and I’m done instead of the drawn out 60 minute cardio/weight lifting session. That was what finally got my wife to try it too.

In my age group and older, you have to be smart about the all gas. Basically go all gas once a week, maybe twice if I’m feeling full of myself. Recovery and injury avoidance is playing a bigger part these days.

3 Likes
23

I am going to look into that at my gym. One or two all gas workouts per week is just what I need. I bet they have it. Even if it is spinning.

I agree 10 to 15 minutes at my age. I was trying to accomplish this by running till I tightened up.

You have made the fool well worth the price today.

24

The thing is, when you go to a Crossfit gym, you only see the folks that are there doing their workout, you don’t see the folks that are at home recovering from injuries. I have a cousin that is big into Crossfit, and she’s been injured many times over the decade or so she’s been doing it. Most recent injury required surgery to fix, and NO real exercise for over 6 months. I am not willing to get a full gas workout once a week in return for 6+ months completely off every few years. The only full gas periods that I am willing to do are in the pool swimming … because there’s a much lower chance of injury.

Finally, I enjoy, really enjoy, my 60+ minute workouts at the gym. I like the slower pace, I like talking to my friends there, and I like being able to do my workouts in a mindful manner, slowly, carefully, and with good form. This especially now after being injured in late '22 and having to take off most of '23 to recover. And, for cardio, I swim 3 times a week (just got back 15 minutes ago from my swim), and do elliptical 3 times a week.

25

was able to get it to work, it says physical age is 38,lol. I was expecting a much more detailed test, so while I do feel much younger than my age, I’m not placing too much stock in that test.

Did have my annual physical today, and all is well, so am grateful for that !

26

@MarkR …well folk are always going to be attracted to promises of more for less, I think and there’s no point in suggesting “optimal” if what they’ll actually do is the alternative to nothing.

15-20 minutes of something consistently is probably better than nothing. Thing is though, there’s so much nothingness about nothing, it’s a pretty low hurdle to clear…and is it adequate for …“insert fitness goal of choice”

You’re probably aware that the concept of intervals is primarily to accrue a larger volume of a high quality workload (by a measured parameter…speed, power output METs but not RPE) by including planned recovery cycles? Like, for instance, my VO2MAX sessions (the closest I’m willing to get to inflicting suffering upon myself) are once or sometimes twice a week…sprinkled into my base of Z2/MAF/ASCVD mitigation sessions. 5 x 3minutes close to best effort for that time… let’s say 200W …with 3 minutes <100W recovery. By the last minute of the 5th work effort I’m usually struggling to maintain/maybe dropping a bit. The sign of a meaningful, but not punishing, training session. So, I’ve accrued roughly 15 minutes of highish intensity work over the 30 minutes time investment, right? Now it’s fairly obvious to me…on the bike…eyes on the timer and powermeter…that, if I decided I was such a performance machine that I didn’t need no stinkin’ recovery periods, I am pretty darn sure that at, say, the 6 minute mark I would be definitely Shaking Hands with Mr Pukey, imagining I was putting out the wattage to light up a football stadium…but actually doing just the opposite.

P.S. I know * For A Fact * that, come the time when I can start exercising again, that hypothetical wattage for my interval sessions will be measurably lower in exchange for possibly more of a sufferfest :nauseated_face:

1 Like
27

My fitness age thinks I died in 2021.

No cause listed, but if I had to guess it was “living in the 60’s” coupled with too much sitting down while posting.

7 Likes
28

But is that a 39 y-o two pack a day smoker whose exercise is going to the fridge to get another beer or a 39 y-o triathlete? :upside_down_face:

1 Like
29

I’ve been wearing New Balance 608v cross trainers for 20 years. You can do anything in them. I can usually buy them for less than $60 when they’re on sale.

intercst

30

Oh this is surely true! If the alternative is 15-20 minutes of something versus noting, then 15-20 minutes is definitely better. But I was commenting mostly on the kinds of things (CrossFit, BootCamp, etc) that are “full gas” for weeks/months followed by injury and then nothing for months or a year during recovery from injury. For almost all people 60+, and most 50+, “full gas” is not reasonable and will most often lead to injury.

