Quantified Self

According to the current Wikipedia Quantified Self entry – The Quantified Self is a movement to incorporate technology into data acquisition on aspects of a person’s daily life in terms of inputs. The official Conference goal is to learn what others are doing in their Quantified Self practice.

• What did you do?
• How did you do it?
• What did you learn?

If I had to describe the conference participants I would say there where definitively more than a few advanced users, aka, designers, entrepreneurs, journalists a few health professionals, quite some scientists – all of them had the creative innovative “hacker” DNA. From a international view there where many people from all over Europe and from the US. From a visual point of view we had attendees with dark, blond, pink, green and no hair at all. :-)

Garry Wolf and Ernesto Ramirez

Overall the conference was more than enriching experience. It’s nice to see so many other minds that work on complex Quantified life questions.

QuantifiedSelf conference 2013 in Amsterdam with Garry Wolf and Ernesto Ramirez moderating. Day one.

Quantifiying about emotions – Happy emotions and mood word-cloud visual with @Moodscope

Tracking data: 900h mail and social networks mesured by @rescuetime

Discussion about Life logging with @memoto at QuantifiedSelf Amsterdam

Overtraining syndrome – measuring training exhaustion and readiness with Jasper Kalweis. 2 days of resting is not enough

Tracking food habits and learning about them

Stress tracking – 80% less stress outdoor than indoor.

Combining QuantifiedSelf with IoT for effective motivation – Charlampos Doukas

QuantifiedSelf Art = Offline (hand written) daily life QS Infographic by Merel Brouns

Between the Show & Tell, talks, breakout sessions, ignity talks, interviews and balcony office hours there were obviously a few talks and sessions I wasn’t able to attend. Next time I will bring a few clones of myself so I do not miss anything.

Interactive conversation

This was a real interactive conference with on-going conversations during or after the talks in the lunch breaks in real-life and digital – especially on twitter. During the entire QS conference participants have been very active tweeting on the conference Twitter stream with the hashtag #QSEU13

Here my personal favorite conference quotes

Health

“Sitting is the new smoking” #qseu13 – Michael Reuter ‏@michaelreuter

Privacy

“Privacy is just a side effect of not being connected” just over heard at #qseu13 via @buster – Ian Forrester ‏@cubicgarden

Change

“We are at a Gutenberg moment of healthcare” (#FMT @ #qseu13)  http://youtu.be/DgZnz1bImQA?a – Yuri van Geest Moving ‏@vangeest

Self reflection

“I am who I am because of things I do.” #QSEU13 Ernesto Ramirez ‏@eramirez

Video

Conference topics summary

Nutrition – This is what I ate – (Ellis Bartholomeus)
Nutrition – The Effect of Reintroducing carbs into a paleo diet (Winslow Strong)
Sleep -  How I got started with sleep tracking (Jan Geerte Munneke)
Sleep -  My journey with sleep monitoring (Christel De Maeyer)
Stress -  Automatic stress tracking in everyday life (Matteo Lai)
Stress – Stressing out loud (Steven Jonas)
Weight – Activity tracking and weight loss: Apps and gadgets in pratice (Arne Tensfeldt)
IOT – QuantifiedSelf and Internet-of-things for more motivation (Charalampos Doukas)
Lifeloging -  Memoto lifeloging camera
Meditation – Brain function (Peter Lewis)

More details

Hans De Zwart has done a awesome job with a full detailed conference blog article which can be read here and from fastmovingtargets you will find many conference video interviews here on youtube. From a biohackers point pf view you can read Winslow Strong blogarticle here.

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dacadoo is very pleased and proud to announce the introduction of the nutrition module on the dacadoo health score platform. Key highlights:

• The food/nutrition module has been developed by a specialized nutrition team
• Based on scientific evidence, it was built on behavioral change towards a healthier diet.
• It will contain more than 30 different goals and 1’300 everyday nutrition hints.
• The food/nutrition module will be based on light artificial intelligence
• It will suggest goals and hints to the user, adapted to the nutrition habits and eating/drinking behaviors of each user.

