Calorie Burn Calculator

The Calorie Burn Calculator estimates how many calories you burn during exercise or everyday activity, using the same MET-based formula exercise physiologists and fitness trackers rely on. Pick an activity, enter your body weight, and set a duration to get an instant estimate — no sign-up, no tracking, everything runs in your browser.

What is MET?

MET stands for Metabolic Equivalent of Task. It's a standardized way of expressing how energy-intensive an activity is, relative to resting quietly (1 MET = the energy you burn sitting still). A brisk walk has a MET of about 5.0, while vigorous running can exceed 14. These values come from the widely-cited Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al., 2011), the reference researchers and fitness apps use to standardize energy-expenditure estimates across hundreds of activities.

The formula

Calories burned = MET x weight (kg) x duration (hours)

For example, a 70 kg (154 lb) person running at 6 mph (MET 9.8) for 30 minutes burns approximately:

9.8 x 70 x 0.5 = 343 kcal

Heavier bodies and higher-intensity activities burn more calories per minute, since both weight and MET scale the result linearly.

How to use it

1. Choose an activity — search the dropdown, which covers roughly 90 activities across cardio, sports, strength training, mind-body practices, and everyday household and yard work.
2. Enter your body weight and select kg or lb.
3. Enter the duration in minutes.

The result table updates automatically and shows the activity's MET value, your weight in kilograms, the duration, total calories burned, and calories burned per hour at that intensity — handy for comparing activities on an equal footing.

FAQ

How accurate is this estimate? MET-based estimates are a well-established approximation, not a lab measurement. Actual calorie burn varies with fitness level, body composition, terrain, technique, and environmental conditions (heat, altitude, wind). Treat the result as a solid ballpark, not a precise readout — this tool is for general fitness planning, not medical or clinical use.

Why do two people of different weights burn different calories doing the same activity? The formula multiplies MET by body weight, so a heavier person burns more calories doing the identical activity for the identical duration — moving more mass takes more energy.

Can I compare activities directly? Yes — the "calories per hour" figure normalizes for duration, so you can quickly see, for instance, that vigorous cycling burns roughly twice as many calories per hour as leisurely cycling.

Does this tool store my weight or activity data? No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is sent to or saved on our servers.