MetTracker

Over the past years, the link between cancer and sports has been convincingly proven. Sports, however, can do much more than be a preventative method against cancer. Even after being diagnosed with cancer, sports can improve quality of life and have a positive impact on the course of the disease as well as on chances of recovery.

MetTracker is based on the latest scientific research. There is a high probability that doing sports reduces the risk of developing 13 types of cancer. It has also been shown that it is, in general, more effective to exercise at least 15 minutes per day with moderate intensity rather than three times a week with high intensity. The overall risk of death by cancer can therefore be lowered by 13 – 22 percent with just 9 MET per week!

A report published in the internationally renowned professional journal Lancet followed 420 000 men and women for a period of 12 years (Please see mettracker.com for this and other sources). The participants extended their lives by three years and were less likely to develop cancer or other cardiovascular diseases when exercising 15 minutes per day.

Abdominal fat seems to be a key factor when it comes to the development of cancer. Like a chronic inflammation, it sends inflammation mediators and other neurotransmitters through the body. Adipose cells influence the insulin and sugar metabolism as well as the immune system and the hormone metabolism.

Muscle cells, however, send a protein called SPARC that is produced during periods of recovery. The SPARC molecule sent by muscle cells can prevent other cells from turning into cancer cells.

The unit metabolic equivalent (metabolic equivalent of task, MET) has been applied since 2000 and serves to compare energy consumption for different activities.

It describes the metabolic rate of a human being in relationship to their resting metabolic rate. 1 MET hour (abbreviated to MET) is thus the energy your body consumes while sitting still for one hour.

The consumption of other activities can be described with a certain factor of the resting consumption. If running at 8km/h is assigned 9 MET, this means that you consume 9 times the energy than if you were just sitting.

MetTracker will calculate how many MET you gather while exercising. Furthermore, it gives you an overview of your personal MET goal for the week and whether you have achieved it already. The default setting is 18 MET because it was established that 18 MET have the clearest impact on cancer reduction.

The MetTracker team can’t make any promises that you will be spared from cancer when exercising regularly, of course, although we would love to do that! We can however assure you that you will be doing the best for your health when engaging in exercise.

Before starting, we strongly recommend to do a medical check-up exam and get personal recommendations on which type of sport and what intensity might be suitable for you. If possible, start exercising with a trainer or in groups.

As a general rule of recommendation, we advise you to do 2.5 hrs endurance training per week and strength training twice a week for the large muscle groups. For age groups 65 years and older, balancing exercises and prevention of falls should be included in the training. In any case, the more training the better is definitely true. In addition, it is better to exercise more often and with shorter intervals at moderate intensity than fewer times with high intensity. And don’t forget; mowing the lawn and housework also count as exercise.

The MET values we use in our app are based on the results of more than 260 studies. And every year, there are more new studies. These are listed in the Ainsworth’ table (https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/), where you will find all MET values already established.

MET values have not yet been established for many sport types and activities. We update the table regularly as soon as new studies yield new findings. Should your activity or sport type not yet be on the list, we recommend that you look for a similar one or one that is similar in terms of intensity.