Calories Burned Calculator

How to use the calories burned calculator

1. Choose Metric (kg) or Imperial (lb) and enter your Body weight.
2. Pick an Activity from the list. It holds 87 common activities grouped by type (walking and hiking, running, cycling, fitness and gym, sports, water and winter sports, housework, garden), each with its MET value.
3. Enter the Duration in hours and minutes. Count only the time you were actually moving.
4. Read the Calories burned (gross), the Net calories (above rest), the rate Per hour and the activity’s MET value with its Compendium code. The steps show the arithmetic.
5. The table below compares the same duration for the other activities of that category.

Everything is calculated in your browser. Clear empties the fields.

The formula: MET × weight × time

A MET (metabolic equivalent of task) compares the energy cost of an activity with sitting quietly. By convention, 1 MET is an oxygen uptake of 3.5 mL per kg of body weight per minute, which is about 1 kcal per kg per hour. So:

calories (kcal) = MET × body weight (kg) × duration (hours)

Example: brisk walking at 5.6–6.3 km/h is rated 4.8 MET. For a 70 kg person walking 30 minutes: 4.8 × 70 × 0.5 = 168 kcal. Running at about 10 km/h (9.3 MET) for an hour burns roughly 9.3 × 70 = 651 kcal for the same person.

The MET values come from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities (Herrmann, Willis, Ainsworth et al., Journal of Sport and Health Science, 2024), the third update of the reference list first published by Ainsworth and colleagues in 1993 and revised in 2000 and 2011. The Compendium lists over 1,100 activities; this tool keeps a curated selection of common ones, with shortened names.

Gross or net calories?

The gross figure includes the energy you would have burned anyway, just sitting, during that time. It is the number most apps and machines display. The net figure subtracts 1 MET for rest: (MET − 1) × kg × hours. It is the better number when you want to know what an activity adds to your day, for example when comparing it with a total daily energy estimate that already counts your resting metabolism. For light activities the difference is large: 30 minutes of Hatha yoga (2.3 MET) is about 80 kcal gross but only about 45 kcal net for 70 kg.

Limits of the estimate

• MET values describe an average adult. Fitness, technique, body composition, age and terrain change the real cost; two people walking side by side can burn noticeably different amounts.
• The 1 MET = 3.5 mL/kg/min convention often overestimates resting energy use, especially in older people and in people with more body fat (Byrne et al., Journal of Applied Physiology, 2005), so results can run high.
• Time spent resting between sets, at traffic lights or waiting for the ball should be left out.
• Watches and gym machines use their own methods, so their numbers will differ.

Use the result as a rough guide, not as a reason to eat back every calorie or to push harder. If you have a heart condition, diabetes or any chronic illness, or if you are starting intense exercise after a long break, check with a doctor first.