Digital filtering might be a preferable processing strategy for smoothing
data from gas exchange measures when compared to moving averages. Robergs et
al. (2010) proposes a third order Butterworth filter with a low-pass cut-off
frequency of 0.04 for filtering VO2 data.
It should be noted that Butterworth filter comprise a time lag. A method to
create a time series with zero lag is to subsequently apply two Butterworth
filters in forward and reverse direction (forwards-backwards filtering).
While this procedure removes any time lag it changes the magnitude of the
filtering response, i.e. the resulting filter has not the same properties
(order and cut-off frequency) as a single filter.