Use this free calories burned calculator with 2024 Compendium activities or a custom MET, body weight in kg or lb, and active time.
Walking: brisk 3.5-3.9 mph, 4.8 MET, 70 kg for 45 min
Total session calories include the energy your body would use at rest during the same time. Active calories above rest subtract a 1-MET baseline. Both are rough estimates, not lab measurements or automatic food targets.
Recent exercise calorie estimates will appear here.
Exercise calorie estimates depend on intensity, fitness, body size, breaks, and measurement error. Inputs stay in this browser tab.
Inputs and recent answers stay in this browser tab and are not sent to a server.
Estimate total session calories for common exercise, sport, home, and garden activities.
Compare total session calories with active calories above the 1-MET resting baseline.
Use body weight in kilograms or pounds and a current 2024 Compendium activity value.
Enter a custom MET when a closer activity description comes from an appropriate Compendium table.
About 265 kcal total session; about 209 kcal active above rest
About 390 kcal total session; about 348 kcal active above rest
About 242 kcal total session; about 169 kcal active above rest
Need a slower walkthrough, a related calculator, or the full library? These links keep you close to the task you started.
Plain-language answers about when to use the estimate, what the formula means, what it cannot decide for you, and how privacy works.
Use it for simple educational checks, trend tracking, or planning tasks like these: Estimate total session calories for common exercise, sport, home, and garden activities. Compare total session calories with active calories above the 1-MET resting baseline. It can help you understand a number, but it cannot explain your whole health situation.
Choose a 2024 Adult Compendium activity or enter a custom MET from 1 to 25, then enter body weight in kilograms or pounds and active minutes. Match the description closely: moderate walking at 2.8-3.4 mph is 3.8 MET, while brisk walking at 3.5-3.9 mph is 4.8 MET.
In plain language: Total session calories = MET x 3.5 x body weight in kg / 200 x minutes. Active calories above rest use the same equation with MET minus 1 because 1 MET represents the resting baseline. Pounds are converted to kilograms first. Read the result together with the notes on the page, because health and fitness numbers often need personal context.
Read total session calories as the gross estimate, including the energy your body would have used at rest during those minutes. Active calories above rest subtract a 1-MET baseline. Both are rough activity estimates, not a lab measurement, wearable calibration, diet permission, injury advice, or exact energy-balance number.
The activity list includes 20 examples from the 2024 Adult Compendium, including walking by pace, hiking, cycling, weight training, yoga, jogging, running, swimming, cleaning, gardening, soccer, and basketball. Use Custom MET when the Compendium has a closer description for your activity.
Total session calories use the full MET value and include the resting energy your body would use during the same minutes. Active calories above rest subtract a 1-MET baseline. A watch or exercise machine may show either definition, so check its label before comparing numbers.
The CDC explains MET intensity, including 1 MET at rest, 3 to 5.9 MET as moderate, and 6 or more as vigorous. Its cited intensity page does not publish this exact personal calorie equation. This calculator uses the common MET energy estimate and activity values from the 2024 Adult Compendium instead of calling it a CDC calorie formula.
Yes. Choose pounds and enter body weight normally. The calculator converts pounds to kilograms with 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg before applying the MET formula, then shows the converted weight in the result.
No. The built-in list uses the 2024 Adult Compendium for adults ages 19-59. Separate Compendia exist for older adults and wheelchair users, and youth use a Youth Compendium. Fitness, efficiency, terrain, heat, breaks, and health can still change real energy use.
Wearables, treadmills, and MET tables all estimate in different ways. Heart rate, pace, incline, stops, body composition, efficiency, and device calibration can move the number, so compare trends instead of treating one estimate as exact.
Be careful. Exercise calories are rough and can be easy to over-count. Use the number as context for activity planning, not as automatic permission to change a nutrition target, especially with medical conditions, pregnancy, or eating-disorder history.
This is an educational activity-energy estimate, not a lab measurement, medical exercise prescription, injury guidance, wearable calibration, or exact calorie-balance plan. The built-in activity values come from the 2024 Adult Compendium for adults ages 19-59. Use the calculator as a learning tool, then ask a qualified professional about decisions that affect care, pregnancy, medication, nutrition, or safety.
Check the activity description, MET value, weight unit, and active minutes. Do not enter pounds while kilograms is selected, count rest breaks as active time, or compare the total-session estimate from this page with a wearable active-calorie number as if they use the same definition.
No. The calculator runs in your browser tab. Recent answers stay only on the page while you use it, and they are not sent to a server.