Calories burned calculator

This calorie burn calculator combines a listed activity's metabolic equivalent, or MET, with your weight and active time. A MET expresses the activity's energy cost relative to a standard resting reference. It is a population estimate, not a measurement taken from your body.

Gross kcal = MET × 3.5 × weight (kg) ÷ 200 × time (minutes)
Net kcal above rest = (MET − 1) × 3.5 × weight (kg) ÷ 200 × time (minutes)

Gross versus net calories

Gross includes the resting energy associated with the same minutes. Net above rest removes a standard 1-MET resting allowance, isolating the extra energy in this model. For the 70 kg, 30-minute moderate walking example, gross is about 139.7 kcal and net is about 102.9 kcal.

If a daily calorie estimate already includes ordinary resting energy, adding a full gross session total can count some resting energy twice. Neither result should be treated as an automatic amount to eat back; daily activity assumptions may also overlap.

Where the activity values come from

The presets use the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, whose adult reference group is ages 19–59. See its walking, running, and bicycling tables. These values are specific to the listed pace or effort; an uphill walk and a flat walk are not interchangeable.

The formula uses the conventional oxygen-based approximation: a standard MET corresponds to 3.5 mL oxygen/kg/min, with about 5 kcal per litre of oxygen. That gives the 3.5 ÷ 200 multiplier. The 2024 Compendium methods paper discusses standard METs and their limits.

To estimate calories burned walking, select a pace, enter your weight, and use the minutes you were actually moving. The same process works for the listed running and cycling activities. Weight-unit changes preserve the entered weight by converting it.

Why the estimate can differ from a watch

This model holds the chosen MET constant for the whole session. It does not use heart rate, measured oxygen consumption, fitness, terrain changes, weather, or a person's actual resting metabolism. Watches can use different inputs and definitions, so compare whether both are showing gross or active calories first.

Use the right reference group

This page does not use the separate youth, older-adult, or wheelchair compendia. Its estimates may be a poor fit outside the adult reference group or for a different movement pattern. Use them for rough comparisons of the listed activities, rather than precise personal budgeting.