Calories Burned by Exercise Type and Duration

MET (metabolic equivalent of task) values come from the Compendium of Physical Activities, the standard reference for exercise-science research since 1993. One MET equals the energy expenditure of sitting quietly — about 1 kilocalorie per kilogram of bodyweight per hour. Running at 6.7 mph is 11 METs, meaning you're burning energy at 11 times your resting rate.

Why your smartwatch disagrees

Consumer fitness trackers typically overestimate energy expenditure by 20–50%. They use proprietary algorithms that weight heart rate heavily, but heart rate responds to caffeine, heat, dehydration, and anxiety — not just exercise. MET-based math is less personalized but a lot more honest across populations. Use the tracker for trends; use this calculator for sizing decisions.

The three categories that matter

Low intensity (2–4 METs): walking, yoga, light lifting. Highly repeatable, low injury, easy to stack daily. The foundation of weight loss activity.

Moderate (5–8 METs): jogging, cycling, swimming, sports, vigorous weight lifting. Training stimulus begins here. Two to four sessions per week is typical.

Vigorous (9+ METs): running, HIIT, boxing, jump rope, Crossfit. High burn per minute but high recovery cost. One to two sessions per week is the ceiling for most non-athletes on a cut.

Calories burned is not calories lost

The calculator shows gross burn — the total energy the activity costs. For weight loss accounting, subtract the calories you'd have burned doing nothing (about 1 MET) to get the netburn. The calculator's output is the gross number because that's what aligns with typical fitness-tracker reporting. If you're doing careful deficit math, reduce the burn by roughly 12% to approximate net.

Why lifting "burns less" than cardio

A typical hour of lifting burns 240–400 kilocalories — less than running for an hour. This undersells lifting dramatically. Lifting preserves lean mass during a cut, which keeps BMR high, which multiplies the value of every other calorie-burning activity. Ditch lifting and a cut ends with a softer body; keep it and the same scale number produces a dramatically different mirror.

How to budget exercise in a cut

Think of exercise calories as a bonus, not a bedrock. The deficit should come primarily from food (see the calorie deficit calculator) and from non-exercise activity like daily steps (see the daily steps calculator). Exercise contributes 15–25% of the total deficit for most people, not 75%.

Don't eat back all of it

Apps like MyFitnessPal encourage you to "eat back" your exercise calories. Most people overestimate burn (either from tracker optimism or app overestimation) and under-log intake. Eating back 50% of shown exercise calories is a reasonable default; 100% almost always stalls progress.