Calories Burned Calculator
Estimate calories burned in any activity, using MET values from the Compendium of Physical Activities.
Your session
Duration
MET values are population averages from the Compendium of Physical Activities. Real burn varies with fitness, technique, terrain and temperature. A trained runner is more efficient and burns LESS at the same pace. Treat this as an estimate within about 15%, and remember that eating back exercise calories is the fastest way to stall a deficit.
This estimates calories burned during an activity from its intensity, your body weight and the duration.
It uses MET values, the standard measure of how hard an activity is relative to sitting still.
How calories burned is estimated
Calories burned during exercise is estimated using METs, or metabolic equivalents. One MET is the energy you use sitting quietly. An activity rated at 8 METs uses eight times that.
Two things then scale it: your body weight and how long you do it. A heavier person burns more doing the same activity, because moving more mass costs more energy. Running for 30 minutes burns 360 kcal at 70 kg and 463 kcal at 90 kg.
The important caveat: this is the total energy used, including the calories you would have burned anyway just existing. And fitness trackers, which use the same kind of estimate with more assumptions layered on, tend to overestimate — sometimes substantially.
Intensity and body weight both scale the result directly. Doubling the MET value roughly doubles the burn for the same duration.
What to enter
- Activity and intensity
- Sets the MET value. Intensity matters more than the activity name: cycling ranges from about 4 METs to over 12.
- Body weight
- Scales the result directly. A 90 kg person burns about 29% more than a 70 kg person doing exactly the same thing.
- Duration
- In minutes. The relationship is linear, so twice as long is twice the calories.
Typical MET values
- Walking, 3.5 mph
- About 4.3 METs. Moderate intensity.
- Cycling, moderate
- About 8 METs, and considerably higher at racing pace.
- Running, 6 mph
- About 9.8 METs. A 10-minute mile.
- Swimming laps, moderate
- About 5.8 METs, rising sharply with effort and stroke.
- Weight training
- About 3.5-6 METs depending on intensity and rest periods. Lower than most people expect.
What this assumes
MET values are population averages. Fitness, technique and efficiency all shift the real figure for an individual.
This is gross energy expenditure, including your resting rate. Net calories burned above resting are lower, and that is the honest figure for weight loss.
How to calculate calories burned during exercise
One equation converts a MET value into calories per minute for your body weight.
- MET
- The activity's intensity rating
- 3.5
- Oxygen consumption in ml/kg/min at rest, which is one MET
- 200
- Converts oxygen consumption to kilocalories
Find the MET value. Match the intensity, not just the activity. Easy cycling and hard cycling differ by a factor of three.
Convert your weight to kilograms. Pounds divided by 2.205.
Work out calories per minute. MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200. At 9.8 METs and 70 kg that is 12.0 kcal a minute.
Multiply by duration. 12.0 × 30 = 360 kcal. Then treat it as an estimate rather than a measurement.
See a worked example: why body weight changes the answer
- Activity
- Running at 6 mph, 9.8 METs
- Duration
- 30 minutes
At 70 kg: 9.8 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200 = 12.0 kcal/min, so 360 kcal.
At 90 kg: 9.8 × 3.5 × 90 ÷ 200 = 15.4 kcal/min, so 463 kcal.
Same run, 29% more calories, purely from body weight.
For comparison, 30 minutes of walking at 3.5 mph burns 158 kcal at 70 kg. Running burns more than twice as much per minute.
360 kcal at 70 kg, 463 kcal at 90 kg
Frequently asked questions
A metabolic equivalent: the energy cost of an activity relative to sitting quietly. One MET is your resting rate, so 8 METs is eight times that.
It is useful because it makes activities directly comparable. Anything rated 3-6 METs is moderate intensity; above 6 is vigorous.
For heart rate they are reasonable. For calories they are consistently the weakest measure a tracker produces, and validation studies have found substantial errors, usually overestimating.
Use the trend rather than the number. If a tracker says you burned 600 calories and you eat 600 back, an overestimate of 30% quietly erases the deficit.
Yes. The MET equation gives gross expenditure, which includes your resting metabolic rate for that period.
To find the net figure, subtract roughly one MET's worth: about 1.2 kcal/min at 70 kg. For a 30-minute run, 360 gross is closer to 323 net. For weight loss, net is the honest figure.
Because moving more mass takes more energy, which is why body weight scales the equation directly.
There is a consequence people find discouraging: as you lose weight, the same workout burns fewer calories. A 90 kg person dropping to 70 kg burns 103 fewer calories on the same 30-minute run.
During the session, usually yes. Weight training sits around 3.5-6 METs because of the rest between sets, well below running.
It contributes differently though. Building muscle raises your resting metabolic rate slightly and, more importantly, preserves muscle during weight loss. Judging it on session calories misses most of the point.
Reasonable for a population, approximate for an individual. MET values are averages, and fitness, efficiency and technique all shift the real cost.
A trained runner uses less energy at the same pace than an untrained one. Treat any calorie figure as a rough guide rather than a measurement, and be sceptical of eating back exercise calories in full.
Problems people actually run into
Eating back every exercise calorie
Estimates skew high, and trackers skew higher still. Eating back 600 estimated calories when the true figure was 400 turns a deficit into maintenance without anything obvious going wrong.
If you eat back exercise calories at all, use a fraction, perhaps half. Or set your intake from TDEE with activity already included and stop counting workouts separately.
Expecting exercise alone to drive weight loss
A 30-minute run at 70 kg burns about 360 calories, which is roughly one large muffin. Diet moves a calorie deficit far more efficiently than exercise does.
That is not an argument against exercising, which does a great deal for health, muscle retention and appetite regulation. It is an argument against expecting the calorie burn to do the work by itself.
Results are estimates for general information only and are not professional financial, medical, or legal advice. Read our full disclaimer.
Last updated: September 4, 2026