Optimal METs for health?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Been doing some reading into METs. In addition to resistance training I currently track around 1000 MET mins a week via conditioning I do which amounts to about 120mins or so of Zone 3+ or “Vigorous” exercise.

I supplement this with 30-60 mins walkpad walking at home on working days and trying to do as much as my schedule permits (albeit working a desk job 9-5 isn’t amazing for activity load!)

My primary goals are staying fit and healthy/longevity, so this topic is of a particular interest to me

I know BBM recommends meeting the WHO physical activity guidelines and with the intention of exceeding it in general.

However, I happen across studies like this one:

which suggests 3000-4000 MET minutes per week (or nearly 5x the WHO minimum) is the key to really reducing incidences of disease. For example, only a 2% lower risk of diabetes is associated with the minimum WHO guidelines (600 MET) vs 19% lower risk for an individual achieving 3600 MET.

4000 MET minutes is equivalent of 445 mins a week of MET 9 activity and above. From my experience , there are very few people capable of such high volume of activity at that intensity. Assume the midpoint of moderate activity @ maybe MET 5 and you get 800 mins of activity a week, which equates to around 13 hours - seemingly doable only by a very small, non time-constrained population.

Additionally some even suggest 5000-6000 METs is most optimal.

Like there is certainly some nuance to be had with that study as it will be self reported in many cases and we know people have a tendency to overreport and/or the most athletic people may just genuinely be the most healthy (nom smokers, teetotallers, etc) in the study.

We are far less active than previous generations, but I also refuse to accept that most people born between 1900-1960 (the generations preceding lower activity rates) achieved these higher levels of activity.

At a general population level, how do we optimise health whilst actually having a life? Is there any thoughts you have on this ?

Many Thanks!

2

I think the majority of people would stand to benefit from doing as much exercise as possible, where the two biggest bottlenecks are time and physiological tolerance. If pressed, I’d say that most people would stand to do even more exercise than they have time for, as I don’t believe most people (save for high level athletes…sometimes) are at the limits of their physiological capacity. I do not think this has changed much over the last 50 years, save for occupational activity which may not be that effective for health promotion anyway. The major lifestyle factor that has changed in that time frame is not physical activity (minor), it’s the food environment.

For the training load here (MET-min), I do not think that is compatible with predominantly vigorous intensity exercise. Most training load will have to be in zones 1-2, which is about 4-5.5 METs per minute.

I do not think that the modern lifestyle is compatible with optimal levels of exercise and dietary patterns, but we can still get a lot out of the resources we do have available to us.

3

Hey Jordan

Thanks for your response on this.

Out of curiosity, the paper I linked suggested the METs could be achieved with relatively low impact activities such as gardening, stairs, etc daily.

Would this actually meet the 3000 MET minutes purported in the study?

If not, how would you go about dosing it?

Thanks

4

No, and I think the paper- and many papers like this- are flawed. I also think MET-min for all activities “counting” as exercise is flawed too. I don’t use this to track or monitor exercise load FWIW.

Basically, not everything should count as conditioning work because it either doesn’t not drive the exercise-related adaptations (if investigated) or likely doesn’t (absence of evidence). The most prominent example of this is occupational activity, which can be the source of hundreds if not thousands of MET-min for some individuals, does not seem to improve health outcomes.

I think people should be getting at least ~ 2.5 hours of conditioning in per week, if possible. I also think people should be lifting weights at least 2x/wk (again, if possible).

For optimal health, I suspect the training load is double that for both components with lots of inter-individual variability there.