A main aim of the Nutrition Tracker is to implement customized and sustainable lifestyle change – Peter Ohnemus, CEO and founder

Answer 21 question to fully activate the nutrition module

You can answer to the questions both on your notification inbox on the platform, as well as on the notification inbox of the dacadoo tracker app (iPhone, Android), provided you downloaded the latest version of it (version 2.0). The BlackBerry version is not yet available but is currently in development.

The Nutrition Tracker helps you to find the most healthy way of eating that fits to you – Yago Veith, Head of Digital Marketing

 

Nutrition question notification inbox on smartphone

 

New Nutrition tab

In the Journal pages of the dacadoo health score platform, there is a new tab called “Nutrition” under “My Activities”. In the beginning, you will only see the “Overview” page and the number of questions that need to be answered.

Nutrition Goals tab

If you accept to follow a goal, an additional “Goal” page will appear, so that you can track your progress on that specific goal. Completed goals will also remain visible on this page. When you turn OFF the nutrition module, it will keep all your entries, so that when you turn it back ON, you could continue to use it.

The Nutrition Tracker exploits your personal potential to improve your lifestyle. At the same time, it keeps your diet and eating behaviour flexible – Dr. Reto Niedermann, Quality & Compliance Manager

Nutrition history

When you start using the nutrition module, you will see that an additional page called “History” will appear, with the log history of all your answers your provided to each question.Additionally, once the nutrition module gained enough knowledge on your nutrition behaviors and habits, it will automatically suggest goals to you.

Nutrition Reminders

The new dacadoo mascot

You will notice as well that we also introduced the dacadoo mascot that will coach and guide you through the nutrition module.

It is defaulted on the same gender as you are but this setting can be changed in “My Account” in the general account settings.

The dacadoo mascot will be introduced in the coming months in various other occasions, to improve the interaction between dacadoo and the user on the platform.

Start realizing your own full potential an track your nutrition with dacadoo

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Nutrition FAQ

You will find all nutrition FAQ’s here.

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Introducing Nutrition

dacadoo is excited and proud to announce the introduction of the nutrition module on the dacadoo health score platform. Read all about it on the separate nutrition blog article here.

health score improvements

Your health score is developed by medical professionals and health experts, and is based on an estimated 70 million man-years of clinical research. Although the dacadoo health score is clinically robust and highly accurate, there is always room for improvement.
We have done some fine tuning to the way your health score is calculated in order to make your score even more personalised and accurate than ever before! As a result your score has been recalculated to incorporate these enhancements and you will notice a change in your score, but don’t panic as this is a change that will give you a more personalised health score.

New workout exercise activities

Due to popular demand we have updated our exercise activities to include the following new sport workouts, which can be tracked via the platform or tracker app:

New activities:

• Ballet
• Cricket
• Field Hockey
• Gardening
• Individual medley (Swimming)

New fitness classes:

• All over body workout
• Boxing Fit
• Body Vive
• CX WORX
• Legs, Bums & Tums
• Skipping
• Kettlebells

Hide your GPS maps – privacy

We have updated our privacy settings so you can choose exactly what you share with your friends on your dacadoo health score profile. Now you can hide any of your maps tracked via GPS on the smartphone app or supported devices such as Garmin despite being friended and allowing your friends to know about your activities. Simply go to ‘My Account’ and select ‘Privacy & Security Settings’ and under Hide Maps sharing option select ‘On’ or ‘Off’. Once you have changed your settings click ‘Update Sharing Options’ to save.

Spring TEAM Challenge

Our ongoing team challenge the „Spring TEAM Challenge” which challenges you to track the most normalized energy.

This challenge takes into account all your fitness activities and when you join, you are automatically asked which virtual team you would like to be in.

The Spring TEAM Challenge started the 1st of April 2013 and is ongoing until the 30 June 2013.

The ROADRUNNER team is leading!

Join a team and show what you can do!

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dacadoo was featured in connection with the buzzword – Quantified Self – from the newspaper internetworld. Internet World Business, is a well known trade magazine published every 14 days based in Munich, Germany.

A  summary of the internetworld article in English.

