Fit at 50: An Enfield musician changes his lifestyle after being referred to a heart specialist at B

A flautist has completely changed his way of living after being told by Barnet hospital that he was overweight, with high blood pressure and cholesterol.

David Hart, 50, a father of two, weighed 14st 10lbs when he first began his road to becoming ‘fit at 50’ in April last year. However, he now weighs 13st 8lbs after replacing his lost fat with muscle.

When the flute teacher first started running on roads, he soon discovered that his body was too heavy to cope with the amount of exercise he wanted to do, so he had to begin his fitness work on a treadmill. He said it took him three months to start running properly.

David said: “I wanted to go running in the end, but I couldn’t do the running to start with because I was too heavy. That’s why I did swimming and cycling. I started doing more running in August.”

The first run the musician recorded was a two-kilometre run which he completed in 12 minutes on a treadmill. A year on from that, and he has completed a 15k run and managed to finish a 5k run in under half an hour.

According to ‘Running Monkey’, the average time for a 50-year-old male to run a 5k is 34:30, meaning David was above the norm for his age, however, he said that he never got too bogged down with the numbers.

David said: “It’s not something I really thought about. It’s the one thing that’s changed this time from other times where [I’m] just doing exercise to enjoy it and get healthier. I don’t really think about times, it’s more distance and how long I run for. I run within my abilities rather than trying to go fast.”

His wife Jane Hart, 52, had gone running with him before, so she was able to see first-hand what her husband did on his runs, and the former paramedic said she was proud of the progress he’s made.

Jane said: “He competes with himself, he looks at his watch so he knows how far he’s going, and he gives himself targets, but he’s not taking it so seriously that it’s got out of hand, which is probably why he’s continued doing it because he enjoys it.

“I am [proud], because this time last year he could barely run one kilometre, he’d walk a bit and he’d run a bit so I think he’s done really well.”

His daughter Abby, 17, also says that David takes his running fairly seriously, however, she’s surprised by how well he has done.

Abby said: “I thought he’d maybe last around two months. He has kept it on pretty well, more than I’d expected. He tries to go out around three times a week. He’s made good progress.”

There’s no doubt David was successful in his plan to get ‘fit at 50’, and the musician has learnt a lot from working towards this goal by himself. He finished by giving some advice to people on the most efficient way he found to get in shape.

David said: “The main thing that’s changed this time from other times is not trying to beat other people. Just doing exercise at a much lower level so you don’t feel that you’re constantly pushing yourself too hard. It’s exercising gently, but it takes a long time, so [I thought] in terms of months and years rather than weeks to make changes.

The 50-year-old says this is a long-term plan, and he’s not planning to stop anytime soon.