Health

Calorie expenditure

Pick an exercise, how hard you worked and for how long. We estimate your heart rate and the calories you burnt, then you add it to your day. Stack up to five activities to see the total.

What is a MET?

MET stands for metabolic equivalent of task. It is a simple score for how hard an activity is. One MET is the energy you use sitting quietly, about 1 kcal for every kg of body weight each hour. An activity rated 4 METs uses about four times that.

Calories = MET × your weight in kg × hoursHeavier, longer or harder means more calories. Age feeds your heart-rate estimate.

These six MET bands are a rough guide. The published scale is simpler: under 3 is light, 3 to 5.9 is moderate and 6 or more is vigorous. We split that range into six steps ourselves. Each exercise below has its own MET value for every level, so an activity won't always sit in the band that matches its label.

Before you start

  • General estimates for healthy adults aged 18 and over. Real burn can differ from these numbers, so treat them as a guide, not a measurement.
  • See your GP first if you have a heart, lung or blood pressure condition, are pregnant, or are new to exercise.
  • Heart rate medicines, such as beta blockers, lower your heart rate, so the heart rate shown here won't match yours.
  • Stop and get help if you get chest pain, severe breathlessness or feel faint. Call 000 if it is severe.

Build your day

1. About you

Entered once and used for every exercise. Adults 18 and over.

Units
Sex used in the formula
years
cm
Height
ft
in
kg
lb

2. Add an exercise

Choose from 31 common activities. Add up to five to see your day's total.

Exercise 1 of 5
Intensity
min

Your results

This exercise

Fill in the steps on the leftAdd your details, an exercise and a time.
Calories burnt
0kcal
  • Estimated heart rate0 bpm
  • MET used0
  • Burn rateWhile you do it0 kcal/min
  • Extra above restingCalories beyond what you'd burn sitting0 kcal
  • Resting-rate methodUses age, height and sex. Runs lower for larger bodies0 kcal

    Today's total

    Nothing added yetPress "Add to total" after each exercise. Your running total shows here.

    How the numbers are worked out

    Calories, heart rate and what we assumed

    Well established MET values. Each exercise has a MET value for six effort levels. Light, moderate and vigorous come from the Compendium of Physical Activities (mostly the 2011 table; the cross trainer and stationary bike use the 2024 update, which has newer entries for them). Very light, brisk and all-out sit either side of them, and we set those ourselves by interpolating and extending the Compendium values. Anywhere the Compendium had no matching entry, we also filled the gap ourselves. Every value we set is marked with an asterisk and Our estimate.

    Well established Calories. The headline figure is the standard formula: MET × your weight in kg × hours. Compendium MET values were measured against a fixed resting rate of 3.5 mL of oxygen per kg per minute, so this is the pairing they were built for. Beside it we show a resting-rate method that uses your age, height and sex (Mifflin-St Jeor). It usually comes out lower for larger bodies, because large bodies burn less per kg at rest, so treat the two as a range. Real burn also varies with fitness, technique and equipment.

    Moderate Heart rate. We estimate your maximum heart rate as 208 − 0.7 × your age. The published bands are light 50 to 63%, moderate 64 to 76% and vigorous 77 to 93%. We split them into six steps (very light about 35 to 49%, light 50 to 63%, moderate 64 to 73%, brisk 74 to 80%, vigorous 81 to 89% and all-out 90 to 97%), and we show the midpoint of each. The split into six is our own. Real heart rates vary by about 10 beats either way, and fitness, heat, caffeine and medicines all move it.

    Moderate Heart rate cross-check. If you enter a measured average heart rate for a steady activity such as walking, running, cycling or a cardio machine, we also run a heart-rate equation built from treadmill and bike tests (Keytel 2005). We leave it out for weights, yoga, golf and stop-start sports, where heart rate is a poor guide to energy use. If the two numbers differ a lot, trust neither blindly. Check your watch's reading and the effort you chose.

    Our judgement Limits. All of this is an estimate for healthy adults. Two people with the same inputs can burn quite different amounts. Don't use it to set a strict diet. For that, see a GP or an accredited practising dietitian.

    The Compendium also has a 2024 update that revises some values. Most entries use the 2011 table. We have only re-checked the cross trainer and stationary bike against the 2024 one, so other entries may differ slightly.

    All 31 exercises and their MET values

    An asterisk (*) marks a value we set ourselves, either by filling in between or beyond the Compendium entries, or because the Compendium had no matching entry. Unmarked values are Compendium values.

    ExerciseVery lightLightModerateBriskVigorousAll-out
    Sources and further reading

    Ainsworth et al. (2011), 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities

    Compendium of Physical Activities (including the 2024 update)

    Tanaka et al. (2001), Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited

    Keytel et al. (2005), Prediction of energy expenditure from heart rate monitoring during submaximal exercise

    Mifflin et al. (1990), A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure

    Heart rate ranges for light, moderate and vigorous effort (Lee et al.)

    CDC: how to measure physical activity intensity

    Australian Government: physical activity and exercise guidelines