Quantified Self
The “Quantified Self” movement is gaining ground. Based on the self-evaluation of health data, the entire human could be cataloged on the internet. And users could market their data themselves.

Zu denen, die von diesem Trend zum Self Quantifying profitieren, gehört Peter Ohnemus. Der Schweizer Unternehmer ist Erfinder und CEO der Fitness- und Gesundheitsplattform Dacadoo, die er – damals noch unter dem Namen Quentic – 2010 ins Leben gerufen hat. Gesundheitsdaten, so seine These, ließen sich analysieren wie Börsenkurse. Für seine Plattform, die sowohl online als auch als App verfügbar ist, hat er einen „Healthscore“ entwickelt. „Wir sammeln hierfür möglichst viele Informationen über den Menschen wie sein Gewicht, Körpergröße, Blutdruck, Herzfrequenz  und bilden darauf aufbauend eine übergreifende Kennziffer, die Auskunft über den Gesundheitsstatus gibt“, erklärt Ohnemus. Dacadoo lässt sich mit gängigen Messgeräten und Gesundheits-Apps verknüpfen. Der individuelle Wert, den ein Anwender erreichen kann, liegt zwischen 1 und 1000. „Bei 1 sind Sie klinisch tot, bei 1000 sind Sie Superman“, beschreibt Ohnemus. Der in Kooperation mit dem Massachusetts Institute of Technology  entwickelte Health Score basiert auf Vergleichsdaten von über 70 Millionen Mannjahren.

„Unser Angebot richtet sich nicht an die Hardcore-Sportler. Wir wollen die breite Masse in Bewegung bringen“, betont Ohnemus.  Gamification – virtuelle Wettkämpfe und Austausch mit anderen Anwendern– ist deshalb ein wichtiges Element der Anwendung. Dacadoo setzt auf das Business-to-Business-to-Consumer Modell. Partnerschaften mit Unternehmen schaffen den Kontakt zu deren Kunden. In Großbritannien kooperiert Dacadoo mit Nuffield Health. Der Anbieter von Fitness und Wellnessketten bietet den Healthscore seinen Kunden parallel zum persönlichen Fitnessprogramm an.

In Deutschland hat Dacadoo bereits Bündnisse mit der Telekom und der AOK Nord-Ost geschlossen. Versicherte erhalten von der Gesundheitskasse ein Jahr kostenlose Mitgliedschaft bei Dacadoo. 110.000 zahlende Benutzer haben die Schweizer durch diese Kooperationen schon gewonnen. Ohnemus verhandelt mit weiteren Partnern. „Die Krankenkassen haben großes Interesse daran, dass die Menschen sich bewegen und sich gesund ernähren, denn wenn jeder Diabetis II bekommt oder Knieprobleme, explodiert das Gesundheitssystem.“ Dass Krankenkassen mittelfristig auch mit monitären Zusatzanreizen locken könnten liegt nahe. Ohnemus Vision: Wer seinen Healthscore optimiert, soll Beitragsrabatt bekommen.

Source: http://www.internetworld.de/Dossiers/Big-Data-fuer-alle

Download PDF – InternetWorld_2013-04-15_HealthScore

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dacadoo was featured in connection with the topic of Self Tracking in this month edition of the swiss magazine for personal HR “personal schweiz”.

Moderne Technologien ermöglichen es, die eigene Gesundheit auf Schritt und Tritt zu überprüfen. An den Möglichkeiten der digitalen Selbstvermessung sind auch Krankenversicherer und Arbeitgeber interessiert.

Modern technologies make it possible to check one’s own health on real time. Health insurers and employers are interested about the new possibilities of digital self tracking.

Source: http://www.personal-schweiz.ch

PDF – work-personal-schweiz-dacadoo-2013

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There are many great aspects of the crossfit program.  There is an element of winning and losing that drives competitive people to push themselves harder than they thought they could. They have developed an environment that gets you to push yourself beyond your perceived limits and create a new level of ability. However, there is no specific physiological goal, only to beat the person next to you. That is a sport.

