Examples of types of physical activities resulting in different categories of metabolic equivalent tasks (METs)
| MET categories | ≤1.0 to ≤1.5 | <1.5 to <3.0 | ≤3.0 to <6 | ≤6 |
| Physical activity categories | Sedentary+standing | Light-intensity physical activity | Moderate-intensity physical activity | Vigorous physical activity |
| Examples of physical activities | Lying, sitting and stationary standing | Slow walking (<4 km/h) | Moderate and fast walking (4–7 km/h) | Very fast walking (>7 km/h) |
| Sitting quietly (eg, watching television and car driving) and standing (eg, during computer work) | Sitting tasks with moderate effort (eg, operating heavy machinery) and standing with minor effort (eg, active workstation) | Bicycling or walking for transportation and most manual labour (eg, garbage collecting, carpentry, bricklaying or masonry) | Running, swimming, bicycling for exercise, carrying heavy loads or moderate loads up a flight of stairs |
This one-dimensional MET-based categorisation has been the general framework for the physical activity recommendations.