An Athlete's Heart

Had an appointment with the Doctor overseeing the program.  Went over my EKG and lab work.  Doctor DoGood was very different from Dr. Stickthin.  He was much more sympathetic and interested.  All my labs were good, my LDLs, HDLS, glucose, cholesterol... all good.

I asked about my heart.  For a long while now I have been concerned about my heart.  When I'm working out, I have a very hard time getting my heart rate higher than 119.  Sometimes I can stay in the 120s.  And, if I'm really pushing it so that I feel like I might die then I can hit the early 130s.  But, I really can't maintain that for longer than a minute or so.  Now, this all seems very low to me.  There are many times when I'm at the gym and the girl next to me, Twittlestix, is doing the same machine at a much lower resistance and her heart rate is 150 or 160.  So, I'm thinking... what's wrong with me?  Is this why I can't lose weight?   I'm not getting my heart rate up enough!  Why is Twittlestix's heart rate so high?  Is that why she's so thin?  Dr. DoGood looked at my EKG and took a listen to my heart then said, "It looks like you have an athlete's heart."  He meant this not in the sense of the syndrome -- which is an enlarged heart and not a good thing.  He said my heart is highly conditioned (like most athletes) due to the years of regular exercise. 

He then went on to say I am a "fit fat" - which is when the patient is very healthy and in good shape except that they are overweight.  He also said (and this might be my favorite thing any doctor has ever said to me), even though Twittlestix (he called her that too) is getting her heart up to 160, she isn't moving nearly the magnitude of mass through space and time as I was and, therefore, probably isn't burning nearly as many calories. 

Moving a magnitude of mass through space and time.  That's me!  I rather like that perspective -- less personal, more scientific and matter of fact.  Though it does sorta give me the vision of a very, very large astronaut moving through space in a XXXXXXL uniform.  Dr. DoGood may be my new favorite person.