How is my Cardio Fitness score so high?

[sfurry]

I'm not trying to brag, but my Cardio Fitness score seems way too high.

I started running two months ago, and I could only run for a mile and half before being exhausted.  I knew I had to build endurance.  In the beginning of this month I bought the Charge 2 to really track my progress, and I discover the app has a cardio fitness score.  My score is already above 55, excellent for a man of my age.  How is it so high when I was never really athletic until two months ago?  Also, I can now run 3.4 miles for 30 minutes.

[Rog998]

 Mine seems to good to be true. I take simvastatin for high cholesterol and blood pressure. Im Asthmatic. Yet I get 47-51 which is excellent for a  man of 58. I never run.

[Dominique]

---

@Rog998 wrote:

 Mine seems to good to be true. I take simvastatin for high cholesterol and blood pressure. Im Asthmatic. Yet I get 47-51 which is excellent for a  man of 58. I never run.

---

Chris Froome is also asthmatic, and the medication he’s taking for it is so potent he’s been repeatedly accused of doping. I assume you’re also taking medication that is efficacious for your asthma (though I won’t imply it’s doping!). Which is to say: just like your blood pressure is lowered to a normal level with adequate medication, Fitbit has no way to be aware of your medical conditions. What’s your resting heart rate and height/current weight? Both affect your cardio fitness score, especially when expressed as a range, as opposed to a single number (which would require you to run).

[Rog998]

My body mass index is 24.  Just under obese. 

I take nothing for my asthma. I just stop doing anything that makes me out of breath. 

[Dominique]

The obese category starts at 30. 25 to 29.9 is overweight, 18.5 to 24.9 is normal. At 24, you’re in the upper end of the normal category, which may be one reason for the "excellent for your age" cardio fitness score, another being perhaps a relatively low resting heart rate (which you didn’t state).

[Rog998]

Resting Heartbeat between 61 and 64 since April. But my Cardio was still 47-51 over the winter where my resting Heartbeat was 65-68. 

[kimb1968]

I don’t know . I get a range number of 47to 51. I am 51 yrs old 4’ 11”, and 103 lbs. the silly thing keeps telling me my score can be improved by losing weight. I think not, I have lost 30 lbs in the last year or so. I’m diabetic. I’m following a lower carb diet. My resting heart rate has always been in the low to mid 50. If I become more sedentary it actually drops a lot. So explain how this is accurate for me. I run 2 days a week and bike 2 days a week. I also work 9 hours a day. There is no sitting at work at all. I usually get more than 10000 steps a day. Some weeks I throw in an extra 5k just because I feel I need it. I never run outside always on my treadmill and stationary bike. 

[RadarLove13]

The score seems to be based upon 3 things: Age, weight and resting heart rate. During the winter I walk, a lot, average 10 miles a day, takes me 2 to 4 hours, resting heart rate goes up, CFS goes down. Update my weight as I lose some and the CFS bumps up to stick in the (37-41), stop working out, resting HR goes down, CFS stays steady or bumps back up to (37-41) if it had just dropped due to the resting HR going up due to more exercise. 

I've been stuck in the 37-41 range for about a year, dropped 30 lbs, resting HR dropped by 10 to 15 bpm into the mid 60's on days I don't work out, 70 or so on days I do. According to the bar graph I'm still stuck at 39. Just to be really annoying it shows the "Potential Improvement at your goal of ...lbs" with is just short of the 44 mark, and I'm 4 lbs away from that and I STILL have not budged off of 39. 

[Icecoldalex2]

Mike here. I am also confused by the fitness rating. I seem to stay between 52-54 and my resting heart rate between 49-55 with occasional bumps to the high 50’s. it does seem weight makes a difference but my weight only ranges from 79-82 kgs. Fatigue does seem to factor in as heart rate rises and often weight does as well. Body retains fluids when very tired. As I an just short of 75 I guess my score only compares me with those over 60. If nothing else, the score is unique to each of us and holding the number or improving is the goal. Good luck on your training.
Mike

Sent from my iPad

[Rog998]

I thought with more exercise your resting heartbeat goes down. My resting heartbeat has dropped from 64/65 to 60/61 and cardio fitness went up by 1 to 48 to 52. I think that is because I am walking more in the good weather. 

