FInd you REAL age

[kwormann]

On Weekend Today, they were discussing you calendar age V your "real" age. I took the quiz. Mine is 31.2 calendar years but 32.8 in terms of health...kind of a wake up call!
Here is the link

http://www.msnbc.com/news/WEEKENDTODAY_Front.asp

[KelLeg]

I love these things. They remind me that my fitness program is good. Sometimes, when you read all the stuff about preventing future diseases, etc. it all seems so far off and so intangible. Doing a little quiz like this makes me really feel like I'm doing something.

My actual age is 32.5 and my REALAGE is 27.7! Yea. I just have to keep doing what I'm doing!

[funnybone]

Thanks for the link. I will be 38 this week, and my health age is 37.6.

[KValley]

Kelly- you and I are the same age on both accounts! My actual age 32.3, "real" age 27.2. 'Spose if I drove closer to the speed limit, it would go down even further. Owning a dog, cutting back on my wine consumption and having a DH who drives SLOWLY probably balances this out ;)

I had to come back and edit this- I'm not cheating, honest! Just wrote "real" age when I meant "actual" age and "health" age when I meant "real" age. :rolleyes:

HUGE grains of salt when taking this test- like BMI- very misleading when you don't know someone's fat/muscle ratio. A heavier person might be in terrific shape, loaded with muscle, but appear to be overweight or less fit compared a lower BMI person who isn't in shape.

And I had age added for having a sinus infection ONCE four years ago? C'mon! Not that I'm complaining about my numbers, but still... ;)

[slknight]

My actual age (calendar years): 31.8
Health age: 32.3

Not quite sure if I agree with all of their recommendations. They "taxed" me because I don't eat any fish. Yuck. I just don't like it. I know, it's good for me, and I'm trying to like it, but...

Also said "You're a vitamin away from being up to 1.7 years younger." Haven't we discussed this here before (I can start a separate thread if we haven't), but in theory, if I'm eating a balanced diet, I shouldn't need to take a daily vitamin, right?

Of course I do speed, have allergies, need to lose some weight, etc.

-Susan

[Laura]

:( My real age is 39.4 and my health age is 40.2. I am 8 months older than my real age. I know, I know, that isn't much. I just thought I was doing better. I can always use a good kick in the pants though so this was good.

[Nirak]

I am 1.7 years younger than my health age (38.3/40). I always felt I acted older than my age! I need to eat more fish (I know, but our fish selection is terrible), take a multivitamin (I know) and drink less wine (I know). Otherwise I was pleased with my answers.

[BosunsWife]

My calendar age is 39.5 and my "Real Age" is 37.9. Even though I'm overweight I must be doing something right. I actually plugged in my prepregnancy weight to do the calculations with. My biggest thing to work on is my HDL's - I need to lower them a little bit.

Just as my doctor has always told me being overweight doesn't necessarily mean that you are not in good health - although he does tell me that I still need to try to eat better LOL!

[kwormann]

I know that part of my problem is my heriditary high cholesterol (280) which I cant to anything about!

[Ralph]

OK, here's a man's perspective. My actual age is 39.3 - my "Real Age" is 40.5, not quite what I wanted to hear! Probably the biggest thing for me is to eat more fruits & veggies and get off my A** and exercise a little more!

[wallycat]

BosunsWife, you never want to lower your HDL's...those are your "healthy" ones...you want these to be as "h"igh as possible!!
It's the "lethal" or "lousy" LDL that you want to "L"ower!!!

I agree with most of the posts that some of the stuff doesn't make sense..I shaved about 5-7 years depending on how I answered...for example, my total cholesterol is higher than 200, but HDL's are 70....
I've always had a faster heart rate and still exercise 5-6 days/week.
I try to remember these are actuarial assumptions and no one's body reacts the same....

[Gina O]

I came in with a real age of 33.3 with an calendar age of 35.6. It was good to take the test, I was afraid I wasn't going to do so well. Now, if I would just slow down and stop talking on the cell phone.... Gina

[Molli526]

That was neat. I am 4 years younger in health than calendar! Now, if I can only keep it like that :)

[mb]

my realage was 23 and actual 25.4. they actually recommend i do more aerobic activities and that i should gain weight!?! also, i need to slow down while driving... :rolleyes: poor dh - his realage was 36.9, but his actual age is 27.7! that's not too good!!! shhh...don't tell him i told you that! :o

thanks for posting this, kim!
marisa :)

[funnybone]

Originally posted by Ralph
Probably the biggest thing for me is to eat more fruits & veggies and get off my A** and exercise a little more!

LOL - it's a good thing we're not your patients and taking the "Dr.'s advice" since you are ignoring them. I couldn't resist. :)

[Ralph]

Originally posted by funnybone


LOL - it's a good thing we're not your patients and taking the "Dr.'s advice" since you are ignoring them. I couldn't resist. :)

Oh man! I'm getting beat up here tonight! First the salt container post, now here!

