Researchers put 2,600 men and women (age 60 and up) on a treadmill and rated their fitness. They also weighed them and calculated if they were overweight or obese. They then tracked these people for around 12 years and looked at who died and who lived over that time period.
The people who did poorly on the treadmill test were 4 times as likely to die over 12 years as the people who did well. It didn’t matter if the people were normal weight, overweight or obese – what mattered was how well they did on the treadmill. The least fit 20% were twice as likely to die over the 12 year period as the next least fit group.
In a way, this study is good news. You can improve your longevity just by modestly increasing your fitness level. This might explain why walking shows positive longevity benefits, even though it is difficult to lose weight through walking alone. It also means that an overweight or obese person can have significantly health gains even if their weight remains the same.
How to Gain in Fitness
Just get started, it really doesn’t matter what you do. Find a type of exercise that suits you and your situation. Walking is great, an exercise bike in front of the TV is great – anything that will help you increase your fitness level from day-to-day and from week-to-week. Don’t focus so much on weight as on increasing your endurance, distance and intensity.More on Exercise and Longevity
Source(s): Xuemei Sui, MD; Michael J. LaMonte, PhD; James N. Laditka, PhD; James W. Hardin, PhD; Nancy Chase, BS; Steven P. Hooker, PhD; Steven N. Blair, PED. Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Adiposity as Mortality Predictors in Older Adults. JAMA. 2007;298(21):2507-2516.
