MET Minutes Calculator

How to use the MET Minutes per Week Calculator

What this calculator does. This tool estimates a weekly activity volume in metabolic equivalent minutes, usually written as MET-min/week. A MET compares an activity's energy demand with resting energy expenditure, and MET minutes multiply that relative intensity by duration. The result is useful for summarizing a mixed week of walking, running, cycling, classes, sports, or other moderate-to-vigorous activities on one common scale. It does not measure your personal calorie burn, diagnose fitness, or replace individualized medical or exercise advice because standard MET values are population-level estimates.

When to use it. Use the calculator to audit whether a planned week contains enough moderate or vigorous activity, compare two training weeks that use different sports, identify which activity contributes most to overall volume, or create a repeatable summary for a wellness log. The CDC explanation of physical-activity intensity is a useful companion when deciding whether an activity feels moderate or vigorous.

How to calculate. The calculator opens with a complete demonstration: 90 minutes of running at 9.8 MET, 150 minutes of brisk walking at 3.8 MET, and 60 minutes of general aerobics at 6.83 MET. A validated example workbook is immediately available from Download Excel. To replace the example:

1. Set Number of activities per week from 1 to 10. Increasing the count reveals additional Activity and Time spent rows; reducing it excludes hidden rows from the model.
2. For each visible Activity, choose the closest standard activity. Select Custom MET value when your activity is not listed, then enter a Custom MET value from 3 to 25 using a period as the decimal separator, such as 5.5.
3. Enter Time spent as total minutes accumulated during the week, such as 90 or 150. The accepted format is a positive plain number with an optional decimal point; scientific notation and decimal-comma input are rejected to avoid ambiguity.
4. Leave Display activity details selected to show the detailed table and contribution chart. Clearing it keeps the primary results visible while hiding the detailed sections.
5. Read Total MET minutes and Weekly activity status first, then review Active minutes, Average MET intensity, moderate and vigorous contributions, Activities counted, and Goal progress. Download Excel exports the current validated state. Reset clears the demonstration and all input data, so Download Excel is disabled until a complete valid activity is entered again.

Input guide. Number of activities per week is a required whole-number selector from 1 through 10; a realistic value is 3, and a larger number adds more contributing rows but does not itself increase the result. Activity is required for every visible row and supplies the standard MET factor; choosing the wrong pace or effort level is the most common interpretation error. Time spent is required, measured in min/week, and must be greater than zero and no more than 10,080; doubling minutes doubles that row's MET minutes. Custom MET value appears only for the custom option, is required in that mode, and must be 3 – 25 MET; using a calorie figure or speed instead of a MET value is invalid. Display activity details is optional and changes presentation only, not the calculation.

Output guide. Total MET minutes is the exact sum of every row's MET × Time spent. Weekly activity status compares the total with simplified 450 and 900 MET-min/week planning benchmarks. Active minutes sums duration without weighting for intensity. Average MET intensity is the duration-weighted MET value, so it rises when more time shifts toward vigorous activity. Moderate-intensity MET minutes include rows from 3 through 6 MET; Vigorous-intensity MET minutes include rows above 6 MET. Activities counted is the number of complete rows. Goal progress divides Total MET minutes by 900 and expresses the result as a percentage; it is a comparison, not a medical target. The Activity contribution chart and Activity breakdown table show each row's MET, Time spent, MET minutes, Share, and Intensity from the same model.

Worked example. Running contributes 9.8 × 90 = 882.0 MET minutes. Brisk walking contributes 3.8 × 150 = 570.0. Aerobics contributes 6.83 × 60 = 409.8. Adding the three values gives 1,861.8 MET-min/week, with 300 active minutes and a duration-weighted average intensity of 1,861.8 ÷ 300 = 6.206 MET, displayed as 6.21 MET. Moderate activity contributes 570.0 MET minutes and vigorous activity contributes 1,291.8. These figures match the first-open controls, results, chart, table, and workbook.

Learn more. Standard activity codes and MET estimates are catalogued by the Compendium of Physical Activities. The Compendium is designed to standardize activity-energy estimates across research and self-report applications, so treat its values as practical estimates rather than personal metabolic measurements.