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Find out exactly how many calories your workout burns with our free calories burned calculator. Pick an activity, enter your weight and duration, and get an instant MET-based estimate.
Enter your weight in kg, the activity duration in minutes, and choose the activity. The calculator multiplies the activity’s MET value by your weight and the duration in hours.
Formula: Calories = MET × weight (kg) × duration (hours). Example: running at 9.8 MET for 30 minutes at 70 kg = 343 kcal.
Estimating the energy cost of any workout takes four inputs and about ten seconds. Follow these steps for a result you can actually plan around.
Tip: weigh yourself first thing in the morning and use that weight in the calculator. Daily weight swings of 1–2 kg from water and food change the estimate by only a few percent, but a consistent morning weight keeps your log comparable.
A calorie, as used in nutrition and fitness, is really a kilocalorie (kcal): the energy needed to raise one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. When a food label says 250 calories or the calculator says you burned 343 kcal running, both mean kilocalories. Your body “burns” this energy continuously to stay alive, and exercise simply adds to the baseline.
Total daily energy expenditure has four parts. The largest is your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the energy your organs consume at complete rest, typically 60–70% of the day’s total. Next is the thermic effect of food, the cost of digesting meals (about 10%). Then comes exercise activity, the planned workouts this calculator estimates. Finally there is NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis): walking to the bus, fidgeting, standing at your desk, everything active that is not a workout. NEAT varies enormously between people and is a major reason two people with the same workouts can have very different weight outcomes.
Energy balance ties it all together: eat more than you expend and the surplus is stored as fat; expend more than you eat and the deficit is covered by burning stored fat. One kilogram of body fat holds roughly 7,700 kcal, so a sustained daily deficit of 500 kcal predicts about half a kilogram of fat loss per week. The calculator’s job is to quantify the exercise side of that equation accurately enough to plan with, usually within about ±20% of laboratory measurement.
One nuance worth knowing: because 1 MET is defined as your resting metabolic rate, the calculator’s total includes the calories you would have burned sitting still anyway. The net extra burn from the exercise itself is (MET − 1) × weight × hours. For the default example, running at 9.8 MET for 30 minutes at 70 kg, the gross burn is 343 kcal, the resting portion is 1 × 70 × 0.5 = 35 kcal, and the net exercise burn is 308 kcal. For weight-loss math, either number works as long as you are consistent about which one you compare against your food intake.
The calculator uses the standard exercise-physiology equation based on METs (metabolic equivalents of task), where 1 MET equals resting energy expenditure, about 1 kcal per kilogram per hour:
Calories burned = MET × weight (kg) × duration (hours)
MET values come from the Compendium of Physical Activities, a research catalog that assigns each activity an intensity multiple of rest. Sitting quietly is about 1.5 MET, moderate walking about 3.5 MET, cycling at moderate effort about 7.5 MET, and running at 6 mph about 9.8 MET. Two fully worked examples follow.
Worked example 1: running, 70 kg, 30 minutes at 9.8 MET. Convert minutes to hours: 30 ÷ 60 = 0.5 hours. Multiply: 9.8 × 70 × 0.5 = 343 kcal. The hourly burn rate is 9.8 × 70 = 686 kcal/hour. So a 70 kg runner at 6 mph burns 343 kcal in half an hour, exactly the calculator’s default result. The resting share of that half hour is 1 × 70 × 0.5 = 35 kcal, leaving 308 kcal attributable to the running itself.
Worked example 2: walking, 85 kg, 45 minutes at 3.5 MET. Convert: 45 ÷ 60 = 0.75 hours. Multiply: 3.5 × 85 × 0.75 = 223.125, or about 223 kcal. The hourly rate is 3.5 × 85 = 297.5 kcal/hour, less than half the running rate, which is why duration matters so much for walkers: this 85 kg walker would need about 69 minutes to match the runner’s 343 kcal (343 ÷ 297.5 ≈ 1.15 hours).
To invert the formula, divide your calorie target by (MET × weight) to get the hours required. Want to burn 500 kcal walking at 3.5 MET at 85 kg? 500 ÷ 297.5 ≈ 1.68 hours, or about 101 minutes. The same 500 kcal running at 9.8 MET at 70 kg takes 500 ÷ 686 ≈ 0.73 hours, or about 44 minutes. Intensity is a time machine: it buys the same burn in far fewer minutes.
Sarah weighs 65 kg and has set a goal of burning 500 kcal per run, four times a week, to support a weight-loss plan. She runs at roughly 6 mph, which the activity list rates at 9.8 MET. Her hourly burn rate is 9.8 × 65 = 637 kcal/hour. Dividing her target by the rate gives 500 ÷ 637 ≈ 0.785 hours, or about 47 minutes of running per session.
Four sessions a week at 500 kcal add 2,000 kcal of weekly exercise expenditure. Against an unchanged diet, that predicts roughly 0.26 kg of fat loss per week (2,000 ÷ 7,700), or about a kilogram per month, before counting any NEAT changes. Sarah logs each run’s duration and her morning weight. After three weeks her weight trend matches the prediction within a few hundred grams, which tells her the 9.8 MET assumption fits her actual pace. If her weight had stalled, the fix would be to select a slightly lower MET (perhaps she runs closer to 5.5 mph) or to add ten minutes per session, rather than to distrust the method.
