August 22, 2016 – METs

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Anchor lead: A new way of looking at physical activity also extols its benefits, Elizabeth Tracey reports

METs may sound to you like a New York baseball team, but in the world of exercise that stands for metabolic equivalent task, or simply a comparison of any activity to how much energy is burned while seated and still.  Now a new study uses METs to calculate daily activity, Redonda Miller, president of Johns Hopkins Hospital, explains.

Miller: By exercise most studies define that as I decided to go to the gym and exercise for an hour, sort of an intentional physical activity. This meta-analysis looked at studies that included all physical activity one expends over the course of a day. So not just going to the gym, but how much physical activity do you expend at work, or doing household chores, or doing leisure activities?  So it was a more robust picture of a patient’s true metabolic expenditure.  :31

The study found that the MET sweet spot was around 3-4000 per week, resulting in reduced risk for breast and colon cancer, stroke, heart disease, and diabetes.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.