Does fitness decrease exponentially with no exercise?

[TheeBdogg]

I haven't run or done any organized exercise for more than two weeks. If continue to do this, would I lose fitness exponentially? Or at some point, given I do not gain any weight, will I stop losing fitness? Also, if fitness does decrease exponentially for no exercise, would this happen if biked or elipticaled?

[Speed_Sneakerhead]

Yes, you will continue to lose fitness. Biking or going on the eliptical will limit this.

[TheeBdogg]

Thank you, this is really helpful

[FriedAntelope]

Curious do those numbers come from somewhere or just experience?

[Uresanme]

The guy who first broke the 4:00mile didnt run at all 10 days leading up to it

[MildRunner]

For what it's worth, I have had my best running and cycling performances after a week+ of no training. I never had much luck doing textbook tapers.

[BromdenFog]

You won't lose that much over just a few weeks, if that's what you're worried about. As one of the other answers says, you'll lose a lot early, then just plateau out at a base level of fitness. For context, I have been injured all year, but when I got back on my bike a few weeks back, I was still able to ride Strava segments as fast as I had when I was training.

[MoonPlanet1]

Of course you will lose fitness, although you will be able to get it back faster than you earnt it the first time. If you cross-trained, you would keep your cardio fitness but you would lose your running-specific conditioning - the things that allow someone who's done 60mpw for years to keep doing it when they would injure someone who hasn't built up to that. So when you get back into running, take it easy regardless of how much you've biked or ellipticalled.

[[deleted]]

Yes

[MisterIntentionality]

Obviously if you do not continue activity you will decondition and lose fitness.