“The Importance of Staying Active and Fit From a Young Age: Lessons from Das Gupta’s Research”

It is important to stay active and fit from a young age so that you can reap the benefits later on

Although existing research suggests that metabolic energy expenditure (MCoW: energy per meter traveled, per kg body weight) increases as people age, it appears that during normal walking (at preferred walking speed) there is no difference in MCoW between healthy young people and the elderly. When tested on a treadmill, the elderly do have an increased MCoW. The fear that people can have about moving on a treadmill has no influence on this. This has emerged from the research of sports scientist Sauvik Das Gupta.

Das Gupta: “The preferred walking speed is the walking speed that people choose in everyday life, for example when they go to a train station or a supermarket. After conducting walking tests on normal surfaces, we performed tests on the treadmill with the same walking speed. We see that – although there are no differences for young people – older people do have a higher MCoW on the treadmill, compared to running on normal surfaces. We repeated this in a follow-up study, with the same results.”

Difference with previous research
The research literature shows that MCoW increases with age. This leads to the elderly becoming fatigued quickly, leading to inactivity, loss of mobility and increased sitting. Das Gupta: “It is therefore very important to understand whether and why MCoW increases with age. If we understand this better, we can develop interventions to increase mobility in the elderly.”

Healthy into old age
The results of Das Gupta’s research suggest that active, fit, healthy people, who are able to independently perform their daily tasks, can remain healthy well into old age. Das Gupta: “We think that the older participants in the study were relatively fit and healthy. As a result, they ran at a comparable speed to the younger participants and also had a comparable MCoW. This would mean that these people can lead an active and fit life even after the age of seventy and become less tired while walking.”

Sauvik Das Gupta’s research illustrates the importance of staying active and fit from a young age so that you can reap the benefits later on. Besides walking, cycling is also known to keep people youthful. Das Gupta: ‘In any case, exercise remains important. For the elderly, it is important that they do not, or not often, do this on a treadmill, but on normal surfaces such as outside on the street or in nature.”

Bron: University of Amsterdam