In my opinion, the number one job of any trainer or coach is to keep your client or athlete safe and free from injury. The problem that I have with crossfit (and many other at home HITT programs like P90X or Insanity) is that it can lead to injury very easily. The goal is simply to push as hard and as fast as you can.  There is no consideration for previous injury or joint limitations, and many of the crossfit “coaches” (not all) have very little regard for the importance of proper form.  I have spoken to several crossfit owners about Olympic style lifts and they are adamant that they can teach you how to do these lifts in a day, when in fact, Olympic lifts can take weeks or even months to get right. I recently spoke with a crossfit trainer and she went on and on about how her client (a 62 year old obese client) wouldn’t squat low enough.  In our conversation, she had the firm belief that “the human body is made to squat all the way to the ground and not just to the standard ninety degrees in the knees.” Although this may be true in a healthy human, physical limitations do set in over time and adapts to what we do the most.  In the American society, that tends to be many long hours of sitting, leading to a shortening of the quadriceps musculature (as well as other areas) and thus, leading to muscle imbalance and compensated movement in the squat pattern. If we then add load to the movement, it exacerbates the issue.

In my experience with crossfit trainers, this seems to be consistent. I witnessed another crossfit trainer tell someone that in order to do a pull-up, they needed to kip first (performing a pull-up by swinging on the bar first creating a pendulum with your body).  Unfortunately this person didn’t have the flexibility in the shoulder to extend the arms behind the head and sure enough, he compensated for the lack of flexibility and arched his low back to catapult him into the pull-up. He ended up with a disk issue in the lumbar spine as a result.

Muscle imbalances also form and contribute to injury due to the repetitive nature of the workouts in crossfit.  Most movement occurs in the sagittal plane (moving forward and backward) and uses very little rotation.  To this day, I have never been able to find a crossfit coach to tell me why this is ignored in the program design.

I have read some reports claiming as much as a thirty-six percent injury rate in the HIIT programs.  With that said, I do think there is a place for HIIT workouts.  There are mountains of studies and evidence that it is beneficial. However, it needs to be just a part of your exercise routine, not the entire program. It is vital that corrective exercise (or even physical therapy for those who were injured) be incorporated first.  Only after the acceptable range of motion for the movements used is achieved, should these workouts be incorporated into the routine. Movements should be incorporated into alternate days that aren’t included in your crossfit workouts (like rotational exercises).  In addition, everyone should incorporate some low intensity workouts and even rest days.  The body is a complex machine that needs to move in all directions and be allowed to recover after it is pushed to its physical limits.
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About the Author:  Growing up Bill Daniels played many sports and as he entered his High school and college years and was introduced to fitness and nutrition through the weight room coaches and ultimately inspired to study health and fitness. Bill went on to attain a BS in Massachusetts at Merrimack College (2002). Today, Bill works with many adults struggling to lose weight and ultimately improve their quality of life. Bill has lived and worked in Northern California for the past 10 years working as a personal trainer and holistic life coach.

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The challenge motto is: teamwork and team spirit, enjoy your most preferred workouts or try out new activities – dacadoo offers over 100 sporting activities which you can use during the challenge period. Manual entries are also allowed as well as uploads from your smartphone or a supported external tracking device. Work on your dacadoo health score and get in shape for the spring and summer seasons, stay motivated and active within your team, get connected with other dacadoo users and together burn as many METs as possible to win this challenge.

If you are not yet registered on dacadoo then click on the following link to become a dacadoo user: www.dacadoo.com

As a new user you can use the platform free for 60 days.

If you are already a dacadoo user, then log onto the dacadoo platform and click on the Challenge tab to join the Spring TEAM Challenge. Join one of the five teams – the Roadrunners, Gym Heroes, Heroes and Zeroes, 2 Fast 2 Furious and the Sumo Fighters. The number of participants in each team is not limited as the results are calculated as an average team score divided by number of people in the team. Every activity counts – talk to your dacadoo friends and invite your colleagues to join dacadoo. You can easily invite them as friends on the platform by entering their email addresses in the “Invite friends” box on your home page in order to send them a dacadoo registration invitation directly.

