Met guidelines

I am a 48 year old man and I'm wondering how many mets I should be able to maintain for 30 minutes if I'm in average shape. I would also like to know how to calculate the answer.
Thanks

[erijon]

One MET is equivalent to your resting metabolic rate; 2 METS is any activity that requires two times your metabolic rate, etc. This measure is determined by the amount of oxygen consumed, which indicates the level of intensity a person is working. At 1 MET, an average man would be consuming 250 milliliters (ml) of oxygen per minute; an average woman would be consuming 200 ml of oxygen per minute. For those of you who wish to be even more exact, one MET is equal to 3.5 ml of oxygen per kilogram (kg) of body weight per minute (1 kg = 2.2 pounds). Since we are not going around measuring how much oxygen a person's body is consuming, assigning a MET equivalent can give us an idea as to how intense an activity is. At 1 MET (resting metabolic rate), a 55 kg female would use about 60 calories per hour, and a 65 kg male would use about 70 calories per hour. Two METS would be double that intensity, or consuming twice the amount of oxygen than at 1 MET. In other words, 2 METS means that one is working at twice his or her resting metabolic rate (which is relatively easy or achievable), 3 METS is 3 times someone's resting metabolic rate, and so on.

The ACSM rates moderate intensity using METS as decreasing with age. For men, moderate intensity by age is:

AGE (years) # METS (moderate) #METS (hard) # METS (very hard)
20-39              4.8 - 7.1                7.2 - 10.1           >10.2
40-64              4.0 - 5.9                6.0 - 8.4             >8.5
65-70              3.2 - 4.7                4.8 - 6.7             >6.8
80 and over      2.0 - 2.9                3.0 - 4.25           >4.25

For women, mean values are 1 - 2 METS lower than for men.

Some examples of how METS are associated with activity are as follows:

METS    Activity
1 resting quietly, watching TV, reading
1.5 eating, writing, desk work, driving, showering
2 light moving, strolling, light housework
3 level walking (2.5 mph), cycling (5.5 mph), bowling, golfing using a cart, heavy housework
4 walking (3 mph), cycling (8 mph), raking leaves, doubles tennis
5 walking (4 mph), cycling (10 mph), ice or roller skating, digging in the garden
6 walking (5 mph), cycling (11 mph), singles tennis, splitting wood, shoveling snow
7 jogging (5 mph), cycling (12 mph), basketball
8 running (5.5 mph), cycling (13 mph), vigorous basketball
9 competitive handball or racquetball
10 running (6 mph)

Hope this helps,

Jon

[sciman]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Would a typical exercise goal be the moderate level of mets for 30 minutes?

[erijon]

If I (51 years old) want to limit myself to 5 - 6 mets I normally walk on a treadmill at 4 MPH and 5% incline to achieve a heart rate of 135 - 140. I can also achieve this by riding a recumbent bike at 18 MPH on a setting of 7 -10, depending on the model. My goal is to exercise at 80-85% of my max heart rate, usually that gets the METS to fall within the desired range.

hope this helps,

Jon

[sciman]

I think you make a good point that you gauge your exercise intensity on your heart rate rather than the mets. The mets just give you an idea if you're close to where you should be for your age. Thanks again.

[ed34]

Thank you for that very good post, it was very interesting reading.