HELP A POOR ORPHAN

[Thomas Paikeday]

Thomas Paikeday wrote:

> I gave away most of my 35-year collection of dictionaries and related
> reference works last year when I closed shop in Toronto, so I'd
> appreciate some lexicographical help from anyone willing or able. I
> would have turned to the online OED if I had it.
>
> QUESTION: Is there a dictionary definition of MET or METS (display on
> treadmills, as METS 3.5)?
> I do have a few citations in the database of my current dictionary
> (User's Webster, 2000) from HeartCorps, American Fitness, and EXERCISE,
> but I am dying for a formal "published" dictionary definition. If I am
> not mistaken, MET is from the acronym of "Maximum Energy Tolerance."
>
> Is the following definition then acceptable? "A unit of energy
> expenditure necessary to maintain various metabolic functions, one
> MET/met being equal to the amount of work the heart performs when at
> rest (resting metabolism)."
>
> MORE POINTEDLY: When the display says METS 3.5, what exactly is it
> telling you in plain English? Is it expenditure or tolerance? And why
> the plural? Bad editing perhaps?

  Correction: Please make it "Maximum Exercise Tolerance" above if you
will. It still doesn't make sense to me!