Calories burned calculator

A MET (metabolic equivalent of task) shows how many times more energy your body uses during an activity than at rest, sitting quietly. One MET is about 1 calorie per kilogram of body weight per hour. A 4-MET activity, like easy cycling, takes roughly four times as much energy as sitting still.

The WHO counts 3 to 6 METs as moderate and above 6 METs as vigorous. Physical activity guidelines build on this: adults should get 150 to 300 minutes of moderate or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity a week.

Calories burned = METs × weight (kg) × time (hours).

• Gross calories: your total energy use during the activity, including your resting metabolism. Most watches and apps show this.
• Net calories: only the extra from the activity, or (METs − 1) × weight × time. If you add exercise to your daily calorie budget, net is the better number, because your daily needs already include resting energy.

We took the MET values unchanged from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Each activity shows its Compendium code, so anyone can look up the original. The activity names are our own shortened wording.

A 154 lb (70 kg) adult runs for 30 minutes at about 6 mph, a 10-minute mile (Compendium 12050, 9.3 METs).

• Gross: 9.3 × 70 × 0.5 = 326 calories
• Net: 8.3 × 70 × 0.5 = 291 calories

For comparison, for the same person:

Activity	METs	Time	Gross calories
Brisk walk, 3.5–3.9 mph	4.8	60 min	336
Cycling, 12–13.9 mph	8.0	45 min	420
Running, 6–6.3 mph	9.3	30 min	326

So a half-hour run burns about as much as an hour of brisk walking.

METs describe an average adult, so the result is an estimate. Your real energy use can differ by 20 to 30% because it depends on:

• fitness: a trained body does the same work more efficiently
• body composition and age
• technique, terrain, wind and temperature
• how much of the time you were actually moving (rest breaks don't count)

For adults over 60, the Compendium's separate older adult version may be more accurate. Heart-rate-based estimates from fitness watches aren't necessarily better: in independent studies, calorie estimates are the weakest part of wrist-worn data.

Calories burned through exercise matter for weight loss, but exercise alone is rarely enough. A pound of body fat is roughly 3,500 calories, which for a 154 lb person is the net extra from about 6 hours of jogging. Lasting results need a moderate calorie deficit alongside activity.

If you count exercise toward your daily calorie budget, use the net number and round down, because estimates tend to run high. The calorie calculator works out your daily needs and the calorie deficit calculator builds a weight-loss plan. For running, set your speed with the pace calculator and your intensity with the heart rate zone calculator.

The Compendium of Physical Activities is a public database of the energy cost of activities, maintained by US researchers since 1993. The latest 2024 edition lists more than 1,100 activities. Its terms allow commercial use of the adult Compendium, as long as MET values aren't changed, activities with different values aren't combined and the source is credited.

That's why the calculator includes nearly 200 common activities, each with its own Compendium code and original MET value. If you can't find an activity, pick the closest one or look it up at pacompendium.com.