All activities logged by you during the 3 months will automatically be uploaded to your team and will be immediately tracked on the ranking list. Burn as many calories as possible during these 3 months and get fit for the spring!

The top three best performing challenge participants from the winning team who have burned the most energy (METs) will win a prize! Consolidation prizes will also be offered to the top three performers in teams coming in second and third place.

Let’s spring into spring!

Your dacadoo team

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We now announce the ending of the League season one 2013 for the dacadoo Health Platform! We would like to thank the current participants and congratulate the current and new leagues winners for their outstanding performances in their respective categories! See the “Season #1 Leagues Leaderboard” for the ranking. Don’t miss the start of the next Leagues Season, and join soon a new League, it will start 31 March 2013 at 00:00 o’clock and will end 30 June 2013 at 23:59 o’clock.

dacadoo Leagues in a nutshell

Leagues

• An institutionalized setting provided by dacadoo to allow members to compete against each other in various activity categories.
• More directly competitive than Achievements, less directly competitive than Challenges.
• Members must explicitly join a league after having completed at least 3 qualification workouts in the respective activity

League Structure

• League are run by and have a ranking per
  • Season (four months)
  • Domain (e.g. Running)
  • Division (Earth > Continent > Country > Division > City)
  • League (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum)
• Divisions are opened when enough members are present
• Members are promoted to Silver, Gold & Platinum based on hidden rating
• Everyone can get into the upper half of his league!

League Rewards

• League promotions are shown in news stream to generate a talking point
• Getting promoted to {Silver|Gold|Platinum} in {1|3|5} activities rewards an achievement
• Finishing a league season in the Top-{100|50|10}  percent in {Bronze|Silver|Gold|Platinum} in {1|3|5} activities rewards an achievement
• We intend to have a Friends view on the leagues page, showing the league, division and rank of one‘s friends