[RadarLove13]

Funny thing here today: As I said I'd been stuck at 37-41 for more than 10 months, dropped weight, (some weeks I registered more than 500 minutes of cardio) resting HR went down by way more than 10 bpm, still nothing. Have taken about a week off, so resting HR went down even further and today it changed to 38-42. Yet it still eggs me on with the "Potential improvement at your weight goal" which is 3 lbs away, to get me to a promised 42-46. Same carrot for increased exercise but what they really mean is lower resting heart rate.  ...do not see how dropping 3 lbs will / could bump me up 4 points if dropping 20 did nothing. Better than nothing I suppose. 😉
D. Love

[Rog998]

Resting Heart rate seems to be important. When my RHR went down to 60 my Cardio Fitness went up by 1 to 49-53. Then my RHR returned to 61 and my Cardio Fitness went down to 48-52 again.

[Dominique]

---

@Rog998 wrote:

Resting Heart rate seems to be important. When my RHR went down to 60 my Cardio Fitness went up by 1 to 49-53. Then my RHR returned to 61 and my Cardio Fitness went down to 48-52 again.

---

We are talking about very minute changes here: 1 bpm in RHR, 1 point in cardio score. A quite usual fluctuation range for RHR is 5-10 bpm during the past 30 days. Based on my observations, cardio score doesn’t change much when RHR fluctuates within its normal range. In other words, it’s not like each time RHR moves down 1 bpm, cardio score automatically goes up one point.

[Menelaus]

I am 76 and my cardio fitness score has been 55/56 since I bought my Fitbit. I do not do specific exercises but I was incredibly fit and did a lot of athletics and other sports until I had a serious climbing accident at 25. After 3 years recovering and other long periods of inactivity following related spinal problems and surgery (14 years), I have been reasonably active and am fit for my age. I cannot run due to metalwork in my leg destroying my knee joint.  However I can still do a lot of press-ups and hold my breath for 4 minutes. My doctor tells me I am incredibly fit and the surgeon who tried to get the metal work out of my leg in 2011 told me that I am exceptionally strong. I think it boils down to being lucky enough to win out in the genetic lottery at conception. 

[Colinm39]

@Menelaus   I agree totally.. I have just created a post at this link, in the Ionic area.

A few years ago when a group of cardiologists and others tested me during a volunteer project for over 50's male and female for "Adult onset Diabetes", they commented to me, after me asking a few questions on my results..  "Blame your parents on your genetics and at 80 that still applies..."

This was a project at one of our major hospitals which was only about 500 steps from my office. Nice break from work.

[Rog998]

From 23andMe ----  your genetic muscle composition is common in elite power athletes.

Studies have found that almost all elite power athletes (including sprinters, throwers, and jumpers) have a specific genetic variant in a gene related to muscle composition. You have the same genetic variant as these elite athletes

Maybe this helps. But I am asthmatic from birth (with hyper inflated lungs) I so never run.But walking is fine. 

[Colinm39]

@Rog998  Thanks for that informative post because it helps me understand my body some more.. I'm also glad you have found that wonderful exercise helps you... Walking.. We can do it anywhere, even 10 minutes at a time has amazing benefits..

Somewhere else I have posted but from the age of 14 to 21 competed up to 4 times a week in ball sports. School midweek, Saturdays twice and Sunday once..   My father never played sport but my mother was so good at hockey pre-war she had to play in a mens team.. That was over 80 years ago...  Dad said sport was going to kill me... Probably wanted some gardening done at home...

Add another result from my cardiologist last year..  Genetics again on another muscle, the heart, a muscular organ.

I went there because my doctor "heard" something.  That's what I had to tell the cardiologist after testing me, he wanted to know why the doctor sent me there.when he asked why I was there...

