MET minutes calculator

Add up a week of activity as MET-minutes the way research does (IPAQ scoring), get your low / moderate / high category, and — the part most tools skip — see how it maps onto the WHO 2020 guideline, which is written in minutes, not MET-minutes.

How the math works

A MET-minute is one minute of activity weighted by its intensity: MET-min = MET × minutes. Summed over a week it is the standard volume-of-activity measure used in research. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ scoring protocol; Craig et al. 2003) fixes one MET per intensity band so a week can be scored without knowing the exact activity: walking 3.3, moderate 4.0, vigorous 8.0.

The WHO 2020 adult guideline (Bull et al. 2020) is written in minutes, not MET-minutes: 150–300 min/week of moderate activity, or 75–150 min/week of vigorous, or an equivalent mix where one vigorous minute counts as two moderate minutes. So the single "moderate-equivalent minutes" figure is (walking + moderate minutes) + 2 × vigorous minutes, read against the 150 floor and 300 ceiling.

The two yardsticks meet at a tidy identity — 150 moderate min × 4 METs = 600 MET-min, and 75 vigorous min × 8 METs = 600 — which is why "600 MET-min/week" is the usual shorthand for the WHO floor. But walking is scored at 3.3, so 150 minutes of walking is only 3.3 × 150 = 495 MET-min: it meets the WHO minute-floor while falling short of 600. The two measures count intensity differently, and this page shows both so you can see where they agree and where they don't.

Worked example

A week of walking 30 min on 5 days, moderate cycling 40 min on 3 days, and a vigorous run 30 min on 3 days (Scenario MM1), scored at the IPAQ category METs:

• Walking: 3.3 × 30 × 5 = 495 MET-min
• Moderate: 4.0 × 40 × 3 = 480 MET-min
• Vigorous: 8.0 × 30 × 3 = 720 MET-min
• Total: 1,695 MET-min/week
• WHO minutes: moderate 150 + 120 = 270, vigorous 90; moderate-equivalent = 270 + 2×90 = 450 min/week — above the 300 ceiling
• IPAQ category: vigorous on 3 days and total ≥ 1,500 → high

Here all three reads agree: the MET-minute total, the WHO minutes, and the IPAQ tier all say "well past the guideline." The mismatch shows up at the margin. Take 150 minutes of brisk walking and nothing else (Scenario MM2): that is exactly the WHO 150-minute floor, so WHO says you've met the minimum — but 3.3 × 150 = 495 MET-min, under the 600 shorthand, and IPAQ still calls it "moderate" because of the five-days-of-30-minutes rule. Same week, three slightly different verdicts, because the yardsticks weight intensity differently.

When this calculator is wrong

MET-minutes and the WHO guideline are two different yardsticks, and the "600 MET-min = sufficiently active" shorthand assumes a 4-MET moderate effort — so 150 minutes of walking clears the WHO floor but scores only 495 MET-min. The 600 figure is an arithmetic identity (150 moderate min × 4 METs, or 75 vigorous min × 8), not a separate rule, and IPAQ scores walking at 3.3, not 4. A MET-minute total weights intensity by the full MET value; the WHO minute count weights vigorous time only 2:1. When the two disagree at the margin, trust the minutes — that's the currency the guideline is written in.

• The 3.3 / 4.0 / 8.0 METs are band averages, not your effort. IPAQ fixes one MET per intensity so a questionnaire can be scored. Your real moderate ride might be 5 METs and your "vigorous" run 11. Editing the MET field moves the MET-minute total but not the WHO minute count, because WHO counts minutes by intensity, not by MET.
• It is self-reported, and self-report runs high. People overestimate both how long and how hard they move, and the line between "moderate" and "vigorous" is a judgment call that changes the vigorous MET (8) against the moderate one (4). Enter time you are confident about, and when unsure which band an activity is in, use the talk test: moderate means breathing up but able to talk; vigorous means you can't hold a conversation.
• The IPAQ tier is a classification, not a dose-response. Low / moderate / high is a three-bucket label with its own day-count rules — a "high" week is not five times as healthy as a "moderate" one. The health signal is largely "past the floor or not," and the benefit keeps accruing across the 150–300 band rather than switching on at a line.
• Days are counted per band, so the tier can over- or under-read. Scoring separate band frequencies can't tell whether your walking day and your run day were the same calendar day, so the "any combination" day counts can exceed seven. The MET-minute total and the WHO minute figure don't depend on this; only the category label does.

What to do with the result

Treat the WHO minute figure as the target and the MET-minute total as a summary. If your moderate-equivalent minutes are under 150, the highest-value move is getting past the floor — that bottom end of the dose-response curve is where the health return per added minute is steepest. From 150 up to 300 you are inside the recommended band; more still helps, with diminishing returns, so there is no need to chase a bigger MET-minute number for its own sake.

Use the MET-minute total to compare weeks and to balance intensity against time: because vigorous activity is worth more per minute, 75 minutes of hard effort reaches the same floor as 150 minutes of moderate. If you are short on time, shift some minutes to the vigorous band (only if your health allows it); if you are building a base or recovering, keep it moderate and add minutes. Recompute when your routine changes, not day to day — this is a weekly measure, and a single big session doesn't move a week the way a repeatable habit does.

Common questions

What is a MET-minute?

A MET-minute is one minute of activity multiplied by its MET value, the measure of how hard it is relative to rest. Ten minutes at 5 METs is 50 MET-minutes. Summed over a week, MET-minutes are the standard way research adds up total volume of activity across walking, moderate, and vigorous work.

How do you calculate weekly MET-minutes?

For each intensity band, multiply its MET value by minutes per day and by days per week, then add the bands: MET × min/day × days. IPAQ assigns walking 3.3 METs, moderate activity 4.0, and vigorous activity 8.0. For example, 30 minutes of walking on 5 days is 3.3 × 30 × 5 = 495 MET-minutes.

How many MET-minutes per week should I aim for?

About 600 MET-minutes/week is the usual "sufficiently active" floor — it matches the WHO minimum of 150 minutes of moderate activity (150 × 4 METs = 600). IPAQ's "high" tier is 1,500 MET-minutes with vigorous activity on three or more days, or 3,000 across seven or more active days. But the floor is the one that matters most; the curve flattens well before the high end.

Is 600 MET-minutes the same as meeting the WHO guideline?

Close, but not exactly. The WHO guideline is written in minutes (150–300 moderate, or 75–150 vigorous), and 600 MET-minutes equals the 150-minute floor only when moderate activity is valued at 4 METs. Walking is scored at 3.3, so 150 minutes of walking meets the WHO floor but totals 495 MET-minutes. When the two disagree, go by the minutes — that's what the guideline actually counts.

What MET values does this calculator use?

The IPAQ category values: walking 3.3, moderate-intensity 4.0, vigorous-intensity 8.0. They are band averages chosen so a questionnaire can be scored without knowing the exact activity. Each MET field here is editable — if you know your activity's value from the Compendium of Physical Activities or a machine console, enter it, and the MET-minute total updates while the WHO minute count stays the same.

What counts as moderate versus vigorous activity?

Use the talk test. Moderate means your breathing and heart rate are up but you can still hold a conversation — a brisk walk, easy cycling, doubles tennis. Vigorous means you're working hard enough that you can't say more than a few words — running, fast cycling, a hard swim. The band you pick matters because vigorous is scored at 8 METs against moderate's 4, so it doubles the MET-minutes per minute.