Quick Health Tip - Metabolic Equivalent or “MET”

MET is a demand unit of measure of activity, where 1 MET = the quantity of O2.

Ultimately 1 MET = 3.5 ml/kg/min, where ml reflects the O2 used, kilograms represents body weight, and minutes reflect activity. Note that for energy expenditure (EE), per every liter of O2 used, it burns 5kcals. Energy expenditure will allow us to understand the amount of calories used during work through O2 used. 

For MET calculations, “resting” MET values are pretty much constant for everyone while “training” MET changes dependent on factors such as body weight, intensities, and performance. For instance, if we wanted to calculate the MET of a 50kg person sleeping for 10 hours (Sleeping has a value of 1 MET), we would do the following:
 

• Step 1: 1 MET * (3.5 ml/kg/min) = 3.5ml/kg/min
• Step 2: 3.5ml/kg/min * 50kg = 175 ml/min
• Step 3: 175ml* 600min = 105,000ml
• Step 4: 105,000ml *.001L = 105L
• Step 5: 105L * 5kcals = 525Kcals