If you are a self proclaimed THPL enthusiast (and in this case fitness enthusiast) you have more than likely embraced some form of activity measurement. For some it is heart rate, for others it is time, and still others repetitions or distance. Measuring activity is great as it gives you a quantitative view of your performance, your progress and your relative condition (fitness). And as we move into the era of smart phones, smart watches and the internet of things, there will be many new and interesting ways of measuring our sd activity. One measurement that is easier to do now, allows us to look across activities, and can boil down our performance into a comparable unit is the MET. The MET or Metabolic Equivalent is an expression of an activity’s intensity compared to our resting metabolic rate. One MET is equal to what we burn while resting. Doing an activity worth 10 METs burns 10 times the energy compared to being at rest. MET minutes are simply METs multiplied by time.

For example, if a leisurely walk is worth three METs and pushups are worth 10 METS, then a person who strolls for 10 minutes racks up 30 MET minutes, while a person who completed 100 pushups equals 45 MET minutes.

The CDC recommends that we log anywhere from 500 to 1,000 MET minutes each week. In this range we will have a true fitness score and we might even get a host of health related benefits – for sure if we dedicate ourselves to this level of activity and we focus on measuring each and every time, we will for sure, have an overall stronger body and a corresponding stronger mind.

Loving life, when measuring my progress