The practical lesson: the calculator turns a vague goal (“burn more calories”) into a concrete prescription (“run 47 minutes at 6 mph pace”). Recompute whenever your weight changes by more than 3–4 kg, since the burn rate scales directly with body mass.
Consider Omar, 90 kg, who cycles at moderate effort (7.5 MET) for one hour after work. His workout burn is 7.5 × 90 × 1 = 675 kcal, an excellent session. Now compare that with his workday: eight hours of sitting at a desk at 1.5 MET burns 1.5 × 90 × 8 = 1,080 kcal. His quiet workday, which feels like doing nothing, actually accounts for more energy than his hard workout, because duration multiplies everything.
This comparison reveals why NEAT is the secret lever of weight management. If Omar adds a standing desk and a 20-minute walk at lunch (3.5 MET), the walk alone adds 3.5 × 90 × 0.33 ≈ 105 kcal daily, or 735 kcal per week, more than an entire extra cycling session, without any additional “exercise.” People who struggle to lose weight despite regular workouts are often NEAT-deficient: they train hard for an hour, then sit for the remaining fifteen waking hours, and the sitting wins the arithmetic.
Use the calculator for both sides of your day. Estimate your workouts, then estimate your NEAT blocks (commute, chores, standing time) with their modest MET values. The sum is your true activity expenditure, and it is almost always the number that explains why the scale is, or is not, moving. Pair the result with our Calorie Calculator to set a daily intake target that matches.
1. Entering weight in pounds as if it were kilograms. The formula needs kilograms. Typing 154 (pounds) into the weight field inflates every result by 2.2 times. Always divide pounds by 2.205 first, or better, weigh yourself in kilograms on a metric scale setting.
2. Counting rest breaks as exercise time. A 60-minute gym visit with 20 minutes of chatting and scrolling is 40 minutes of exercise. Entering the full hour at the workout’s MET overstates the burn by 50%. Log active minutes only, or split the session into work and rest segments at different MET values.
3. Choosing the wrong intensity. Selecting “running, 8 mph” when you actually jog at 5.5 mph can double the estimate. Be honest about pace: check your actual speed with a phone GPS once, then pick the matching MET. When in doubt, choose the lower intensity; underestimating the burn is the safer error for weight loss.
4. Treating the estimate as exact. MET-based estimates are typically within ±20% of laboratory values, and individual efficiency, terrain, wind, and body composition all shift the true number. Use the result for planning and trends, not as a license to eat back every calculated calorie to the single digit.
5. Eating back the gross burn instead of the net burn. The calculator’s total includes the ~1 MET you would have burned at rest during that time. If your nutrition plan already accounts for your resting expenditure (as most calorie targets do), only the net portion, (MET − 1) × weight × hours, is truly “extra.” For the default 343 kcal run, the extra is 308 kcal. Counting the full 343 on top of a BMR-inclusive target double-counts 35 kcal per session.
This page provides a free calories burned calculator using the equation Calories = MET × weight (kg) × duration (hours), where 1 MET ≈ 1 kcal/kg/hour of resting expenditure. Worked examples: running at 9.8 MET for 30 minutes at 70 kg burns 343 kcal (686 kcal/hour); walking at 3.5 MET for 45 minutes at 85 kg burns 223 kcal. Practical cases: a 65 kg runner needs ~47 minutes at 9.8 MET to burn 500 kcal; a 90 kg cyclist burns 675 kcal in an hour at 7.5 MET while 8 hours of desk sitting at 1.5 MET burns 1,080 kcal. The page explains calories, BMR, NEAT, energy balance, net versus gross burn, and five common estimation mistakes, noting ±20% typical accuracy versus lab measurement.
About 340 kcal for a 70 kg person running at 6 mph — it scales with weight.
One MET is your resting energy expenditure (~1 kcal per kg per hour).
Per minute, running burns roughly 2–3× walking.
MET-based estimates are typically within ±20% — good for planning.
A 300–500 kcal daily deficit drives steady fat loss of about 0.5 kg per week.
The calculator’s weight field expects kilograms because the MET formula is defined per kilogram of body mass. To convert, divide your weight in pounds by 2.205: 154 lb ÷ 2.205 ≈ 70 kg. Entering 154 directly would inflate every result by 2.2 times, so always convert first or weigh yourself on a metric scale setting.
Yes. One MET is defined as your resting metabolic rate (about 1 kcal per kilogram per hour), so the total includes the baseline calories of simply being alive during that time. The extra burn attributable to the exercise itself is (MET − 1) × weight × hours. For the default example, running at 9.8 MET for 30 minutes at 70 kg, the gross burn is 343 kcal, the resting portion is 35 kcal, and the net exercise burn is 308 kcal.
Because the formula multiplies by body weight: Calories = MET × weight × hours. Moving more mass requires more energy, just as a heavier car uses more fuel. For example, 30 minutes of running at 9.8 MET burns about 490 kcal for a 100 kg person but only 343 kcal for a 70 kg person (9.8 × 100 × 0.5 = 490 versus 9.8 × 70 × 0.5 = 343). This is also why calorie burn naturally falls as you lose weight, and your intake or duration must adjust to keep the deficit.
Also try our Calorie Calculator, BMI Calculator and BMR Calculator — or browse all Fitness & Health Calculators.
Cite this page: Calories Burned Calculator. SigmaCalculator.net. Available at: https://sigmacalculator.net/fitness-health-calculators/calories-burned-calculator/