Calories Burned Calculator

How this calculator works

Every activity in the list carries a MET value, short for metabolic equivalent of task. One MET is the energy you use sitting quietly, defined in research as 3.5 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute, or roughly one calorie per kilogram per hour. A 3.5-MET walk costs three and a half times your resting rate; a 9.8-MET run almost ten times.

The values come from the Compendium of Physical Activities, the reference table researchers have used since 1993 and last updated in 2024. The math: calories = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200 × minutes. A 160-lb woman walking briskly at 4.0 mph (4.3 MET) for 30 minutes burns about 164 calories.

Why weight matters

Moving a heavier body costs more energy, so the same walk at 200 lb burns a third more than at 150 lb. It is also why the number drifts down as you lose weight: the same route slowly gets cheaper.

Why minutes usually beat intensity

Speeding up from 3.0 to 4.0 mph raises the per-minute burn by about a quarter. Walking twice as long doubles it. For most people over 40, adding 15 minutes is easier on the knees and the calendar than adding a mile per hour.

Calories burned per mile

A slower mile takes longer, so calories per mile change less than calories per minute. At 150 lb, a mile walked at 3.0 mph comes to about 83 calories and a mile run at 6 mph about 117. Per minute, the run burns almost three times as much.

How to read your result

The table lists each activity's MET value and the calories burned in 30 minutes at 150 and 200 lb. The Compendium classes 3.0 to 5.9 MET as moderate and 6.0 and above as vigorous, so everything from easy walking to dancing counts toward the CDC's 150 weekly moderate minutes; hiking, jogging, running, moderate cycling and stairs count toward the 75 vigorous ones.

Gross or net?

The calculator shows gross calories: everything you burned during the activity, including the roughly 1 MET you would have spent on the couch. Net, exercise-only calories subtract that share. For a 3.5-MET walk, net is about 70 percent of gross; for a 9.8-MET run, about 90 percent. Treadmills and most watches also report gross, so the numbers compare, but if you are counting calories to lose weight, net is the honest figure.

Where the number misleads

MET values are averages

Each MET is a mean from lab measurements of many people, and the Compendium authors say that individual costs vary. A trained runner is more economical at 6 mph than a beginner and burns less; a new walker pushing a stroller on gravel burns more. Incline, wind, load, heat and how much of your weight is muscle are not in the number.

Your watch is probably higher

In a 2017 Stanford study of seven wrist devices, heart rate was accurate to within 5 percent on most, but no device estimated energy expenditure within 20 percent of lab measurements. Errors ranged from about 27 percent for the best device to 93 percent for the worst. A chest strap fixes the heart-rate part, not the calorie model behind it.

Burned is not lost

Calories burned rarely translate one to one into weight change. Reviews of exercise trials find that many people eat a little more and move a little less on training days, and that the fat lost over months is usually less than the burned calories predict, with large differences between individuals. The number tells you what the session cost, not what the scale will do.

What to do with it

1. Count minutes, not calories. Check which of your activities are moderate (3.0 to 5.9 MET) and aim for the CDC's 150 minutes a week plus two strength days. The calories follow.
2. Split the walking. Three 10-minute walks after meals burn the same as one 30-minute walk here, and they do something a single walk does not; see what a 10-minute walk after meals does to blood sugar.
3. Do not eat the number back. If weight is the goal, treat the result as a bonus and keep intake steady. A high-protein breakfast is the cheapest way to keep hunger from climbing with your step count; see protein at breakfast and belly fat.
4. Keep hard sessions out of the late evening. A vigorous workout at 8 p.m. pushes dinner to 9, and a late, large dinner is one of the drivers behind waking up at 3 a.m.
5. Do not judge strength training by its MET. At 3.5 MET it looks like a slow walk, but it keeps the muscle that keeps your resting burn from sliding after 50.