AAAI-ISMA Personal Trainer Certification Practice Test

MET measures how demanding an activity is by comparing the body's energy use during the activity to energy use at rest. It is defined as the metabolic rate during the activity divided by the resting metabolic rate. One MET ≈ the resting energy cost, about 3.5 mL of O2 per kilogram per minute (roughly 1 kcal per kilogram per hour). This standardization lets you compare exercise intensity between people who differ in size or fitness, because it expresses effort as a multiple of resting energy use. For example, a 5 MET activity uses about five times the resting energy per unit time, though the actual calories burned per minute also depend on body weight. A practical formula is calories per minute ≈ MET × body weight (kg) × 0.0175. So the concept tested is the ratio of work metabolic rate to resting metabolic rate. It’s not simply total energy expended in a session, not about muscle protein synthesis, and not the maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) of a person.