Exercise - How much is enough?

OK we are convinced that Exercise IS the best medicine. So how do we go about it? Or to put the question in a more precise way, how much is enough?

Perhaps Dr. Harbinder Singh can answer that question. According to Dr. Harbinder, to maintain good health, one must undertake a minimum of 500-600 METs worth of exercise per week spread over at least 3 sessions or more per week. MET is short for Metabolic EquivalenT and 1 MET is the amount of oxygen consumed when sitting quietly which is approximately about 3.5ml of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute. So if spread over 3 sessions, each session will be 600MET/3 = 200MET per session

Walking briskly at a speed of 5 to 6 km/Hr will approximates to about 4-5 METS per minute. Taking it as 5METs per minute, each session of brisk walking will have to stretch over at least 200/5 = 40 minutes. Or if spread over 5 sessions per week, it will be 600MET/5 = 120MET per sessions which will be equivalent to 120/5 = 24 minutes.

Looks like I will have to exercise more than what I am currently doing.