The Compendium of Physical Activities was developed for use in epidemiologic studies to standardize the assignment of
MET intensities in physical activity questionnaires. Dr. Bill Haskell from Stanford University conceptualized the
Compendium and developed a prototype for the document. The Compendium was used first in the Survey of Activity,
Fitness, and Exercise (SAFE study - 1987 to 1989) to code and score physical activity records. Since then, the
Compendium has been used in studies worldwide to assign intensity units to physical activity questionnaires and to
develop innovative ways to assess energy expenditure in physical activity studies.
Recent efforts have been made by Byrne et al. and Kozey et al. to determine an appropriate method to correct MET
values to account for personal variation in sex, body mass, height, and age to provide more accurate estimates of
individual level physical activity. By dividing the standard MET (3.5 ml.kg-1.min-1) by a predicted RMR obtained from the
Harris-Benedict equation2 (using age, height, body mass, and sex), the underestimation and misclassification of MET
values in the Compendium were reduced significantly. The resulting MET value is referred to as a “corrected MET” value.
By using the corrected MET values, App calculates activity specific approximate energy expended above daily basal
energy.