Results again at 80.... Heart normal size, all valves normal size and working as expected. Low RHR and blood flow was excellent and no artery damage etc.. Some age related stenosis (narrowing).

---

@Rog998 wrote:

From 23andMe ----  your genetic muscle composition is common in elite power athletes.

Studies have found that almost all elite power athletes (including sprinters, throwers, and jumpers) have a specific genetic variant in a gene related to muscle composition. You have the same genetic variant as these elite athletes

Maybe this helps. But I am asthmatic from birth (with hyper inflated lungs) I so never run.But walking is fine. 

---

[Menelaus]

Hi Roger - good to hear you fitness news at the age of 80. It's reassuring to find I probably have good genetics and the excessive exercise that I did in my younger days still benefits me in my later years (although I do no feel particularly old). My resting heart rate according to my Fitbit is 57, but if I look at my pulse rate soon after waking, it is usually in the range 50-54. I do not know why Fitbit gives a higher value.

Genetics is certainly a lottery. My  from sport mad son nearly died from blood clots in his 30's and is now on medication for the rest of his life. My father also had blood clots in his 30's and had continuing problems with leg ulcers for the rest of his life. Genes were not understood at the time and he left the forces with a disability pension. I also found that his father died from blood clots in his lungs at 39 and his father died from causes unknown in his ,30's (circa 1890). 

Anyway my son underwent tests and they found he had an inherited gene and I had to be tested to see who had passed it to him. I was found to have the gene but luckily I have never had any problems. I suspect that I may have another gene that counters the bar gene. I give blood regularly at usually get a comment about how quickly it comes out and couple of years ago I broke the record for fastest donation for the Berkshire blood donation team with a time of 3m 23s. They just say that my vascular system must be clear and do not give an opinion on whether it is good or not. I therefore think that I have a gene for free flowing blood that may counter the blood clotting tendancy - who knows?

Mike

[Colinm39]

@Menelaus  Jim, nature has a real leveling effect when you look at families..  It's a joke in our family about my health.. Slightly overweight and 130/70 for BP.. etc

One of our cardiologists is a regular talk back radio, and when he gives lectures about heart disease, he always mentions genetics and compares Winston Churchill, who died at 91 and James Fix, the runner, who died at 52 of a heart attack.  Churchill, overweight, smokes etc.. and Fix the fit runner.

Mentioning the clotting in your family reverberates with me.. My youngest brother had a stroke at 65, 6 years ago. Sometime after the stroke he started to get clots in the legs, and the specialists started looking at all of his blood works when he had the stroke. They found that he would have been born with a rogue gene in his bone marrow that causes peripheral clots in the body. They were always at a loss as to what caused his stroke. Now he is an a cancer type drug because he now has a high chance of leukemia, blood thinners, the lot...

My other siblings, now in their 70's, all younger, sister died of pneumonia at 76, always frail, youngest sister, they have found out she was born with heart valve issues and my middle brother has 3 stents in the heart vessels. He had a heart attack while they were stress testing him.. He, like James fix was running, bike riding, you name it..

Me, like Churchill keeping active.

So the hand we are dealt is just the luck of the draw from my family records.. None of my siblings smoked, rarely drank alcohol and were the home cooked meal types.

.

[Sahil22]

I think it's not a bummer as a lot of it depends upon genetics and lifestyle habits. I only run 2K at max cardio twice a week , yet my cardio score is 62-66, I'm 29 though! 

[Dominique]

---

@Sahil22 wrote:

I think it's not a bummer as a lot of it depends upon genetics and lifestyle habits. I only run 2K at max cardio twice a week , yet my cardio score is 62-66, I'm 29 though! 

---

The fact your score is expressed as a range (as opposed to a single number) indicates it’s not based on running. Record a run (outdoors on a flat surface, with GPS turned on) that lasts for 10+ minutes and you should get a score expressed as a single number that will more accurately reflect your actual cardio fitness. It will also likely be lower than the current range.