Aging badly unfit or ill?

Some good ideas here. If I were you, I’d try (good luck!) and see your GP or Practice nurse and have more tests done. But also try and gradually build up your stamina - stretches first thing in the morning help to wake up muscles, then try walking for 15 mins a day for a week. Then increase to 30 mins every other day the following week.
#foreverfitwithmitch on Instagram is good.
73 is not very old these days!

You can be unfit or ill when you're young. No one tells you what to expect as you age but I think it is adolescence in reverse-you have to get used to those changes in order to push through to returning to infancy at some point.

I think the answer is to make the most of each day, get out and when you feel tired, rest!

Age has definitely caught up with me! I am 69 and have been retired for a couple of years now. However since then I have developed excruciatingly painful shoulder arthritis which affects everything I try to do. I’m waiting for an operation. I do my best, swim regularly, eat well, avoid alcohol and don’t smoke, but we can only do so much and our bodies, sadly, often tell us to slow down.

I do have major health issues that have come about in the last five years and I run out of steam after about ten min of gardening. I can walk about 100 metres to the mailbox but have to sit on a rock on the way back n have a breather and pause a couple of times going back up the hill. But when I do aquarobics in a therapeutic pool I feel as fit as a flea!
If you have access to a public pool with classes I really recommend it .
Has your dr listened to your heart and lungs to rule out any issues there?

I know the feeling! I am a generally healthy 68 year old, but recently i have had major pains in my shoulder and knees, which has stopped me doing almost everything I love doing.
I cant walk so far now, without hobbling around like an old crone lol
I think even tho, we are good in mind and spirit, our bods sometimes let us down, and we have to put up with it. have fun, enjoy life, but rest in between when it gets a bit too much.
also, definitely ask for the thyroid test. I had that done 30 years ago when i was so lacking in energy i was falling asleep half the day, so its worth doing. and also a vitamin test. ask your doctor for both. they very rarely suggest them unless you ask.
wishing you well
and don't forget,
we can still dance like no one's watching, just a tad slower.

I think what you eat makes a much bigger difference to the way you feel when you’re older, and you have to adapt your diet if you want to avoid feeling tired. If I have even one alcoholic drink or a fat-heavy meal in the evening now, I can’t get going the next day. If I eat too much sugar I can’t sleep. Also I think the less you do, the less you want to do, and the less energy you can muster to get up off the couch. Try overhauling your diet and writing yourself a daily list, to see if you can increase your exercise slowly - hopefully you will feel less tired than you do already, and if you don’t at least you’ll have done everything you can.

Some good sense in all these replies.
Another blood test to check for anaemia or thyroid deficiency would be a good idea, plus a general check-up. Optimistic I know in the current climate, but persevere.
Are you overweight? I know I am and that doesn’t help, but there is no point anybody nagging me about it, I get bolshie at eg my D’s insistence that I should walk more, do aqua fit or swim.
Like you I am considered by my family not to be all that fit - I admit, exercise comes way behind reading in my list of pleasurable occupations, - but I reckon I am healthy so not all bad.
I believe that ageing is not a gradual process but like a series of steps- you pootle along happily enough, then something, flu, even a bad cold, or if you are really unlucky, Covid, whatever knocks you for six and you never quite make it back to where you were.
Household chores are also overrated - you are not superwoman, does your DH do his fair share?
Don’t get demoralised and do not be intimidated by older women who seem to be Wonderwoman in disguise- laying crazy paving paths, hiking up Machu Picchu or dancing like they are on Strictly.
We are all different. As they say on Mumsnet, “you do you”.

Tricky one? Do we have unrealistic expectations of ourselves perhaps?

How about making a few notes over a week or two and then seeing a GP?

I feel for you.
I am often weary.
My bloods are good and I swim 3 times a week for an hour so not entirely static!

I know I need to lose some weight.
I think I'll feel better if I do.

What was your haemoglobin level? Even if it's slightly down, it can make you feel low in energy.
Have you had a virus, could you have post-viral fatigue?

If if continues for long then go back to your GP.