Estimate calories burned for any activity using MET values from the Compendium of Physical Activities — compare walking, running, cycling, strength training, and hundreds of exercises.
This Calories Burned Calculator uses the MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) system developed and maintained in the Compendium of Physical Activities, a widely cited research database used by the ACSM and public health researchers to quantify energy expenditure across activities. You choose an activity, enter your body weight and duration, and the tool returns an estimated calorie burn. The result represents gross calorie expenditure — total burn including both the activity and the resting calorie burn that would have occurred anyway, not net calories (activity-only burn). For most fitness and weight-management applications, gross burn is the appropriate number. Results are estimates with a margin of error of ±15–20% in real-world conditions; individual variation in efficiency, intensity, fitness level, and environment all affect actual burn. This calculator is an educational tool — consult a registered dietitian or exercise physiologist for clinical-level measurements.
Select your activity from the list (or search for it), enter your body weight and how long you performed the activity in minutes, then tap calculate. The result shows total estimated calories burned (gross) and the MET value used. A higher MET value means a more intense activity: rest is MET 1.0, brisk walking is roughly 3.5, jogging is 7–8, and vigorous running is 10–12. To find net calories burned (extra burn above resting), subtract your resting burn for the same period: (BMR ÷ 1440) × minutes = resting burn for that window. For most cardio activities, the net is about 70–80% of the gross figure. Use the result to assess whether your exercise volume is contributing meaningfully to your daily energy deficit or to contextualize your TDEE calculation.
A person who is larger due to more muscle, fat, or height burns more calories. A person who weighs 200 pounds will burn significantly more calories running 1 mile than someone who weighs 100 pounds. The longer a person performs an exercise, the more calories they will burn.
The more intense the exercise, the greater the number of calories burned. Lower intensity exercises burn more fat, while higher intensity exercises shift the body to using carbohydrates. If your goal is to burn fat, perform low intensity exercises for longer durations.
As a person ages, they tend to lose lean body mass, which decreases metabolic activity. Older people burn fewer calories overall.
Muscle requires more energy than fat. A person with more muscle will burn more calories than someone of the same height and weight with less muscle.
People burn more calories in warmer environments. Higher temperature increases body temperature, directing energy toward calorie burn.
Not getting enough sleep can lead to fatigue and decreased metabolism, reducing total calories burned.
The MET-based formula:
Calories burned = MET × weight (kg) × duration (hours)
The MET values used come from the Ainsworth et al. Compendium of Physical Activities (2011 update).
Example — Brisk Walking:
MET ≈ 3.5, 45 min, 155 lb (70.3 kg)
Calories = 3.5 × 70.3 × 0.75 = 184.5 kcal
Example — Running:
MET ≈ 9.8, 30 min, 155 lb (70.3 kg)
Calories = 9.8 × 70.3 × 0.5 = 344.5 kcal
The conventional 1 MET value was derived from a healthy 40-year-old male weighing 70 kg. Studies show this can overestimate oxygen consumption at rest by up to 20-30% on average. The only way to get a highly accurate number is through lab testing measuring maximum oxygen capacity, heart rate, and other factors.
The MET is the ratio of the rate at which a person expends energy (relative to their body mass) while performing a given physical task compared to a reference. By convention, the reference is based on the energy expended by an "average" person while sitting quietly, which is roughly equivalent to 3.5 mL of oxygen per kilogram per minute.
Light Intensity
2.0 MET
Walking slowly
Moderate Intensity
5.0 MET
Playing doubles tennis
Vigorous Intensity
11.0 MET
Jumping rope (100/min)
Distance-equivalent comparisons are one of the most searched and most misunderstood topics in exercise calorie burn. People often assume running burns more calories per mile than walking, but the reality is more nuanced. Running one mile at a 9-minute pace burns approximately 80–120 calories, depending on weight. Walking one mile at a brisk pace burns approximately 80–100 calories. Per mile, the difference is modest. Per hour, running burns dramatically more because more miles are covered. Over 30 minutes: a 170-pound person walking at 3.5 mph burns roughly 150 kcal; running at 6 mph burns roughly 340 kcal — a 2.3× difference for the same time investment. The practical implication: if time is your constraint, running wins. If you have more time and prefer walking, the gap is smaller than most people assume.
