Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSaveTo understand how well you’re aging, try calculating your fitness age.Fitness age is a well-studied scientific concept that uses a few, simple health measures to estimate whether your body is biologically older — or younger — than your chronological age. If you’re 50 based on calendar years, you conceivably could have a fitness age of anywhere from about 25 to as old as 75, studies show. It all depends on what shape you’re in.If your fitness age is higher than your chronological age, your chances of dying young from a host of diseases rises substantially, according to a burgeoning body of research.The good news is you can find your fitness age easily using an online tool. And if it exceeds your calendar age, you can start lowering it today by exercising right.Why you should calculate your fitness ageTo learn your fitness age, you’ll need to know your height in centimeters, weight in kilograms and resting heart rate, which you can easily determine using a smartwatch or 15 second pulse test. You’ll also need an honest estimate of how hard and often you exercise. Plug this information into an online calculator and you can see right away if you’re biologically older or younger than your birth years.The idea that we have a “fitness age,” distinct from our calendar years, first arose more than a decade ago, when studies began showing that aerobic fitness, or, more technically, VO2max, predicts longevity and health span as well as or better than more-widely used health markers, like blood pressure, insulin sensitivity and even smoking history.Inspired by this research, scientists in Norway began directly measuring VO2max in thousands of Norwegians, aged between 20 and 90, while, at the same time, checking various markers of their general health, including body composition, blood pressure, heart rate and exercise habits, as well as eventual longevity.Collating this data, they discovered that some of these health markers correlated closely with VO2max and could be used to estimate aerobic capacity. They created an algorithm that would do just that, cross-checked VO2max and longevity, and, finally, developed a simple, online fitness age calculator.Are you fit for your age? Try our New Year’s tune-up to find out.‘More years living healthy’Today, fitness age is still being studied as a predictor of disease, mortality risk and robust good health, said Ulrik Wisloff, the head of the Cardiac Exercise Research Group at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, and one of the original fitness age researchers. (He has a 1.2 percent stake in a European fitness app that uses the fitness age algorithm to provide health and training recommendations, but does not otherwise benefit financially from this research, he said.)Since 2019, studies using the calculator’s algorithm have shown that a relatively low fitness age is linked to substantially less long-term risk of heart attack, depression, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, brain shrinkage and dementia in middle-aged and older men and women.Just as important, if you develop a chronic disease, your symptoms are likely to progress more slowly if your fitness age is low. “You’ll have more years still living healthy than if you have a fitness age above your chronological age,” Wisloff said.“The fitness age calculator is a simple and accessible method to determine both internal and external factors impacting an individual’s aging process,” said Pamela Peeke, a physician, researcher and recently elected member of the American College of Sports Medicine Foundation Board.In 2015, she was a co-author and participant in an unpublished study of Senior Olympians. The Senior Olympics are a biennial, elite competition for athletes over the age of 50. More than 4,000 of the athletes used the calculator to assess their fitness age for the study. At the time, their average chronological age was 68.But their average fitness age was 43 — that’s 25 years younger.“As a triathlete competitor, I found my fitness age was, indeed, 25 years younger” than her then-chronological age, Peeke said. “Years later, still physically active, I continue to hold fast” to that quarter-century difference.How to calculate your fitness age and then lower itThe current fitness age calculator is free and maintained by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. First posted in 2013, it’s been updated and simplified several times and used by about 80 million people around the globe, Wisloff, said.Click on this link to use the calculator.Wish your own fitness age were years or decades lower than your calendar age? It can be. Just make sure you’re moving often and sometimes vigorously, Wisloff said. Up-tempo exercise, the kind that increases your breathing and heart rate enough that you can barely carry on a conversation, strengthens your aerobic system over time and improves your VO2max, altering your fitness age.This type of exercise, though challenging, doesn’t need to be unpleasant, Wisloff said. It can, instead, be brief, informal and even fun. Here are a few easy ways to start turning back your fitness clock:If you like to walk, look for a hill and stride to the top as quickly as you can. Return to the base and summit another time or two.If you have access to a treadmill or stationary bike, try 4 x 4 intervals. Ride or run at a relatively taxing pace for 4 minutes, rest by walking or pedaling lightly for 3 minutes and repeat that sequence four times in total.Jump, lunge and bop though a short body weight workout once in a while.Exerting yourself vigorously for even a few minutes several times a week should soon improve your fitness age, Wisloff said.Of course, outside of science fiction, none of us actually can rewind time. A low fitness age doesn’t make us truly younger or guarantee extra decades of life. Multiple factors besides fitness affect how long and well we live, including our genetics, nutrition, income and good or regrettable fortune.Fitness age only gives us a glimpse into whether our bodies seem to be functioning better or worse than those of other people our same calendar age. But we can use that knowledge to inspire and maybe congratulate ourselves.“The fitness age calculator is a valuable eye opener to people who need a reality check and wake-up call” about possibly subpar fitness, Peeke said. “But it’s also a rewarding affirmation for people who’ve maintained a healthy lifestyle,” and have the dewy, youthful fitness age to show for it.Do you have a fitness question? Email [email protected] and we may answer your question in a future column.Sign up for the Well+Being newsletter, your source of expert advice and simple tips to help you live well every dayMore Well+Being articles about FitnessView 3 more stories
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/01/10/what-is-your-fitness-age/
Does your fitness age match your actual age?
