"fitness age" calculator

[Gardenarian]

I don't know how accurate these things are, but in the article "What's your fitness age?" (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/how-old-is-your-health/?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=HL_WYF_20131101) in the New York Times they recommend using this calculator (http://www.ntnu.edu/cerg/vo2max) to determine how fit you are.

It seems oversimplified to me. How can the waist measurement be really meaningful when they don't ask how tall you are? But, worth checking out.

[pinkytoe]

I tried this and having not measured my waist for 20 years...was quite shocked. I thought I had a 26" waist and that put me at 38 yrs. Add a few inches and it jumped to 50.

[mm1970]

Interesting. It depends on where I measure my waist. I still have 30 lbs of baby weight to lose (baby is 16 months). On the low end, I'm 39. On the high end, I'm 44. And by the way, I'm really 43.

[Spartana]

Omg I hate these kind of fitness level type calculators with a passion. Just so unrealistic. In any case I was "under 20" - yeah right :-)

[Spartana]

I just put in my 70 something Mom's numbers when she was dying of cancer. She had a small waist because she lost so much weight from chemo. She had a low resting heart rate because of her pain killers. She worked out very hard for her everyday for more than 30 minutes in her walker with a physical therapist, etc... I think she had a fitness age of under 30 - even though she could barely lift herself off her bed.

That's why I hate those things - including BMI calculators - just too variable and unrealistic. They need o do fitness calculators based on things like how fast can you walk or run a mile. How long can you run. How many sit up and push ups an you do in a minute, how much weight can you lift, can you touch your toes, etc... then use that to compare to a certain average for an age group. Even the age group thing is tricky. Are they comparing you to a 20 year old college athlete or a 20 year old who has spent the last 10 years playing video games and living off pizza and twinkies. Of course these tests are fun to do and pretty harmless

[erny23]

^^ Too right. BMI calculators always get make me rage lol You can have the lowest body fat % possible and still be classed as obese i.e. if you have a significant amount of muscle. And to think some people take these calculations seriously....!