Mobility age vs metabolic age: what's the difference?
Metabolic age is a smart-scale estimate of the age your basal metabolic rate most resembles, derived from bioelectrical impedance. Mobility age is the age your movement patterns most resemble, measured from real joint angles — squat depth, overhead reach, forward fold, ankle range — and compared against published clinical norms.
They answer different questions: metabolic age reflects what your body is made of; mobility age reflects what your body can do. Research on healthy ageing keeps pointing at function — the ability to sit and rise from the floor predicted all-cause mortality in adults aged 51–80 (Brito et al., European Journal of Preventive Cardiology), and walking speed shows a similar relationship with survival (Studenski et al., JAMA, 2011).
Mobility age is also free to test: four phone photos, scored in about 60 seconds, no equipment or app download.
Related reading
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