31

Yes.
There is very likely a “survivorship bias”.
No matter what the activity.
And even a few days of “bed rest” or “recliner rest” can cause fitness degradation.

And, it doesn’t have to be an exercise related injury. See “gout” for example.

:ambulance:
ralph

1 Like
32

@MarkR

Honestly do not sell yourself short.

I knew it!

I am standing while posting and will cook, clean, work, and surf 12 plus hours per day. I am usually standing for most of 16 hours per day.

Why sit if you have feet?

Kids at home if you want to feel some pain stand for 12 hours per day. The first two weeks will humble you before you get accustomed to it.

1 Like
33

This guy ( and me ) agrees with you. I think WendyBG also talks about not sitting for too long.

IMO, one of the things that present day people underestimate about people from the early 1900’s is that those people physically worked for virtually everything. It took effort just to go to the bathroom ( a bath with a path ), or get a glass of water ( handpump ), and lots of other examples. The old timers worked for virtually everything, and modern people work virtually, lol.

Podcast #955: The Power of NEAT — Move a Little to Lose a Lot | The Art of Manliness

2 Likes
34

One of the first workshops at my first fitness conference was given on this very topic by this lecturer back in the early aughts.

https://www.ideafit.com/personal-training/neat-new-strategy-weight-control-0/

To be honest, at the time I didn’t realise how important background, “organic” movement was to health and fitness…although the phrase “sitting is the new smoking” started to enter into general dialogue on the topic.

It wasn’t until pedometers/step counters started to become included in the basic heart rate monitors that I realised that I have a high “NEAT beat” (one of James Levine’s hokey catch phrases for daily step count)…routinely logging upwards of 15-20k steps outside of what I’m doing during volitional exercise and with no idea where most of the steps come from.

He proposed standing desks (as superior to sitting at one) and walking pads/low speed treadmills to use with (as superior to just standing at) along with sitting alarms etc quite a while before they became fashionable.

1 Like
35

Just started with a probiotic but not for my poops. The chemicals and nerves between our guts and brains need a lot of work in our modern society. I have immediate results. Just much better feelings of self. Not any utopia just a much better marriage with my body and mind. It makes sense. It is also not a panacea.

@VeeEnn The moving around part of standing is important and even more important if someone has been sitting for some time.

But the benefit is in just standing because the blood is not pooling as it does when just sitting. Blood has all sorts of jobs to do. Sitting causes problems. I can not do justice to the topic. I won’t try.

The cancer and heart mortality rates from tobacco and alcohol consumption are tripled for sitting alone. Sitting includes office jobs, TV time, computer time, and driving time.

36

…and on the topic of NEAT, non-volitional daily movement (call it what you will) this is one of the dependant variables in the Cals In:Cals Out equation that energy balance that is frequently underestimated in its impact on weight management.

As I mentioned upstream, I was clued into this as a notion years ago and one of the reasons I didn’t appreciate what an impact it might have is the exuberant claims made for the caloric expenditure. I recall “up to” 1,000-1,500 Cals a day. Of course, the caveat there is the “up to” phrase…not exactly a lie but the stuff of infomercials more like.

Thing is…and I picked this up in the Len Kravitz workshop and in subsequent reading stuff by Jim Levine…any one individual’s “natural” NEAT can be hugely affected by both energy intake and volitional movement/exercise. **Levine’s early studies were prompted by noticing the phenomenon of overfeeding producing unexpectedly different degrees of weight gain if activity levels weren’t controlled for. Take home message for folk who’re still in the “honeymoon” period of a new diet (and can still hack the accountability needed to maintain it) and exercise programme…take note of the impact either one or both have on the NEAT expenditure for the remaining waking hours.

