Getting Fit

[Zing]

You would expect servicemen not to be fat. If they were allowed to become fat they wouldn't be much use at their job.

Regarding life expectancy, this shows how it has changed since the late 18th century.

United Kingdom: life expectancy 1765-2020 | Statista

Life expectancy charts are not the correct source material to understand life expectancy for adults in middle age. They are too skewed by infant mortality. You need to look at actuarial life tables, which show an improvement as we would expect, due to improved healthcare, reduced smoking, antibiotics and vaccines, but the improvement is not big.

See here:


https://www.actuaries.org.uk/documents/changing-shape-english-life-tables

The 12 curves on the chart show life mortality rates on the Y axis for the age shown on the X axis. It shows the improving mortality from 1841 top curve, the 8th = 1911 to the bottom one = 1971. So in 1841 the mortality rate for a new born was 70, which decreased to 40 in 1971. That's where most of the improvement in life expectancy has come from. Once you get to late middle age, the improvement since WW1 has not been huge, especially for the elderly.

Also, the obesity problem has, contrary to your expectations in fact got into the armed forces. In the US military they have a 17.4% obesity rate:


Obesity rate rising in U.S. military; Navy is fattest branch: Report

 

[Poignard]

I'm curious how they do the actuarial tables for people of my age or younger. I was born 1965, which give me another 15 or so years, according to that table. But how do they work that out when none of my cohort are yet 70. And that goes even more so for anyone younger. How do they know the average span for someone born in 2020 will be 81.15 years?

I don't know how they work it out but, if I understand the chart correctly, I have gone 18 years over my life expectancy .

 

[Seashoreman]

I had a back spasm while out single handed this year. Put a stop to my sailing season ? getting back to home port was an interesting 24hours as I could barely stand and the wind was up and down so some reefing required. It’s my own fault for having a very slack winter doing virtually nothing.

If you are talking lower back muscle spasm then I got this about 3 weeks ago. Towelling down after morning shower, totally F--ked. Had a woman friend here from New York to walk the local country beauty spots and I had work to do. Couldn't walk for a couple of days, cancelled work. Then driving Miss Daisy who actually directed me to a Maze, get lost on your own I politely replied.
I am back to the gym, its 7 mins drive. Costs me £30 a month so that is an incentive to visit.
I bust my back in my enthusiastic early years of work as a piano restorer, lots of lifting and the occasional twang. Certainly wouldn't want to
have that happen at sea.
Whatever people say about their own personal approach to exercise I do what I think I need. Have been doing yoga/Pilates on and off most of my life and in the last 10 years have been trying to do resistance exercise to sustain muscle strength. I am certainly no fanatic and have arrived at gym with kit after work and just gone home and had a glass of wine, hoho.
One of my main motivations is looking at the condition of people walking around on holiday in my town, and friends of similar age.
Also living alone means that I cant summon up my partner to deliver a beverage or put my carpet slippers on.
I am getting to the point where I have to admit I am getting older but I don't particularly want to spend my winter in discontent with my feet up watching telly. So Gym it is. Watch this space.....
PS Buck, have you ever tried an plugin Shiatsu massager? Marvellous gadget.
PPS. Zing we may be adding a couple more years to life expectancy but where is the chart for Quality of Life. Surely thats the Goal?

 

[Poignard]

[...].

Also, the obesity problem has, contrary to your expectations in fact got into the armed forces. In the US military they have a 17.4% obesity rate:


Obesity rate rising in U.S. military; Navy is fattest branch: Report

You don't say whether the UK's armed forces are getting fatter but if they are, it might be because the cooks are producing more appealing food!

When I did my 12 years in the RN I can remember us buying extra food from the NAAFI, and heating up tins of Heinz beans & sausages over makeshift cookers on the messdecks (dangerous and forbidden ). The first thing we did on going ashore was to go and buy the customary steak, egg and chips (two shillings and threepence, in Straight Street , Malta.).

The officers had their own cooks and rations and they were better fed, ( it was more common to see a fat officer than a fat rating!)

When I left the RN in 1967 I was 6'2" tall and weighed just over 12 stone; a very healthy weight.

As the saying goes "God sends food and the devil sends cooks"

 

[Greenheart]

I was 10.5 stone through my early 20s. Of course, I'd stopped growing by then; and I was very active, so I believe that is the weight I was always meant to be. Thirty years later, I had no excuse to be nudging 13 stone by mid-July this year.

I minimised consumption of carbohydrates and began taking a two mile run, every day. Ten weeks later, I'm 20lbs lighter.

I adored all pizza, pasta, rice, pulses, crisps, cereals, potatoes, bread...even plain, dry wholemeal bread, in satisfying quantities...

...all absolutely hopeless. My desk job fills my hours, but even when I was cycling to the office each day, my body had no chance to burn off all the carbs I allowed myself to enjoy. A huge store of fuel was being consumed, and the body (which is pretty fuel-efficient) only used a little during the half-hour cycle each way, and invested the remainder in gut-flab, where it hung like a tyre.

No-one likes to agree with a realisation that requires an unwelcome dietary change, but I'm certain, carbs cause Western fatness. They're satisfying, and are not conventionally recognised as unhealthy...but ten-to-one, they're the reason you're overweight.

If you like burgers, toss the buns. Scoff the toppings off pizzas and bin the bases. Eat sandwich fillings but not the bread, not even brown bread. Never buy biscuits or cereal again - and don't listen to any nonsense about porridge being the way to start the day - that's for physical workers who actually need a big fuel supply. And no more chips - or spuds in any form, they're all worthless calories.

It really works. It's astonishing to find trousers that were too tight in the spring, are too loose in the autumn.

 

[Bouba]

Went to the cardiologist today for my regular checkup. All went well? so he says, would I like to do a stress test? Simultaneously I said no and the wife said yes. So I’m booked in to ride a stationary bike while they monitor my heart. I now have one month to get fit.....??

 

[Zing]

Went to the cardiologist today for my regular checkup. All went well? so he says, would I like to do a stress test? Simultaneously I said no and the wife said yes. So I’m booked in to ride a stationary bike while they monitor my heart. I now have one month to get fit.....??

Get a coronary calcium scan done. It is the best non invasive analysis and predictive test of cardiovascular health.

 

[alan_d]

Regarding life expectancy, this shows how it has changed since the late 18th century.

United Kingdom: life expectancy 1765-2020 | Statista

Ah, but that is average life expectancy at birth, which is heavily influenced by infant mortality. The average life expectancy for adults has certainly increased over that period of time, but not nearly as dramatically.
[Edit: Sorry, should have read the other posts before replying with what had already been said.]

 

[DJE]

Another way of looking at it:



From here.

 

[Moodysailor]

Well, I've started. Having moved to the Devon coast deliberately in June it was time to 'scratch the itch'. A decent start of a bike ride on Monday, and a sea swim yesterday. Another ride planned on Thursday.
It's great having some inspiration to start