dacadoo – 2013 Season #1 Leagues Leaderboard

	ALL FITNESS : United Kingdom : BRONZE 1. Remo Catani 2. Louise Williams 3. Jamie Brodie
	ALL FITNESS : Europe : BRONZE 1. Reto Niedermann 2. Jan M 3. Lucia Hegenbartova
	ALL FITNESS : England, United Kingdom : BRONZE 1. Wayne Oconnor 2. Alice Brewster 3. Christine Pout
	ALL FITNESS : Earth : BRONZE 1. STEVEN RIVERS 2. Melissa Topil 3. Thomas Dijohn
	ALL_FITNESS : United Kingdom : GOLD 1. Frances Bisset 2. Dave Simpson 3. Alistair Mason
	ALL_FITNESS : Europe : GOLD 1. Frances Bisset 2. Dave Simpson 3. Alistair Mason
	ALL_FITNESS : Europe : GOLD 1. Paul Frey 2. Chris Picaso 3. Gabriela Keller
	ALL_FITNESS : England, United Kingdom : GOLD 1. Polly Rumbold 2. Lisa Bright 3. Chris Pollard
	ALL_FITNESS : Earth : GOLD 1. Duncan Wilmer 2. Eddie Jones 3. Cherisse Mccoy
	ALL_FITNESS : Europe : PLATINUM 1. Lucia Erat 2. Christian Wassmer 3. dominic hollamby
	ALL_FITNESS : England, United Kingdom : PLATINUM 1. Graham Smith 2. Ashley Pizan 3. Chris Wood
	ALL_FITNESS : United Kingdom : SILVER 1. GREG HAY 2. Emily Cruickshank 3. Greig Thomson
	ALL_FITNESS : Europe : SILVER 1. Oeyvind Haugane 2. Nikolay Zezulinsky 3. Marcel Köpenick
	ALL_FITNESS : England, United Kingdom : SILVER 1. Bridget Bush 2. Matt Murray 3. Darryl Jackson
	ALL_FITNESS : Earth : SILVER 1. C King 2. - 3. -
	CYCLING : United Kingdom : BRONZE 1. Angus Ritchie 2. - 3. -
	CYCLING : Europe : BRONZE 1. Chris Picaso 2. Ken P 3. Keno Albrecht
	CYCLING : England, United Kingdom : BRONZE 1. Eric Watson 2. john tibbott 3. Tom Kent
	CYCLING : United Kingdom : GOLD 1. Andrew Lindsay 2. Michael Edmunds 3. Ian Forster
	CYCLING : Europe : GOLD 1. Marco Buehler 2. Mike Hürlimann 3. Joshua Drewlow
	CYCLING : Earth : PLATINUM 1. Simon Edwards 2. Christian Wassmer 3. Simon Tillott
	CYCLING : United Kingdom : SILVER 1. Kerry Waylen 2. Mitch Robertson 3. -
	CYCLING : Europe : SILVER 1. Urs Breu 2. Adriana Mina 3. Marcel Köpenick
	CYCLING : England, United Kingdom : SILVER 1. Troy Kiri 2. Joanna Osborn 3. Liam Dowson
	CYCLING : Earth : SILVER 1. Steven Rivers 2. - 3. -
	INLINESKATING : Earth : BRONZE 1. Peter Braithwaite 2. Susan Bond 3. -
	MOUNTAINBIKING : Earth : BRONZE 1. Hermann Kollmar 2. Graham Smith 3. Christian Wassmer
	RUNNING : United Kingdom : BRONZE 1. Tim Hyatt 2. James Barfoot 3. Jamie Brodie
	RUNNING : Europe : BRONZE 1. Lucia Hegenbartova 2. Nicole-Cécile Weber 3. -
	RUNNING : England, United Kingdom : BRONZE 1. Andrew Dingley 2. steve chapman 3. Jon Bugg
	RUNNING : United Kingdom : GOLD 1. John Gallagher 2. - 3. -
	RUNNING : Europe : GOLD 1. Patrice Coupy 2. Brigitte Andersen 3. Jürg Gabathuler
	RUNNING : England, United Kingdom : GOLD 1. Graham Smith 2. Theresa Smith 3. Martin Beer
	RUNNING : Earth : GOLD 1. Aaron Riter 2. - 3. -
	RUNNING : Earth : PLATINUM 1. Anna Shearman 2. Catherine McDonald 3. Marco Buehler
	RUNNING : United Kingdom : SILVER 1. Stephen Grubb 2. Lynsey Johnston 3. -
	RUNNING : Europe : SILVER 1. Daniel Spirig 2. Reto Niedermann 3. Chris Picaso
	RUNNING : England, United Kingdom : SILVER 1. Darrel Singh 2. Sonia Clegg 3. Marie Coburn
	RUNNING : Earth : SILVER 1. Eddie Jones 2. - 3. -
	SKIING_CROSSCOUNTRY : Earth : BRONZE 1. Nikolay Zezulinsky 2. Florian Kitzmann 3. Gabriela Keller
	SKIING DOWNHILL : Earth : BRONZE 1. Gabriela Keller 2. Dominic Hollamby 3. Jürg Gabathuler
	WALKING : United Kingdom : BRONZE 1. Jamie Brodie 2. Natasha Douglas 3. Sarah Anderson
	WALKING : Europe : BRONZE 1. Reto Niedermann 2. Nikolay Zezulinsky 3. Marcel Köpenick
	WALKING : England, United Kingdom : BRONZE 1. Steve Dennis 2. Emma Foottit 3. Steve Dixon
	WALKING : Earth : BRONZE 1. Eddie Jones 2. Cherisse Mccoy 3. Thomas Dijohn
	WALKING : United Kingdom : GOLD 1. Stephen Grubb 2. Angus Ritchie 3. Greig Thomson
	WALKING : Europe : GOLD 1. Philipp Hiestand 2. Manuel Heuer 3. Patrice Coupy
	WALKING : England, United Kingdom : GOLD 1. Judith Briggs 2. Kerry Brown 3. Marie Coburn
	WALKING : Earth : GOLD 1. C King 2. Tom Zuerrer 3. Duncan Wilmer
	WALKING : Earth : PLATINUM 1. Marc Berryman 2. Chris Wood 3. Janet Fulton
	WALKING : United Kingdom : SILVER 1. Nigel Baillie 2. Tricia Lee 3. -
	WALKING : Europe : SILVER 1. Madeleine Trippel Cruces 2. Steve Hiestand 3. Hermann Kollmar
	WALKING : England, United Kingdom : SILVER 1. Andrew Lennox 2. Darrel Singh 3. Byron Mondahl
	WALKING : Earth : SILVER 1. STEVEN RIVERS 2. Krista Burris 3. -

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Learn about MET and how this simple ratio will change the way you evaluate your physical exercise.