Yes — significantly. Because the MET formula multiplies MET by body weight in kilograms, a heavier person burns more calories performing the same activity for the same duration. A 250-pound person jogging for 30 minutes burns roughly 40–50% more calories than a 150-pound person doing the same jog. This has a counterintuitive implication: as you lose weight, the same workout burns progressively fewer calories — which is one of the mathematical reasons weight loss tends to slow over time. It also means that higher-weight individuals shouldn't be discouraged by slow initial weight loss when just starting exercise; their absolute calorie burns are actually higher. The ACSM acknowledges this body-weight dependency as a core principle of exercise energy expenditure.
Cardio typically burns more calories during the session itself — a 45-minute moderate run burns 300–500+ kcal depending on weight and pace, while 45 minutes of resistance training burns 150–250 kcal for most people. But strength training has a meaningful afterburn advantage: excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), sometimes called the "afterburn effect," is significantly greater after resistance training and high-intensity workouts than after steady-state cardio. ACSM research shows EPOC from high-intensity strength training can elevate metabolism for 24–38 hours post-workout, adding 50–200 kcal of additional burn beyond what appears in session calculations. Beyond EPOC, building lean mass through resistance training permanently increases BMR — each additional pound of muscle burns approximately 6 kcal/day at rest. For long-term total energy expenditure, a combination of cardio and resistance training outperforms either alone.
Consumer fitness trackers and wearables report calorie burn with high-sounding precision, but their accuracy is variable. A 2017 study in the Journal of Personalized Medicine found that seven popular wrist-worn devices underestimated calorie burn by as much as 27% and overestimated by as much as 93% in different subjects — with the best performers still averaging ±15% error. MET-based formulas like this calculator average ±15–20% error. Both are estimates. The primary sources of real-world variation include individual metabolic efficiency (fit people are more efficient and burn fewer calories at the same MET), sweat rate, environmental temperature, hydration, and cardiovascular fitness. For practical purposes, these estimates are useful for relative comparisons ("which workout burns more?") and rough planning, but shouldn't be treated as precise calorie ledgers for weight management.
Exercise-based calorie burn — the kind this calculator estimates — is actually a smaller piece of daily energy expenditure than most people realize. For non-athletes, structured exercise typically accounts for only 5–15% of TDEE. The larger variable is NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) — the calories burned through all movement that isn't deliberate exercise: walking to a meeting, standing while cooking, fidgeting, taking stairs. ACSM and NIDDK research shows NEAT varies by up to 2,000 kcal/day between individuals at the same body weight and exercise level — a difference larger than most workout sessions. This is why increasing overall daily movement (step count, standing breaks, active commuting) often produces better results for total energy balance than adding a single weekly gym session.
Body weight is the most influential input — it scales the calorie burn linearly with mass. Activity type determines the MET multiplier, which ranges from 1.3 (standing quietly) to 18+ (elite competitive running). Duration is linear: double the time, double the burn for the same intensity. Individual fitness level affects actual burn per MET in ways the formula can't capture: a well-trained runner at MET 9 is more efficient and burns fewer calories than a deconditioned person at the same intensity. Environmental factors (heat, altitude, cold) modestly affect energy expenditure. For weight-training, the MET approach underestimates total energy cost because it doesn't fully capture the metabolic cost of muscle repair.