I do exercise, just not near enough. That calculator also nailed me because of a lot of stress I've had in my life the last year as well as genetically-poor total cholesterol (mom was kicked out of a cholesterol drug study several years ago because her cholesterol got too high; dad's been on cholesterol meds for years!).

[funnybone]

Originally posted by Ralph


Oh man! I'm getting beat up here tonight! First the salt container post, now here!



Hmm, I'll have to check that other post!!! Like I said, I couldn't resist!!! :D

[LGBurns]

I saw this guy on Oprah before, but I never took the test before. When I took the short test My RealAge was 31.? and my year age is 34.8 but when I took the full test on the RealAge website my RealAge went down to 29.6 (mostly due to my diet).

However, I don't think I exercise as much as the computer estimated--this past month I exercised more than usual because I was at my mom's for a week and went hiking a lot (she lives in the Sierras so any time you go for a walk, it's actually a hike).

I really appreciate the nutrition summary because I had no idea how much calcium, folic acid and potassium I've been consuming from my diet (I consume 6,939.8 mg of potassium a day!--I'm sure it's because I have a glass of oj every day and usually have a banana about 3-4 times a week). Anyway, I also didn't realize I was consuming quite a bit more saturated fat than I realized (an average of 33 g per day!). Just goes to show that cutting out red meat isn't the be all end all. Gotta cut out that butter on my toast in the morning (sigh). However, I think I don't eat as much cheese as I indicated on the questionnaire. The problem is they don't tell you what they consider a serving, so I just counted each time I eat cheese. However, often I eat so little at a time, I don't think it counts as a whole serving. Still, I'm going to start watching out.

Okay, I'm babbling. Sorry, can you tell I have work I'm supposed to be doing? ;)

[Natasha]

I was doing really, really well until I said a couple of things, such as that I rarely rode in/drove a car with an airbag to protect me and that I don t have a dog (since I don t right now, though I hope too again soon)! ;) By the way, like Susan, I disagree a bit with some of the things the test considers important. For example, as a petite woman, I stay away from airbags after reading/hearing about several cases where women of my build were essentially squeezed to their death by airbags. If there had been no airbag, they might have survived.

Anyway, I know that these tests have to be aimed at a very wide cross-section of participants, so obviously little differences like this will exist. That doesn t mean it s not a good test. I just wanted to agree that you might, depending on your circumstances, have to take the results with a little grain of salt.

P.S. I still did really well! :) Thanks, Kim, for posting this. I also love tests like this.

Natasha

[pammy]

Yes, thanks for posting this Kim. I was happy to find that my "real" age is 4 years younger than my "actual" age. 30.7 vs. 34.7. Although, I think that I take issue with the recommendation to develop a stronger social circle. I reported 3-5 close friends, because my definition of a "close" friend is someone that I talk with/see several times a week and share close bonds, other than DH, mom and sister. Hey, I should have really thrown them a loop and responded, hundreds - based on all you guys!

[Julia1Pin]

My "real age" - 27.2, my calendar age - 26.5.

I do strength exerices, but only 2/week, so I put "0". Also, my car doesn't have the air bags put back in it and I talk on my cell phone while driving. I was doing REALLY well until those questiones. But I can say that I am better than I was in the past.

[KelLeg]

Julia1Pin, I think 2 times of strength training is great. You shouldn't have put 0! I only do strength training twice (though I do some pushups on off days). Anyway, you are doing great and if you had put twice, I think you would have "scored" well!

[Laura Wick]

Thanks for posting this! I was happy to learn that my real age is almost two years younger than my calendar age of 51 years! Some of the questions made me realize that I am not doing enough, however . . . .

Can't wait until my husband comes home so he can take it, too.

[Dewey]

Well, my "real age" was 4 years less than my calendar age (30.9 vs 34.9) They suggested I GAIN weight (don't think my horses would like that idea ;) ) I also apparently got dinged because my resting heart rate is lower than normal (43 bpm) although I think that's just because I do a lot of cycling here at high altitudes.

However, I found it funny that they suggest I build more of a "Social Support Network" (I marked that I have 3-6 really close friends) because this can help lower stress. If I had to keep up with more friends, I think I'd just be more stressed! And then they say that "owning one or more pets contributes to good health". They've obviously never had to feed and clean up after two horses, then discovered that one of the dogs was rolling in manure, so give that dog a bath. Oh look, now the other dog is eating manure... I'll be cleaning up vomit later tonight. And the cat has been digging up my houseplants again, go get the vacuum out of the basement. While down in the basement... Hmmm... it seems the other cat caught a mouse, and left parts of it arranged on the floor (is this some type of ritual, I'm a little worried...) Yeah, all these animals really reduce stress :D

[m4star]

WOW!! My real age is 24.3 but I'm actually almost 28! That makes me feel great. They actually suggested I gain some weight! Whoa, this is turning out to be a great day.