Calories Burned Calculator
Estimate calories burned during 18+ exercises and daily activities.
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Example 1 — Metric
BMI = 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) = 70 ÷ 3.0625 ≈ 22.9 — Normal weight
📘 What is the Calories Burned Calculator?
Calories burned during exercise depend on your bodyweight, the activity itself, and duration — not a flat number per minute that applies to everyone equally. This calculator uses MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) values, the same standard used in exercise physiology research, for accurate activity-specific estimates.
⚙️ How Calories Burned is calculated
What a MET value actually means
One MET represents the energy cost of sitting quietly — roughly 1 kcal per kg of bodyweight per hour. An activity with a MET of 8 (like running) burns roughly 8 times that resting rate, which is why heavier individuals burn more calories doing the identical activity for the identical duration.
Why duration matters more than intensity for total burn
A 30-minute run and a 60-minute brisk walk can burn a similar total number of calories despite very different intensities, because total burn is intensity (MET) multiplied by time. This is genuinely useful for choosing an activity that fits your available time and joint tolerance.
Why fitness trackers often overestimate
Most consumer fitness trackers overestimate calorie burn by 20–40% on average compared to lab-measured values, because wrist-based heart rate sensors and motion algorithms are imperfect proxies. MET-based calculations like this one tend to be more conservative and research-grounded.
MET formula
Calories = MET × weight (kg) × (minutes ÷ 60)
🧮 Worked examples
Example — running, 70kg, 30 minutes
Running has a MET value of 8. 70 kg person runs for 30 minutes.
→ Calories burned ≈ 280 kcal
Example — walking vs running, same duration
Same 70kg person, 30 minutes of brisk walking (MET 3.5) instead.
→ Calories burned ≈ 123 kcal — less than half of running for the same time
💡 Original insights & how to use this calculator
Choosing activities by calorie efficiency per minute
If time is your limiting factor, compare MET values directly — running, swimming, and HIIT all sit around MET 7–9, roughly double the burn rate of walking or yoga for the same duration.
Why this should not dictate how much you eat back
Eating back 100% of estimated exercise calories frequently undermines a calorie deficit, since both trackers and MET estimates carry real margins of error. Many practitioners suggest eating back only 50% of estimated exercise calories as a more conservative approach.
Combining with a weekly target rather than a daily one
Total weekly calories burned through exercise is a more stable, meaningful number than any single day's estimate, since daily variation in duration and intensity is normal and expected.
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💡 Expert tips
Non-exercise movement adds 15–30% to your daily burn.
📖 Learn more on WellFiLab
Visit ↗❓ Common questions
How accurate are these?
Within 20–30% of actual — good for planning trends.
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