Exercise for your Heart

John 'the Man said:

A challenging exercise goal would be to log a total of 50 METs a week. Of course, you should always
start out slow at low intensity and

How do you think to add METs??? MET is the ratio btw, BMR and actual energy expenditure pr minute.
If you run at 8 MET, you have an expenditure of 8 times basal metabolic rate. You can only compute
daily average MET, Eg. running for 1 hour at 12 MET and otherwise sit in a chair at 1 MEt gives you
an average of (12*1 hour) + (1*23 hour)/24 = 1.45 times BMR in average energy expenditure. But,
being active at work, having an average of 2, gives (2*8) + (1*16)/ 24 = 1.33 in average, and you
are not exhausted after already one hour. Being a washing woman, you may even expect to have a daily
average of above 2. Washing stairs, floors etc. you may expect to have an average MEt of 3-6. Eg. at
4 and sleeping for 16 hours afterwards gives (4*8 + 1*16)/24 = 2 :-) If you are active at home,
average will be even higher :-) (And make it far easier to slim and it also gives more GLUT4
transporters in muscle, so muscle has much bigger capacity for glucose, lessening the chances of
getting diabetes)

Once upon a time, our fellow Alf Christophersen rambled on about "Re: Exercise for your Heart." Our
champion De-Medicalizing in sci.med.nutrition retorts, thusly ...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

A challenging exercise goal would be to log a total of 50 METs [hours] a week.

Quoted message said:

How do you think to add METs???

CORRECTION!

Every 50 met-h/wk was associated with a 26% reduction of risk of CHD. So working out at 5 METs would
take 10 hours a week, while working harder at 10 MET would let you accomplish this goal in only 5
hours of work.

I reported in detail about using METs on Sat May 31, 2003 12:38 pm in my Yahoo Mailing List. See
below for a JAMA citation and full text pdf file the on 50 Mets hours a week goal.

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How Hard Is Hard Enough?

First of all, this post is for the benefit of advanced exercisers. Couch potatoes should start out
with a slow walking exercise program.

Perhaps the most important component of a sound exercise prescription for aerobic fitness is the
level of exercise intensity. The prescribed level of intensity must be sufficient to overload your
cardiovascular system, but not so severe that you over do it.

Unfortunately, many adults - particularly those just starting an exercise program - have difficulty
estimating the intensity of exercise needed to produce improvements in their aerobic fitness levels.

In past decades, the aerobic exercise goal was set at achieving about 80 percent of your maximal
heart rate. Now, the focus is on METs (metabolic equivalent tasks).

What’s a MET? A MET or metabolic equivalent, is a way of expressing the rate of energy expenditure
for a given physical activity. Specifically, one MET is equal to resting VO2 (volume of oxygen used)
which is approximately 3.5 ml (oxygen) per kilogram (body weight) per minute.

All physical activities can be classified on the basis of oxygen requirements. The amount of oxygen
your body consumes is directly proportional to the energy you expend during the activity. At rest,
your body consumes approximately 3.5 ml of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute. The
resting level of oxygen consumption is referred to as l.0 MET. Thus, an eight-MET level would equal
eight times the amount of oxygen you use at rest.

To determine how many calories you are burning from a given physical activity, you need to know
three things: (1)your body weight in kilograms, (2)the amount of time you performed the physical
activity for and (3)the rate of energy expenditure expressed as METS.

Energy Expenditure (cals per minute) = 0.0175 cals/kg/min. x MET x body weight (kg)

Energy Expenditure (cals per minute) = 0.0175 x 4.0 METS x 70 (kg)
= 4.9 calories per minute
= 4.9 cals/min. x 60 minutes = 294 calories expended

There are 2.2 pounds in 1 kilogram, so to get kilograms from pounds, divide the number of pounds you
weigh by 2.2 and you have your body weight in kilograms.

Modern exercise machines, like lifecycles, treadmills, and stairmasters, in health clubs will have a
MET display on them. On machines like a treadmill increasing the grade as well as the speed will
increase the MET. On the lifecycle that I use, a Level 11 on the Hill program gives me a minimum of
a 5.1 MET and a maximum of a 10.6 MET. And, on the treadmill at a speed of
4.3 mph with a grade of 1 gives me a constant MET of 6.1. This makes it pretty easy to measure just
how intense your exercise program actually is. You can also consult a MET table such as the one
below. The idea is to monitor how many MET hours you log in one week.

