How fit is Fit?

[aesir23]

My humble opinion:

Anyone who engages in daily endurance exercise could be Fit (some aren't, of course if they have health problems or overeating). If you want to make an "ordinary person" who runs a few miles every day Fit, that's fine.

I'd reserve Very Fit for world class athletes in sports that put a lot of emphasis on cardiovascular endurance.

A pro or semi-pro boxer, marathon runner, soccer player, or biathlete might be Very Fit, a baseball player or football player or other athletes in sports that include frequent breaks can certainly get away with only being Fit.

[Fred Brackin]

My own simplifying assumption is that Very Fit is for professional athletes and similar types who have a 2-hour workout every day.

Fit is somewhere less than that and I'd guess at about 30 minutes of exercise every day.

This, however is based on a gneral "feel" for what the rules should be. If you think we ought to be able to reverse-engineer exactly what constitutes Fit and Very Fit, well, perhaps we should.

We can't because the rules are broken. Just a short demonstration for you of this follows.

Take a person with HT 11, +1 Basic Move and Fit. This doesn't _sound_ that impressive, does it? It;'s far below even a Stat Normalizer's acceptable levels.

Fit Guy can expend 8FP before he has to slow to half speed. So how far can he sprint? Well, he has to roll (adjusted) HT or less every 15 seconds. Because of Fit that is 12 or less or roughly 3/4 rds of the time.

That adds up to an average of about 32 periods of 15 seconds or 480 seconds or 8 minutes.

With his Basic Move of 6.25 and a 20% Sprint Bonus that's 7.5 yards per second (except for teh first second of course) and in this situation you do not round down.

It works out that Fit Guy has run two 4 minute miles in a row for an investment of 20 cp.

Now, he doesn't run any faster in the 100 meters than the mile or 1600 meters which is certainly peculiar but I do hope it demonstrates that you can't map Real World endurance to Gurps stats and get any sensible answers.

[chris1982]

Originally Posted by aesir23

a baseball player

...can get away with overweight and HT 9 actually.

[Fwibos]

Originally Posted by chris1982

...can get away with overweight and HT 9 actually.

I think a lot of non-endurance sports probably can. Heck, I think some defensive and offensive linemen are overweight.

But this assumes that fit = low body fat. Science is not actually conclusive on that. Some people are extra healthy at a higher fat percentage. So does that mean they are overweight with a higher HT? Does this mean that RL Fit DOes = low body fat, where High HT doesn't?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Fwibos

I think a lot of non-endurance sports probably can. Heck, I think some defensive and offensive linemen are overweight.

.....but these aren't in the category of athletes who don't need aerobic ability.

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by Fwibos

I think a lot of non-endurance sports probably can. Heck, I think some defensive and offensive linemen are overweight.

But this assumes that fit = low body fat. Science is not actually conclusive on that. Some people are extra healthy at a higher fat percentage. So does that mean they are overweight with a higher HT? Does this mean that RL Fit DOes = low body fat, where High HT doesn't?

Most NFL Linemen probably have Overweight, Extra Hit Points, AND Fit. Fit is a measure of cardiovascular health, that's it.

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by chris1982

...can get away with overweight and HT 9 actually.

HT 8 Morbidly Obese and with a number of Additions...bipolar disorder and a few more things that don't come to mind right now, for starters.

[Xilodel]

Originally Posted by aesir23

Most NFL Linemen probably have Overweight, Extra Hit Points, AND Fit. Fit is a measure of cardiovascular health, that's it.

Agreed. Sumo Wrestlers are Fat or Very Fat and still Fit. It's important to remember that Fit is a measure relative to your cardiovascular health. You can have a crappy constitution (HT 8) and Fit, which means you're healthier than your raw HT alone would indicate but still in lousy shape relative to the societal average.

I agree with the hive mind that the average person who makes a point of getting a fair amount of aerobic exercise every day will end up Fit. Very Fit is more rare, and I'd generally reserve it for professional athletes, marathon runners, black ops agents, and people who have to train intensely just to be decent at what they do.

To answer your supplemental question (somewhat): I don't believe training a regular person to a Fit level would take that all-fire long. Certainly under a year, but this is just from personal experience working out so YMMV.

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by Xilodel

You can have a crappy constitution (HT 8) and Fit, which means you're healthier than your raw HT alone would indicate but still in lousy shape relative to the societal average.

Not per the RAW actually...I believe fit states MIN HT 10...Very Fit MIN HT 11 or 12 IIRC on the numbers No books/work. But there are minimums on both.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Witchking

Not per the RAW actually...I believe fit states MIN HT 10...Very Fit MIN HT 11 or 12 IIRC on the numbers No books/work. But there are minimums on both.

Not in 4th edition.