. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Jun 1.

Published in final edited form as: J Phys Act Health. 2016 Jun;13(6 Suppl 1):S29–S34. doi: 10.1123/jpah.2015-0728

Table 2.

Oxygen uptake (VO₂) and youth METs during common free-living activities.

Activity	n	Absolute VO₂ (L/min)			Min-Max	Mass-specific VO₂ (ml/kg/min)			Min-Max	MET_y1			Min-Max	MET_y2			Min-Max
Seated Rest
6-9y	31	0.24	±	0.04	0.17-0.33	7.55	±	1.87^a	3.60-10.82	1			-	1.43	±	0.25^a	0.97-1.88
10-12y	25	0.26	±	0.05	0.19-0.40	5.63	±	1.45^b	3.57-8.71	1			-	1.33	±	0.25^ab	0.88-1.92
13-15y	26	0.27	±	0.04	0.17-0.36	4.22	±	1.17^b	2.29-6.53	1			-	1.16	±	0.22^b	0.77-1.54
16-18y	23	0.29	±	0.06	0.19-0.40	4.34	±	1.00^b	1.90-6.08	1			-	1.22	±	0.21^ab	0.75-1.56
Movie Watching
6-9y	32^†	0.22	±	0.04^a	0.15-0.29	7.08	±	2.00^a	2.76-10.94	0.94	±	0.13	0.60-1.37	1.34	±	0.27	0.63-1.97
10-12y	25	0.25	±	0.04^ab	0.17-0.35	5.39	±	1.38^b	3.60-7.78	0.96	±	0.10	0.70-1.15	1.28	±	0.25	0.89-1.75
13-15y	26	0.26	±	0.05^ab	0.19-0.36	4.00	±	1.10^b	2.22-6.89	0.96	±	0.10	0.74-1.20	1.10	±	0.19	0.79-1.62
16-18y	23	0.28	±	0.04^b	0.21-0.37	4.27	±	1.03^b	1.88-5.72	0.99	±	0.13	0.72-1.25	1.20	±	0.22	0.74-1.60
Coloring
6-9y	32^†	0.28	±	0.06	0.18-0.40	8.70	±	2.37^a	3.10-14.40	1.17	±	0.20	0.68-1.60	1.66	±	0.34^a	0.71-2.36
10-12y	25	0.31	±	0.06	0.22-0.41	6.56	±	1.83^b	4.56-10.81	1.17	±	0.16	0.91-1.49	1.55	±	0.34^ab	1.14-2.45
13-15y	26	0.31	±	0.06	0.25-0.50	4.83	±	1.12^b	2.64-7.84	1.17	±	0.18	0.87-1.62	1.33	±	0.20^b	0.94-1.85
16-18y	23	0.34	±	0.07	0.23-0.50	5.21	±	1.25^b	2.17-7.02	1.21	±	0.18	0.90-1.58	1.47	±	0.30^ab	0.85-1.99
Stair Climbing
6-9y	27^†	0.77	±	0.15^a	0.50-1.02	23.41	±	4.00^a	17.56-34.78	3.20	±	0.57^a	2.29-4.18	4.51	±	0.56	3.53-5.70
10-12y	24	1.02	±	0.24^ab	0.39-1.53	21.46	±	4.56^ab	10.00-29.47	3.91	±	0.86^ab	2.09-5.70	5.11	±	0.97	2.32-6.91
13-15y	25	1.28	±	0.33^b	0.67-2.35	18.79	±	2.99^b	13.63-25.50	4.75	±	1.02^b	2.32-6.59	5.29	±	0.78	3.26-7.00
16-18y	22	1.22	±	0.35^b	0.71-2.5	18.58	±	2.74^b	13.12-25.44	4.29	±	0.90^b	2.96-6.32	5.22	±	0.78	3.17-7.21
Basketball
6-9y	29^†	0.87	±	0.19^a	0.46-1.17	27.06	±	5.44^a	17.81-39.54	3.67	±	0.71	2.46-5.06	5.16	±	0.84	3.78-6.99
10-12y	22	1.05	±	0.20^ab	0.69-1.58	22.17	±	4.40^ab	15.34-30.74	3.99	±	0.71	2.80-5.48	5.28	±	0.83	3.82-6.89
13-15y	25	1.12	±	0.23^b	0.71-1.91	17.13	±	3.97^bc	11.61-24.66	4.09	±	0.79	2.49-5.95	4.70	±	0.77	3.51-6.10
16-18y	19	1.03	±	0.27^ab	0.60-1.83	15.78	±	3.26^c	9.78-21.49	3.54	±	0.69	2.57-4.97	4.41	±	0.80	3.04-6.11
Jumping Jacks
6-9y	18	1.08	±	0.24^a	0.64-1.50	34.81	±	8.12	25.91-55.62	4.60	±	0.90^a	3.03-6.12	6.56	±	1.18	4.68-9.66
10-12y	16	1.53	±	0.38^ab	0.97-2.48	33.72	±	7.65	20.31-48.93	5.69	±	1.40^ab	3.39-9.19	7.71	±	1.46	5.06-10.80
13-15y	15	1.93	±	0.48^b	1.23-3.05	30.19	±	8.25	18.97-48.39	6.89	±	1.47^b	4.33-9.08	8.23	±	1.71	5.92-11.70
16-18y	18	1.94	±	0.61^b	1.15-3.69	31.13	±	8.79	18.98-52.04	6.82	±	1.61^b	4.77-11.12	8.61	±	2.03	5.12-13.89

Notes. Values presented as M ± SD. MET_y1 = youth metabolic equivalents calculated as mass-specific VO₂ divided by measured resting mass-specific VO₂. MET_y2 = youth metabolic equivalents calculated as mass-specific VO₂ divided by estimated resting mass-specific VO₂ (using the Schofield equation). Estimated mean resting mass-specific VO₂ values for 6-9, 10-12, 13-15, and 16-18 year-olds were 5.19 ± 0.67, 4.20 ± 0.51, 3.60 ± 0.44, and 3.53 ± 0.43 ml/kg/min, respectively. Mean values with different superscript letters within each activity are significantly different at p < 0.001.

^†

Sample size is reduced by 1 participant for MET_y1 data due to missing measured resting VO₂.