Calories Burned by Activity Calculator

Build the whole workout, see gross and net expenditure with the MET method, and track the week.

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Updated on June 23, 2026

About this tool

The whole workout, not one activity at a time.

This calculator estimates the energy cost of physical activity with the MET method (Metabolic Equivalent of Task), the same unit used in research and in the Compendium of Physical Activities by Ainsworth and colleagues. Instead of computing one isolated activity, it builds the whole session: 30 minutes of running, 40 of weight training and 20 of walking go into the same list, each row carrying its own MET, its intensity band and its share of the total. The catalog covers intensity variants inside each family (walking slow, moderate, brisk and uphill; running by pace; cycling by speed; stationary bikes by wattage; swimming by stroke), because the gap between a 2.8 MET walk and a 5 MET walk is wider than the gap between many different sports. You enter weight in kilograms or pounds, and results come out in both kilocalories and kilojoules. The most important control is the switch between gross and net expenditure: the classic MET formula also charges you for the resting metabolism of that period, which your body would spend lying down anyway, and the net version subtracts that 1 MET to show only the extra cost of the activity. The compare and week tabs complete the picture: how long each activity takes to reach the same expenditure, and how the last seven days compare with the WHO reference range. None of this is a clinical measurement. Compendium METs are population averages, and any specific person's real expenditure can land well above or well below the number shown.

How to use

Build the session, pick the basis, track the week.

Enter your weight (kg or lb) and choose between gross and net activity expenditure.
Add each activity with its duration; adjust the minutes right in the list and star the ones you repeat.
Use the Compare tab for time-equivalence between activities and the Week tab to add up saved sessions.

MET

What MET actually measures

MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) compares an activity's energy cost with the cost at rest: 1 MET is about 3.5 ml of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute, the typical consumption of someone sitting still. The values used here come from the Compendium of Physical Activities, the standard academic reference in the field, created by Barbara Ainsworth and colleagues in 1993 and revised in later editions. Activities whose MET could not be verified against the compendium were left out of the catalog instead of being given a guessed value.

The CDC and the American College of Sports Medicine classify intensity by MET itself: light is below 3 METs, moderate is 3 to 5.9 METs, vigorous is 6 METs or more. A slow walk (2.8 METs) is light; running at 6 mph (9.8 METs) is vigorous, almost ten times the cost of sitting still. That is why the tool shows the band next to every row in the session: the sum of minutes per band is what physical activity guidelines actually count.

Light: below 3 METs.
Moderate: 3 to 5.9 METs.
Vigorous: 6 METs or more.
Source of the values: Compendium of Physical Activities (the CDC and ACSM use the same scale).

Gross and net

The most common mistake in calorie calculators

The formula published almost everywhere is kcal = MET × weight × hours. It is correct, but it answers a different question from the one most people are asking. What it returns is the GROSS cost of the period, resting metabolism included: even lying on the couch for that same hour, your body would have spent the equivalent of 1 MET. If you want to know what the exercise added, the right calculation is (MET - 1) × weight × hours.

The difference is not a detail. For one hour of moderate walking (3.5 MET) at 70 kg, gross lands near 257 kcal and net near 184 kcal: nearly 30% of what looked like exercise expenditure was just the baseline for that period. The lighter the activity, the bigger that slice, because the subtracted rest is always 1 MET. In a 9.8 MET run, the same correction removes only about 10%. That is why the switch exists: for tracking training, the gross value is the most widely used reference; for understanding what the activity actually added, net answers better.

Gross: MET × 3.5 × weight ÷ 200, per minute. Includes the period's rest.
Net: (MET - 1) × 3.5 × weight ÷ 200, per minute. Only the extra cost.
The lighter the activity, the larger the proportional discount.
Neither version includes excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC).

Weekly volume

How the week is added up, and what the WHO recommends

The World Health Organization's global guidelines on physical activity (2020 edition) recommend that adults aged 18 to 64 accumulate, across the week, 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, or an equivalent combination of the two, plus muscle-strengthening work on two or more days. It is a public-health population reference, not a prescribed personal target: anyone with a health condition, returning from injury, or new to training should talk to a professional before setting their own volume.

The Week tab adds up sessions saved in the last seven days and converts everything into a single currency, the moderate-equivalent minute: one minute of vigorous activity counts as two moderate minutes, and light activity does not count at all (this is how the 75 to 150 vigorous-minute range maps onto the 150 to 300 moderate one). Light activity is still better than sitting, and it shows up in the time and calorie totals, but it is not what the guidelines count.

150 to 300 weekly minutes of moderate intensity for adults.
Or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous intensity, or an equivalent combination.
1 vigorous minute counts as 2 moderate minutes.
Muscle strengthening on 2 or more days of the week.

Limits

Why the number varies from person to person

Compendium METs are averages measured across groups of people, not a calibrated individual reading. The value of 1 MET, fixed at 3.5 ml of oxygen per kilogram per minute, is itself a convention: real resting metabolism varies with age, body composition and sex, and often sits below that value in many adults, which pushes the estimate upward. Add movement efficiency (a more conditioned person tends to spend slightly less at the same pace) and the extra oxygen consumed after exercise, EPOC, which the formula does not include.

Terrain, temperature, wind, footwear and even how much you swing your arms change real expenditure without showing up in the tabled MET. That is why heart-rate watches and bands often land on a different number than this calculator: neither is a clinical measurement, and the gold standard is still lab-based indirect calorimetry. Treat the result as an order of magnitude for comparing activities and tracking volume, not as an exact value.

MET is a population average, not a calibrated individual measurement.
The reference 1 MET (3.5 ml/kg/min) is a convention, not your real metabolism.
Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) is not included.
Indirect calorimetry is the gold standard; watches and MET are estimates.

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References

Sources and references for this tool

These references help contextualize formulas, standards, APIs and limitations used on this page. They do not replace professional validation when a result has legal, financial, medical or operational impact.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is MET and why does it matter?

MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) is a unit that compares an activity's expenditure with expenditure at rest. 1 MET is the energy you spend sitting still. Running at 6 mph is about 9.8 METs, meaning it burns nearly ten times more energy than rest. Because MET standardizes intensity, it lets you estimate calories for anyone by adjusting only weight and time, and it is also the unit in which physical activity guidelines define light, moderate and vigorous intensity.

What is the difference between gross and net expenditure?

Why does weight change the result?

Is the estimate exact?

Can I use this to plan weight loss?

How does the Week tab count minutes?

Why is the result also shown in kilojoules?

Where do the catalog's MET values come from?

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Calories Burned by Activity Calculator