Calories Burned Calculator
Estimate the energy an activity uses from its published MET value, your weight and how long you spent.
Result
Enter weight to see the result.
https://calcgallery.com/fitness-training/calories-burned-calculator/
How to use the Calories Burned Calculator
- Pick your activity from the list. Each carries its 2011 Compendium activity code.
- Enter your weight and how long you spent, as MM:SS or HH:MM:SS.
- Read the gross figure, which is what a MET expresses.
- Compare it with the net figure, which subtracts what you would have used at rest anyway.
How it is calculated
A MET, or metabolic equivalent of task, expresses the energy cost of an activity as a multiple of resting metabolism. The 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities defines one MET as an oxygen uptake of 3.5 millilitres per kilogram of body weight per minute, which is where the 3.5 in the formula comes from:
kcal per minute = MET × 3.5 × weight in kg ÷ 200total kcal = kcal per minute × minutesThe 200 converts millilitres of oxygen into kilocalories, using the approximation that consuming a litre of oxygen releases about five kilocalories.
Gross against net
Gross is the total energy used during the activity. It is what a MET expresses and it is the headline here.
Net subtracts the energy you would have used anyway over the same period, which is one MET by definition. For a seventy-kilogram person, thirty minutes at rest is about 37 kilocalories, so a 128 kilocalorie walk is 92 kilocalories of additional expenditure.
The distinction matters most for low-intensity activities. An hour of yoga at 2.5 MET is 157 kilocalories gross but only 94 net, because more than a third of it is energy you would have spent sitting still. For a hard run the gap is proportionally much smaller.
Most calculators report gross and describe it as calories burned by the exercise, which quietly overstates the difference the session made.
How accurate this is
MET values are population averages for an activity at a stated intensity. They know nothing about your fitness, your technique, the terrain, the equipment or how hard you were actually working. Two people of the same weight walking the same distance can differ substantially in energy cost, and neither will match the table.
The Compendium’s own authors are explicit that the values are intended for classifying activity in epidemiological studies rather than for predicting an individual’s energy expenditure. Using them for that is a reasonable approximation and it is not a measurement.
The part of the estimate with the soundest basis is the weight scaling. The part with the least is the assumption that your effort matched the intensity the code describes.
Practical tips
Read the activity code, not just the name. Walking at 3 mph and walking uphill at 4 mph are different entries with very different values. Picking the wrong one matters more than anything else on the page.
Use the net figure when comparing against food. It is the closer answer to how much extra energy the session actually cost.
Do not treat the number as a budget. The error on both this figure and your maintenance estimate is large enough that spending against it precisely is false precision.
Duration is the input you control most accurately. Enter the time you were actually moving rather than the time you were at the gym.
Consistency beats accuracy for tracking. If you use the same activity and the same method every week, the change between weeks is meaningful even if the absolute figure is not.
With your numbers
- Lying still for the same 45 minutes would use about 143 kcal less, which is the net figure
- 3.5 MET × 3.5 × 72.6 kg ÷ 200 = 4.4 kcal a minute
- Over 45 minutes at 160 lb, that is 200 kcal
Quick reference
A MET is a population average for an activity at a stated intensity. It knows nothing about your fitness, technique, terrain or equipment.
| Example | Calories burned, gross |
|---|---|
| Walking 45 min, 160 lb | 200 kcal |
| Running 30 min, 160 lb | 373 kcal |
| Cycling 1 h, 180 lb | 686 kcal |
| Swimming 30 min, 150 lb | 207 kcal |
| Walking 30 min, 70 kg | 129 kcal |
| Running 30 min, 70 kg | 360 kcal |
| Resistance training 45 min, 80 kg | 221 kcal |
| Yoga 1 h, 60 kg | 158 kcal |
Where the numbers come from
The fixed figures this calculator relies on, and the published source each one was checked against. How the calculators are built and checked
7 sources
Ainsworth BE et al., 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities, Med Sci Sports Exerc 43(8):1575-81, code 17190, "walking, 2.8 to 3.2 mph, level, moderate pace, firm surface", 3.5 METs. Checkable in the Adult Compendium Tracking Guide, https://pacompendium.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/4_2024_adult-compendium-tracking-guide-1-2024.pdf The 2024 edition revises some values; this site uses the 2011 edition.
