Energy Expenditure
18 calculators
Calorie burn calculators for specific activities, all built on the same arithmetic: a MET value for the activity, multiplied by body mass in kilograms, multiplied by duration in hours. That product is the energy cost in kilocalories.
The MET values come from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, a catalogue that assigns each activity an intensity as a multiple of resting metabolism. One MET is roughly the energy cost of sitting quietly; running at 8 km/h is about 8.3.
- Calorie Burn — Cycling Estimate calorie burn during cycling using speed-bracketed MET values and body weight.
- Calorie Burn — Running Estimate calories burned during a run based on body weight, pace, and session duration.
- Calorie Burn — Swimming Estimate swimming energy expenditure using MET values, body weight, and session duration.
- Calorie Burn — Walking Estimate calories burned walking at different paces using research-backed MET values.
- Activity Calorie Comparison Calculator Compare estimated calorie burn across running, cycling, swimming, walking, and resistance training.
- Calorie Burn — Boxing Estimate calories burned in boxing training from body weight, session time, and training mode.
- Calorie Burn — Dancing Estimate calories burned dancing from body weight, time on the floor, and dance style.
- Calorie Burn — Elliptical Estimate calories burned on an elliptical trainer from body weight, session length, and effort level.
- Calorie Burn — HIIT & Circuit Training Estimate calories burned in HIIT and circuit sessions from body weight, duration, and session type.
- Calorie Burn — Hiking Estimate calories burned while hiking from body weight, duration, and terrain or pack load.
- Calorie Burn — Jump Rope Estimate calories burned skipping rope from body weight, session time, and skipping cadence.
- Calorie Burn — Rucking (Pandolf) Estimate rucking calories with the Pandolf load-carriage equation from body weight, load, speed, and grade.
- Calorie Burn — Stair Climbing Estimate calories burned climbing stairs or using a stair machine from body weight, time, and pace.
- Calorie Burn — Weight Training Estimate calories burned during weight training sessions using MET-based energy expenditure equations.
- Calorie Burn — Yoga Estimate calories burned in a yoga session from body weight, duration, and practice style.
- Steps to Calories Convert a step count into estimated calories using height-based stride length and a published walking MET.
- Calorie Burn — Rowing Estimate caloric expenditure during rowing based on body weight, duration, and intensity level.
- Custom Activity MET Calculator Estimate calories burned for any activity using its MET value, body weight, and duration.
How the MET method works
One MET is defined as an oxygen uptake of 3.5 ml per kilogram of body mass per minute, which corresponds to roughly 1 kcal per kilogram per hour. That equivalence is what makes the calculation as simple as it is: METs × kg × hours returns kilocalories directly, with no further conversion.
A 75 kg person running for an hour at a 6:00 min/km pace draws an 9.8 MET value from the compendium, giving 9.8 × 75 × 1 = 735 kcal. Change any one of the three terms and the answer scales linearly with it, which is why doubling the duration doubles the figure while doubling the pace does not.
The figure produced is gross energy expenditure — everything the body used during the session, including the resting metabolism that would have run anyway. Subtracting the resting share gives net expenditure, which is a smaller number and the more meaningful one when comparing an activity against doing nothing.
What the compendium cannot know
A MET value is a population average for an activity, indexed by speed or effort band. Everyone moving at the same speed draws the same value, so two runners of identical mass holding identical pace return identical figures regardless of their running economy, training history or efficiency. Real individual variation around a compendium value is substantial.
The compendium also indexes by speed rather than by effort, which means terrain, gradient, heat, altitude and equipment are largely invisible to it. The rucking calculator is the exception on this page: it uses the Pandolf load-carriage equation, which takes load, grade and terrain factor as explicit inputs rather than folding them into a single band.
Body mass enters the equation linearly, which is a simplification. A heavier person genuinely does expend more energy covering the same ground, but the relationship is not perfectly proportional across the whole range of human body sizes.
Common questions
What is a MET?
A metabolic equivalent of task expresses the intensity of an activity as a multiple of resting energy expenditure. One MET is defined as 3.5 ml of oxygen per kilogram of body mass per minute, which is approximately what the body uses sitting quietly. An activity rated at 8 METs costs roughly eight times that. Because one MET is also close to 1 kcal per kilogram per hour, the value multiplies directly into a calorie figure.
Are these calorie numbers gross or net?
The MET product is gross expenditure: it includes the resting metabolism that would have continued regardless of the session. Net expenditure subtracts that baseline, which typically removes something in the region of 60 to 100 kcal per hour for an adult. The distinction matters when comparing an hour of activity against an hour of rest, and each calculator on this page shows both figures where the difference is meaningful.
How accurate are MET-based calorie estimates?
They are population averages, and individual variation around them is wide. Two people of the same mass performing the same activity at the same speed receive the same figure, while their actual oxygen uptake can differ considerably with training status, movement economy and body composition. The values are useful for comparing activities against each other and for tracking one person over time; they are weaker as absolute measurements of a single session.