For the scientific data you can consult our message #964 Exercise: Type & intensity in relation to
CHD groups.yahoo.com964Open ↗

Here is an updated citation with the Full Text of the study in pdf file format available for
FREE online.

Tanasescu M, Leitzmann MF, Rimm EB. Exercise type and intensity in relation to coronary heart
disease in men. fchn.orgexercise type intesity cad men.pdfOpen ↗ JAMA.
2002 Oct 23-30;288(16):1994-2000. PMID: 12387651

LOW exercise intensity = 1-3.9 METs MODERATE exercise intensity= 4-5.9 METs HIGH exercise intensity=
6 -12 METs

The risk of death for those who could not get beyond 4 METs (brisk walking) was more than double the
group who could get past 8 MET (jogging).

There was a 4% risk reduction for each 1-MET increase, independent of the total amount of exercise.

Every 50 met-h/wk was associated with a 26% reduction of risk of CHD. So working out at 5 METs would
take 10 hours a week, while working harder at 10 MET would let you accomplish this goal in only 5
hours of work.

---------------------------------------------------
Table of Exercise Energy Expenditure
---------------------------------------------------
1 mile = ~ 1.6 km -------------------------------------------- METs Sleeping 0.7
----------
LOW intensity = 1-3.9 METs
----------
Seated, quiet 1.0 Reading Home Energy articles 1.2 Standing 1.2 Typing 1.2-1.4 Driving 1.5 Writing
Home Energy articles 1-5 Cooking 1.6-2.0 Carpentry, sawing 2.0 Walking-very slow: <2.0 mph 2.0 House
cleaning 2.0-3.4 Dancing 2.4-4.4 Walking-slow: 2.0 mph 2.5 Walking: 2.5 mph 3.0 Calisthenics 3.0-4.0
Walking-moderate: 3.0 mph 3.5
----------
MODERATE intensity = 4-5.9 METs
----------
Walking-brisk: 3.5 mph 4.0 Walking-very brisk: 4.5 mph 4.5 Basketball 5.0-7.6
----------
HIGH intensity = 6 -12 METs
----------
Walking uphill: 3.5 mph 6.0

(Going slower than a 9-minute mile is considered jogging.) Jogging: 5 mph (12 min. mile) 8.0
Calisthenics-pushups, situps-vigorous 8.0 Jogging: 5.2 mph (11.5 min.mile) 9.0 Jogging: 6 mph (10
min. mile) 10.0 Jogging: 6.7 mph (9 min. mile) 11.0

(Running a mile in less than 9 minutes is considered running. ) Running: 7 mph (8.5 min. mile) 11.5
Running: 7.5 mph (8 min. mile) 12.5 Running: 8 mph (7.5 min. mile) 13.5 Running: 8.6 mph (7 min.
mile) 14.0 Running: 9 mph (6.5 min. mile) 15.0 Running: up stairs 15.0 Running: 10 mph (6 min. mile)
16.0 Running: 10.9 mph (5.5 min.mile) 18.0

Other Met Tables healthfullife.umdnj.eduMETs.htmOpen ↗ plu.edumet.htmlOpen ↗
discoverfitness.comMET value table .htmlOpen ↗
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--
John Gohde, Achieving good Health is an Art, NOT a Science!

Health-with-Attitude is a support group for people trying to follow a Healthy Lifestyle.
groups.yahoo.comHealth with AttitudeOpen ↗

John 'the Man said:

Every 50 met-h/wk was associated with a 26% reduction of risk of CHD. So working out at 5 METs
would take 10 hours a week, while working harder at 10 MET would let you accomplish this goal in
only 5 hours of work.

I reported in detail about using METs on Sat May 31, 2003 12:38 pm in my Yahoo Mailing List. See
below for a JAMA citation and full text pdf file the on 50 Mets hours a week goal.

Ok. Then we agree.

I have been writing about it severalt times earlier too, but using another name for it. It is in
real the number you have to multiply your BMR with to get the actual energy expenditure at diverse
physical activities.