Priya is 145 lb (65.8 kg). She does 40 minutes of brisk walking (MET 3.5) every weekday morning: Calories = 3.5 × 65.8 × 0.667 = 153.6 kcal per session. Five sessions per week: ~768 kcal/week — equivalent to roughly 0.22 lbs of fat burned per week through walking alone, without changing diet. Over 52 weeks, that's ~11 lbs of fat-equivalent burn from a single sustainable habit.
Marcus is 190 lb (86.2 kg). He does 45-minute HIIT cycling sessions twice a week (MET ≈ 10.0): Calories = 10.0 × 86.2 × 0.75 = 646.5 kcal per session. Two sessions: ~1,293 kcal/week. With the EPOC effect from high-intensity training, actual total weekly burn from those two sessions may be closer to 1,500–1,600 kcal — a meaningful contribution to a weekly calorie deficit.
Use this calculator to compare activities for time-efficiency — if you have 30 minutes, a higher-MET activity can produce 2–3× the calorie burn of a lower-intensity option.
Don't eat back every calorie the calculator shows — it's an estimate, and overcompensating exercise burn with extra food is a common reason weight loss stalls.
Treat calculated burn as an upper-bound estimate and budget conservatively, especially for strength training and yoga, where MET-based accuracy is lower.
Track step count alongside structured exercise — NEAT through daily steps often contributes as much to weekly calorie burn as dedicated gym sessions.
For the most accurate estimate, use your actual body weight each time rather than a rounded approximation — the formula scales linearly with weight.
Combine this calculator with the TDEE Calculator: your total daily burn from activity should align with the difference between your BMR and TDEE to validate your activity multiplier.
At a brisk 3.5 mph pace (MET ≈ 3.5), a 150-pound (68 kg) person burns approximately 3.5 × 68 × 0.5 = 119 kcal. A 200-pound (90.7 kg) person burns approximately 159 kcal for the same walk. Weight and pace both affect the result significantly.
Roughly 80–120 calories per mile for most adults, depending on body weight and running pace. A 150-pound runner at a 10-minute mile burns approximately 100 kcal per mile; a 200-pound runner burns closer to 130 kcal per mile.
MET-based formulas carry an average error of ±15–20% compared to laboratory measurement. Consumer fitness trackers show similar or wider ranges of error. Use these as estimates for planning and comparison, not exact calorie ledgers.
Yes — directly and proportionally. The MET formula multiplies intensity by body weight, so heavier individuals burn more calories doing the same activity for the same duration. Losing weight reduces calorie burn per workout.
High-intensity activities like competitive running, cycling sprints, rowing at vigorous pace, and jump rope have the highest MET values (10–18), making them the most time-efficient calorie-burning exercises. Running at 7.5 mph burns roughly 900–1,100 kcal/hour for a 180-pound person.
A MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) is the ratio of energy expended during an activity relative to rest (MET 1.0). Walking has a MET of about 3.5; jogging about 7–8; vigorous running 10–12. MET values for hundreds of activities are published in the Compendium of Physical Activities.
Gross calories (what this calculator shows) minus resting calories for the same period. Resting calories for any window = (your BMR ÷ 1,440) × minutes of activity. For a 45-minute workout, if BMR is 1,600: resting burn = (1,600 ÷ 1,440) × 45 ≈ 50 kcal. Net exercise burn = gross − 50 kcal.
For more information on the number of calories a person should consume each day for weight maintenance, weight loss, or weight gain, refer to the Calorie Calculator. Generally, the number of calories consumed, less calories burned through activities and basal metabolic rate (calories consumed - calories burned - BMR) will determine whether a person maintains, loses, or gains weight.
Brief disclaimer: This calculator provides educational calorie burn estimates using MET values from the Compendium of Physical Activities. Results carry a margin of error of ±15–20% compared to laboratory measurement. Individual variation in fitness level, body composition, metabolic efficiency, and environmental conditions all affect actual energy expenditure. Use results for planning and activity comparison, not as precise calorie ledgers. Consult an exercise physiologist or registered dietitian for clinical-level metabolic assessment.