MET Value of Insanity Workouts?

[UnstrungHarp]

Hi,

I am in my second week of Insanity, and having just discovered Cathe's Workout Manager, I decided to enter the rotation in the calendar. Because I didn't realize you could select "other" from the list of DVDs until just now, I already put every workout in as just cardio. Anyway, I know that MET Value is supposed to be a measure of the intensity, but I can't find a very clear measure of how to determine the value or what the scale is (1 to 10 or does it go higher?). When putting in the length of the Insanity workouts and putting a MET Value of 10, I'm only getting a calorie burn in the low 400's...and I find it hard to believe I wouldn't burn at least 600 on all of them (except for the recovery). I don't have a heart rate monitor so I haven't been using that as a guide. Does anybody have a clearer idea on how to determine the MET Value?

 

[SNM Videos]

Here is a link to a site that has Met values for a wide range of activities: http://prevention.sph.sc.edu/tools/docs/documents_compendium.pdf

 

[Shadowpup]

Low 300s is where I usually end up in my burn for Insanity workouts, based on both my HRM and my GWF - since body mass and level of effort makes such a difference, if it helps, 45 minutes of insanity is about on par with an IMAX2 or a CardioCoach 4 workout for me.

 

[UnstrungHarp]

Thanks for the link to the Met values PDF! Maybe my perceived intensity is not all that accurate...for me, Insanity seems much harder than IMAX 2. I can go through Imax 2 most of the time without needing to stop, although my form starts to get sloppier towards the end. With Insanity, I have to skip some reps to catch my breath several times during the workout (usually just in push up or plank exercises, though), and my form gets much worse as I get tired! Insanity is much less fun to me than any Cathe workout because most of the time I start feeling sick during the workout and have to back off. I do it because I want to challenge myself, I'm a glutton for punishment, and I won't accept the idea that I'm not in good enough shape to finish a workout...ha ha.

So, it's kind of disappointing that I'm putting forth that much effort to burn "only" 400 calories, when I could have been doing a fun Cathe workout and possibly burning even more calories (because I would have the endurance to go 60+ minutes). I'm going to finish the Insanity rotation but probably won't return to it in the future, especially after I get to download Shock Cardio!