Used for
- Walking 2.8 to 3.2 mph on level firm ground at a moderate pace.
Ainsworth BE et al., 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities, Med Sci Sports Exerc 43(8):1575-81, code 12050, "running, 6 mph (10 min/mile)", 9.8 METs. Checkable in the Adult Compendium Tracking Guide, https://pacompendium.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/4_2024_adult-compendium-tracking-guide-1-2024.pdf The 2024 edition revises some values; this site uses the 2011 edition.
Used for
- Running at 6 mph, a 10-minute mile.
Ainsworth BE et al., 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities, Med Sci Sports Exerc 43(8):1575-81, code 01030, "bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort", 8.0 METs. Checkable in the Adult Compendium Tracking Guide, https://pacompendium.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/4_2024_adult-compendium-tracking-guide-1-2024.pdf The 2024 edition revises some values; this site uses the 2011 edition.
Used for
- Bicycling at 12 to 13.9 mph, leisure, moderate effort.
Ainsworth BE et al., 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities, Med Sci Sports Exerc 43(8):1575-81, code 18240, "swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort", 5.8 METs. Checkable in the Adult Compendium Tracking Guide, https://pacompendium.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/4_2024_adult-compendium-tracking-guide-1-2024.pdf The 2024 edition revises some values; this site uses the 2011 edition.
Used for
- Swimming laps, freestyle, at a slow or moderate effort.
Ainsworth BE et al., 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities, Med Sci Sports Exerc 43(8):1575-81, code 02054, "resistance (weight) training, multiple exercises, 8-15 repetitions at varied resistance", 3.5 METs. Checkable in the Adult Compendium Tracking Guide, https://pacompendium.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/4_2024_adult-compendium-tracking-guide-1-2024.pdf The 2024 edition revises some values; this site uses the 2011 edition.
Used for
- Resistance training, multiple exercises.
Ainsworth BE et al., 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities, Med Sci Sports Exerc 43(8):1575-81, code 02150, "yoga, Hatha", 2.5 METs. Checkable in the Adult Compendium Tracking Guide, https://pacompendium.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/4_2024_adult-compendium-tracking-guide-1-2024.pdf The 2024 edition revises some values; this site uses the 2011 edition.
Used for
- Hatha yoga.
Ainsworth et al., 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities, definition of 1 MET.
Used for
- Oxygen uptake the Compendium defines as one metabolic equivalent.
Common questions about the Calories Burned Calculator
- Why does my watch say something different?
- A watch infers energy expenditure from heart rate, movement and your profile, using a proprietary model that is not published. This page applies a published population average for the activity at a stated intensity. Neither is measuring your metabolism. Wearables also tend to report gross energy without saying so, and their error against indirect calorimetry has been measured at twenty percent or more in several independent studies.
- Should I eat back exercise calories?
- That depends on whether your daily expenditure figure already includes the exercise. Physical activity level is a whole-day measure, so if you chose an activity band that accounts for regular training, adding session estimates on top counts the same energy twice. Given how imprecise both figures are, treating exercise estimates as approximate is safer than treating them as a budget to spend.
- Does body weight change the burn?
- Yes, proportionally. The formula multiplies by mass, so a hundred-kilogram person burns twice what a fifty-kilogram person does at the same MET for the same time. That is the main reason two people doing the same class get very different figures, and it is the part of the estimate with the soundest basis.
- What does the Compendium code mean?
- It identifies a specific activity at a specific intensity in the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities, a peer-reviewed reference of several hundred MET values. Code 17190 is walking at 2.8 to 3.4 mph on level firm ground, and nothing else. Quoting the code means the value can be checked against the published table, which is why activities without one are not offered here.
- Why are there only six activities?
- Because six is how many have been entered into this site constants register with their Compendium codes and are awaiting verification. A MET value without its code cannot be checked against the source, and this site does not ship numbers it cannot cite. The list will grow as entries are added and verified, not by adding plausible-looking values to the dropdown.