That honest “500 Cal deficit” obtained theoretically by diet, exercise or combo of the two, might not give the expected results if you’re unaware of any impact on those variables in the Cals In:Cals Out equation. I don’t gape at my daily step count on a regular basis as my habits are reasonably consistent but I suspect that I would be able to peg the time my soon-to-be-surgerized foot first started to niggle and before it made any real impact on volitional activities…I’m sure even minor discomfort would’ve had an impact on my NEAT beat.

Edit: ** The study I recall James Levine mentioning in articles I’ve read is this…

His first proof of concept study didn’t include twins but he’s done a LOT of work since that’s enough to make a case that the variable response of non volitional movement to over /underfeeding is one of those factors that’s due as much to hardwiring as habit.

2 Likes
37

I do between 13k and 23k steps per day. Depending on what is going on. It is not the same day to day.

Sitting has a big drawback. It is like folding the body. Ever try to get air out of a ziplock bag you put in the freezer? The force involved and difficulty somehow remind me of why sitting is bad for the body.

38

While I certainly believe exercise, NEAT, not sitting, carrying water uphill, or having to walk to outside latrines contribute to health, I don’t believe on their own they significantly impact weight loss.

The body is very good at maintaining a steady state. If the body dehydrates, it will make you feel thirsty until you restore the proper water balance. If the body burns calories, it will make you feel hungry until you restore what you burned. In short, the more you move, the more you will want to eat.

People who take up running often lose weight at first, but usually gain it all back in a few weeks if nothing else changes. Runners not only want to eat more more, their bodies also get more metabolically efficient so they start to burn fewer calories for the same amount of exercise.

I believe the only way to sustainably lose weight is to change one’s diet. Shift to foods that satisfy hunger with the least amount of useable calories. Foods with lots of undigestible fiber or with complex carbs that take a long time to metabolize. This will reduce the likelihood of taking in more calories than your body wants or needs.

We all find it easy to stuff ourselves with potato chips, french fries, and pizza, eating well beyond what the body needs, but it is difficult to do the same with broccoli, carrots, and apples. There is a similar problem with meat (with respect to weight loss). There is such a concentration of calories in meat that it is easy to take in more calories than your body wants. For example, 100 gms of beef packs about 290 cals vs 190 in chicken and 76 cals in tofu.

Feeling hungry all the time is not sustainable for most people other than the most self-disciplined. The only way IMO to sustainably lose weight is to change what you eat to foods that satisfy hunger with fewer calories.

Just wanted to make the point that exercise is very important for health, but it is not sufficient for weight loss.

39

To your “beliefs”, I wouldn’t know about that…I’ve never been fat. Oh…wait a minute🤔

To this second point, you’ve fallen for one of the oft quoted myths…a zombie myth…that doesn’t want to die.

Runners don’t automatically gain weight back as they keep on running…unless those dependent variables kick in and other things do change. Increased appetite coupled with will power fatigue often leads folk to eat more, I’ll grant you that (so something has changed since the initial weight loss phase … theyve started/gotten back to eating more)

For sure, metabolic efficiency is definitely something endurance runners (as opposed to weight loss runners) actually strive for…the better to kick buttress…yeah TMF nanny filter… on the race course. It’s something that, for even the genetically gifted, can take years, nay, decades, to achieve. The "more efficient " calorie burn associated with this phenom is of the order that requires sophisticated testing in a physiology lab (sort of like with an enhanced VO2MAX test, maybe🤔)…and is, for most folk, so small as to be a negligible contributor to weight gain in comparison to dependent variables that are somewhat under the individuals control.

1 Like
40

@VeeEnn @btresist

Worrying before you do something is the worst way to do something. Preparing is not that workable. Do and adjust. I am down 35 lbs. That is a huge success. Things change a new approach is a very good idea. I do not want to lose weight by exercising. I want to lose weight by eating less even when a bit hungry. There are times when the stars are a line and my efforts work well.

The problem with averages and generalities the person who is not the norm is successful and the generalities are a failure. My 35 lbs weight loss is such a failure of generalities.