Calories Burned Calculator

Estimate calories burned during an activity using its MET value, your weight, and duration.

⏱ Updated: 17 Sep 2026

Calculator

Free calories burned calculator: estimate energy expenditure for an activity using its MET value, your weight, and duration.

MET values from the Compendium of Physical Activities — a rough average for the activity, not tuned to your specific pace or effort.

Calories Burned
kcal

Choose an activity, enter your weight and duration, to estimate calories burned using standard MET values.

How to Use the Calories Burned Calculator

Pick an activity from the dropdown first — that sets the MET value behind the scenes — then add weight and duration. Changing only the activity is enough to see how differently two exercises burn calories for the same person and time.

Every physical activity has a MET value — a multiple of how much energy it takes compared to sitting still, which does 1 MET's worth of work by definition. Running is roughly 10 METs; a slow walk is closer to 3. Multiply that by body weight and time, and the result is a calorie estimate for the session.

Calories = MET × Weight(kg) × Duration(hours)

The MET table behind this comes from the Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al., most recently updated 2011) — the reference researchers use to standardize energy-expenditure estimates across studies — but the numbers are averages across a whole activity category, not measurements of any one person's actual effort. Two people doing "moderate cycling" at different intensities burn different amounts even though this calculator would treat them identically.

Heavier bodies burn more calories doing the same activity for the same duration, since MET scales directly with body weight — the formula, not an approximation, produces that result.

An estimate, not a measurement. Actual calorie burn depends on fitness level, effort, terrain, and other factors a MET average can't capture. This isn't medical advice — check with a doctor before starting a new exercise program if you have a health condition.