Physical activity level

The physical activity level (PAL) is a way to express a person's daily physical activity as a number and is used to estimate their total energy expenditure.^[1] In combination with the basal metabolic rate, it can be used to compute the amount of food energy a person needs to consume to maintain a particular lifestyle.

United States Marine triathlete in 2005.

Definition

The physical activity level is defined for a non-pregnant, non-lactating adult as that person's total energy expenditure (TEE) in a 24-hour period, divided by his or her basal metabolic rate (BMR):^[2]

${\displaystyle {\text{PAL}}={\frac {TEE_{24h}}{\text{BMR}}}}$

The level of physical activity can also be estimated based on a list of the physical activities a person performs from day to day. Each activity is connected to a number, the physical activity ratio. The physical activity level is then the time-weighted average of the physical activity ratios.

Examples

The following table shows indicative numbers for the Physical activity level for several lifestyles:^[3]

Lifestyle	Example	PAL
Extremely inactive	Cerebral palsy patient	<1.40
Sedentary	Office worker getting little or no exercise	1.40-1.69
Moderately active	Construction worker or person running one hour daily	1.70-1.99
Vigorously active	Agricultural worker (non mechanized) or person swimming two hours daily	2.00-2.40
Extremely active	Competitive cyclist	>2.40

See also

• Schofield equation