Calories burned by activity using MET values from the Compendium of Physical Activities.
Calories = MET × weight (kg) × duration (h). MET values from the Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth 2011). Body-fat equivalent uses the 7 700 kcal/kg-of-fat baseline.
Calorie expenditure is the missing half of the energy-balance equation. People who track only food calories (intake) get half the picture and often fail to lose or maintain weight because they over-estimate or under-estimate the burn side. Activity calorie burn varies by 5–10× between sitting on a couch and running fast; over a week, the gap dominates daily metabolic differences. The standard estimation method uses MET values (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) from the Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al., 2011), the reference catalogue of activity intensities. One MET equals ~3.5 mL O₂ / kg / min, the resting metabolic rate. A MET of 8 means an activity burns 8× resting; MET × body_weight × hours gives a calorie estimate that's accurate to ±10 % for most healthy adults, which is good enough for nutrition planning. This calculator turns the catalogue into a quick lookup with a side-by-side comparison across 15 popular activities.
Calories burned (kcal) = MET × weight_kg × hours.
This formula derives from: - 1 MET = 3.5 mL O₂ / kg / min. - 1 L of O₂ consumed metabolizes ~5 kcal. - 60 min/h. - → kcal/hour ≈ 3.5 × 5 × 60 / 1000 × weight_kg = 1.05 × weight_kg per MET-hour, conventionally rounded to 1.0.
The calc applies it cleanly: for a 70 kg adult running easy (MET 8.3) for 30 min, the burn is 8.3 × 70 × 0.5 = 290 kcal. Per-minute rate: 290 / 30 = 9.7 kcal/min.
The MET catalogue used here is a subset of 15 common activities with peer-reviewed values:
A bonus output: body-fat equivalent, in grams of pure fat (using the canonical 7 700 kcal/kg-of-fat baseline). Useful as a tangible reference: a 290-kcal run "burns" about 38 g of fat. The body doesn't actually burn pure fat in the moment (mixed substrate use), but for cumulative weight-management arithmetic this approximation works well.
Pick the activity from the dropdown. Set the duration in minutes. Enter your body weight in kg or lb. The headline KPI is total calories burned; secondary KPIs are kcal per minute, MET intensity, and body-fat equivalent in grams. The bar chart compares the top 8 activities ranked by calorie burn at the same duration and weight, with your selected activity highlighted in accent color.
70 kg adult, 30-minute run at 10 km/h.
Same person, 60 min vigorous cycling (MET 8.0): 8.0 × 70 × 1.0 = 560 kcal.
A 65 kg adult, 45 min yoga (MET 2.5): 2.5 × 65 × 0.75 = 122 kcal.
MET assumes average fitness. The MET value for "running 10 km/h" is the expected energy cost for an average adult at that speed. Highly trained runners have higher running economy and burn slightly fewer calories at the same speed; out-of-shape runners burn more. Variance is ±10 %.
Body composition matters less than weight. The MET formula uses weight, not lean mass. A 90 kg person with 30 % body fat carrying 27 kg of fat burns roughly the same calories as a 90 kg person with 10 % body fat — the work is moving the body's mass, not metabolizing the lean tissue.
Outdoor vs treadmill. Running outdoors with wind resistance burns ~2 % more than the same speed on a treadmill at 0 % grade. Terrain (hills, soft ground) shifts MET upward — the catalogue's running values are flat-ground.
Weights MET is highly variable. "Moderate weights" is 5.0 in the catalogue, but circuit training can push to 8+ and slow heavy lifting (powerlifting tempo) drops to 3–4. The calc's 5.0 is a population mean for "general weight training".
Yoga MET varies by style. Restorative yoga is ~2.0; hatha 2.5; vinyasa 4.0; hot yoga / Bikram 5–6. The calc uses 2.5 (general yoga). Hot yoga's higher number partly reflects thermoregulation, not muscle work.
Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). After high-intensity exercise, metabolism stays elevated for 30 min – 24 h (interval / HIIT effect, "afterburn"). The calc doesn't include EPOC; for HIIT add 6–15 % to the steady-state MET estimate.
Fitness watches over- or under-estimate. Consumer wearables (Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit) use heart rate × demographic algorithms to estimate calories. They typically agree with MET within 10 % for steady-state cardio but are unreliable for strength training (heart rate doesn't track muscle work) and meal-induced fluctuations.
Substrate use ≠ fat burn. At low intensity (walking), fat is ~60 % of fuel; at high intensity (sprint), carbs are ~95 %. Total calorie burn matters more than substrate for weight loss — the body adjusts substrate balance over the day.