Calories Burned Calculator
Pick an activity, enter your weight and how long you did it, and see roughly how many calories you burned, plus how that stacks up against other common exercises.
Your session
30 min compared
This is a calories-out tool, different from a calorie-needs calculator. It estimates the energy your body uses during exercise using the Metabolic Equivalent of Task, or MET, a standardized measure of how hard an activity is compared with sitting still. Multiply an activity's MET by your body weight and the time you spent, and you get a solid estimate of calories burned, no heart-rate strap required.
How the calories-burned estimate works
Every activity has a MET value from the Compendium of Physical Activities. Sitting quietly is 1 MET; brisk walking is about 4.3; running at 6 mph is about 9.8. The formula is simple: calories per minute equal MET times 3.5 times your weight in kilograms, divided by 200. So a heavier person burns more doing the same activity, because moving more mass costs more energy.
That weight dependence is why two people can do the identical workout and burn very different amounts. It is also why this calculator asks for your weight rather than giving one universal number per activity.
Why exercise burns less than most people think
It is easy to overestimate exercise burn and undo it at the table. Thirty minutes of moderate cycling might burn 300 calories, which a single muffin can replace in a couple of bites. Exercise is excellent for health, fitness, and appetite regulation, but for weight loss, what you eat usually does the heavier lifting.
Treat the burn figure as a bonus on top of your daily deficit, not as permission to eat it all back. If your goal is fat loss, our calorie deficit calculator handles the intake side.
How accurate are MET estimates?
MET values are population averages, so an individual estimate can be off by 10 to 20 percent. Fitter people are often more efficient and burn slightly less at a given pace; beginners and those carrying more weight often burn more. Terrain, wind, altitude, and technique all shift the real number.
Wearables add heart-rate data but are not perfectly accurate either, especially for strength work. The practical approach is to pick a method, stay consistent, and watch the trend rather than obsessing over any single figure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Using MET values: calories per minute equal MET × 3.5 × your weight in kilograms ÷ 200. The calculator multiplies that by your session length. MET is a standardized intensity for each activity, drawn from the Compendium of Physical Activities.
It depends on the activity and your weight. For a 70 kg person, 30 minutes is roughly 150 calories of yoga, 225 of brisk walking, 300 of cycling, or 350 of running. Enter your own weight above for a personalized figure.
Yes, strongly. Because the formula scales with body mass, a heavier person burns more doing the same activity for the same time. That is why this tool asks for your weight instead of quoting a single number per exercise.
MET-based estimates are typically within about 10 to 20 percent for most people. Fitness, efficiency, terrain, and intensity all shift the real number, so use the result as a reliable comparison and rough guide rather than an exact measurement.
No. This calculator uses your weight and the activity's MET value, which is enough for a solid estimate. Trackers add heart-rate data but have their own error, especially for strength training, so they are not automatically more accurate.
Usually only partially, if at all, when losing weight. Exercise burn is easy to overestimate and easy to eat back. If fat loss is the goal, keep exercise as a bonus on top of your calorie deficit rather than a license to eat more.
Note: Calories-burned figures are estimates from published MET values and your body weight. Real energy expenditure varies with fitness, terrain, intensity, and efficiency, and a device or lab test may report a different number. Use these figures to compare activities and set rough targets, not as an exact measurement.