![]() METs work by showing your intensity relative to your own resting calories. An older, shorter woman may find herself working out at her highest possible intensity but still burning a fraction of the calories a younger, heavier man would burn during a brisk walk. Think about it this way: the calories you burn during exercise change depending on a lot of factors. This makes it easier to classify your own effort and compare it to your peers. MET minutes are a great way to ‘level the playing field’ between people. There are many reasons why METs are becoming a more popular tool in the fitness industry. Guidelines say that you should aim for a minimum of 500 MET minutes per week, but you should aim for at least 1000 MET minutes per week to stay healthy. To learn more about MET guidelines click here! This can be achieved by activities like jogging, rowing or biking for 30 minutes per day. If you’re aiming for 1000 MET minutes per week you should aim for 30 minutes of activity five days per week at about an average of 7 METs. If you went for an intense run for 30 minutes instead that averaged 10 METs you would earn 300 MET minutes! So, if you went for a walk that averaged 5 METs for 30 minutes you would earn 150 MET minutes. We can set goals using METs by multiplying the METs value of your activity by the number of minutes. So, what does this mean? What kinds of goals should I set? That’s 10 times as many calories as he would burn at rest, meaning that he would be at 10 METs. If, instead, he decided to sprint as fast as he could he might be burning 50 calories every minute. Let’s say that while he’s walking he’s burning 25 calories per minute instead of the 5 he would be burning if he wasn’t walking.Ģ5 calories per minute is 5 times more calories than he would be burning at rest. If this person then goes for a brisk walk he will be burning many more calories than he would at rest. That means that burning 5 calories per minute is equivalent to 1 MET for this person. Let’s say we do the math and figure out that a person burns 5 calories every minute while completely at rest. So, if you are burning twice the number of calories you would at rest the metabolic equivalent is 2. METs just describe a ratio of the energy you are using in physical activity compared to the energy you would use at rest. While that might sound complicated once you’ve wrapped your head around the idea of burning calories while resting METs are pretty easy to understand. ![]() METs is an acronym meaning ‘metabolic equivalent of task’. ![]() METs are a great way of comparing your activity to others without having to worry about differences in age, weight or gender. Want to learn more about what calories are? Click here! There’s a better way to see your intensity! If calories aren’t a good way to compare your intensity, what should you use instead? People who are heavier, younger or male will burn many more calories than older, lighter or female athletes, which can be discouraging. Because different people burn different amounts of calories they really aren’t a good way to compare the activity of different people. Sometimes people use calories to figure out if they are working out enough, but this has a few issues. This number depends on factors like your age, weight and gender. Even when you are sitting at rest your body is using up a number of calories. Everything your body does – breathing, digesting, thinking – needs fuel. Your body will always use up calories, just to function. We know what the benefits are, but how do you know you are being active enough? Are you working out enough to get those benefits at all? How can you make sure you’re not just wasting your time?Ĭalories - as you probably know - are a measurement of energy. It keeps your heart, muscles and joints healthy. It makes you happier, healthier and more energetic. Physical activity is an important part of living a healthy lifestyle. We all want to know if we are being active enough.
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