A common scenario

I’m a heavier set guy. I wouldn’t say fat, but if I could just lose those pesky few kilos, I know my joints would love me more and I’d be running a trim faster. The funny thing is after going out for my typical 20km run down the Limmat (the river here in Zurich), and posting the run details from dacadoo on my Facebook profile, I get a lot of comments from girls saying things like: “Wow, you burned a lot of calories!” and “I wish I could burn that many calories during one of my runs.” Is dacadoo tracking this correctly? Or are these numbers just really wrong? I can assure you that dacadoo is accurately tracking your calorie usage, even more so if you use a heart rate monitor. Why we don’t all burn the same amount of calories has to do with our size, and most specifically our weight. The girls that comment on my posts are generally 15kg if not more lighter than I am. They weigh less, so they need less energy to move themselves.

The math behind MET

Though you might think that’s unfair, don’t forget that we all consume different amounts of calories as well. Nonetheless, a scientific figure is needed to measure the intensity of a workout and bring people onto a level playing field. That number is called MET (The Metabolic Equivalent of Task, or simply metabolic equivalent). Unless you’re a mathematics major the exact calculation might not be that interesting, but here it is: 1 MET = 3.5 ml O2·kg−1·min−1 or put another way: 1 MET = 1 kcal·kg−1·h−1. Now that might not say much to you, but what MET really allows us to do is assign a value to different activities, because not all activities are created equal and 1 hour of walking is different than 1 hour of running. By using MET, you can better compare the total health benefits of different activities amongst different people.

Image: The dacadoo health platform enables the tracking of over 95 fitness workout activities (outdoor and indoor sports) either over the mobile dacadoo tracker app or via manual entry. The dacadoo energy models are based on MET (metabolic equivalent of Task)* which measures the intensity of a physical activity. *Compendium of Physical Activity, Stanford University

Application of MET

Now that we understand where MET comes from we can apply it to our physical activities. Because MET is a mathematical ratio (intensity and rate), there is also the idea of a MET- minute. The MET-Minute allows us to compare apples and oranges if you will — that is different people doing different activities. Let’s look at an example to drive this point home: Megan works long hours in the office, but takes time three times a week to go running for 30 minutes. Ralph is self-employed and doesn’t much like doing too much sport on his own but plays tennis on Saturdays for 90 minutes. Both are doing 90 minutes of sport a week, but they have different weights, heights and are different genders, so their calorie burning will be different. No problem.

MET Calculation:

We can therefore see that Jane is doing more for her general health with her activity three times a week. She may not be burning more calories overall, but the sport she is doing burns more calories compared to her weight than what Ralph is doing. You will also want to note that the health benefits of increasing the number of MET-minutes will only plateau at very high levels, and for most people, there will be no diminishing returns. In general you want to increase your total number of MET-minutes.

MET Intensity

Here is a table of some common activities and their MET value. As you can see sleeping is less intense than sitting awake. Though your metabolism works through the night and in a deep sleep works most efficiently, MET is a separate calculation and does not take your metabolic rate into consideration. The MET scale goes from 0.9 (sleeping) to 23 (running at 22.5km/h or a 4:17 mile pace).

Physical activity MET

Conclusion

MET provides a statistical formula for comparing different activities based on their intensity. Using MET you should be able to build more variation into your fitness routine. In the coming weeks we’ll feature posts on the specific health benefits of MET activities in the light, moderate, and intensive intensity groups.

Example picture:

To really make the point about MET clear, consider this last example: Riding your bike to work has a MET value of 4 and running has a MET value of 8. That means you need to bike at the easy city pace twice as long as you run to get the same benefit.

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