How Do You Determine Caloric Expenditure By Knowing The METS Of A Physical Activity?
The term METS is an abbreviation for metabolic equivalents. METS can be used as a unit of energy expenditure similar to calories burned through execution of some physical activity. Converting the METS of an activity to calories expended can be difficult. Here is my explanation. I became interested in this when I took a hike recently in Tucson, Arizona. I do not have any sort of calorie counter/heart rate monitor device yet, I was interested in how much energy I might have expended as a result of this “kick-butt” hike to Mt. Kimball via the Finger Rock Trail. Since there is a “compendium” or a list of 12 pages worth of all kinds of activities (digging worms with a shovel, doing jazzercise, fishing, feeding animals, carrying groceries upstairs, hanging storm windows, all kinds of sport activities, etc.) that have assigned MET values, I could estimate how many calories I expended on this six hour hike. A MET is equal to 1 kcal of energy/kilogram of body weight/hour of activity. By looking
