Calculate calories burned across 15 activities — treadmill, running, cycling, hiking, rowing, and more — using standard MET (Metabolic Equivalent) values.
Knowing what you burn is only half the picture. Find your full daily calorie target and macro split next.
Calculate My TDEE 🚀MET stands for Metabolic Equivalent of Task — it's a standardized way of measuring how much energy an activity takes relative to sitting still (1 MET = resting). Running at 9.8 METs means you're burning roughly 9.8 times the energy you would at rest. Because METs are standardized across thousands of studies (compiled in the academic "Compendium of Physical Activities"), they let us estimate calorie burn for any activity using just your body weight and duration, without needing a heart rate monitor.
Your fitness watch, this calculator, and the cardio machine's display can all show different numbers for the same workout — and that's normal. Heart-rate-based estimates (most wearables) factor in your actual cardiovascular response, while MET-based estimates (used here and on most gym equipment) use population averages for that activity and intensity. Neither is "wrong," they're just different estimation methods with their own assumptions.
Calorie burn scales directly with body weight in the MET formula — a heavier person burns more calories doing the identical activity at the identical intensity, since moving more mass takes more energy. This is also why calorie burn estimates become less accurate as your weight changes significantly; update your weight in this calculator periodically rather than using an old number.
Smartwatches typically use a combination of heart rate, accelerometer data, and personal stats to estimate burn in real time, which can diverge from a standard MET table, especially for activities like weightlifting where heart rate doesn't track effort as directly as it does for steady cardio.
Apple Watch uses heart rate data from its optical sensor, combined with accelerometer motion data and your personal stats (age, height, weight, sex), to estimate active calorie burn in real time. It separates "active calories" from "resting calories" (BMR-based), and adds them together for the total Move ring. The algorithm is tuned to be conservative, which means many users find it underestimates compared to chest-strap based tools at high intensities.
Fitbit estimates total daily calorie burn by adding your BMR (estimated from age, height, and weight) to activity-driven calories detected through its heart rate sensor and step tracking. Like Apple Watch, it uses a proprietary algorithm that weights heart rate heavily. Fitbit's device-to-device accuracy varies — optical sensors perform better on the wrist for steady-state cardio than for interval training or strength work.
Calorie burn on a bike depends on your weight, speed, and terrain. A 155 lb (70 kg) person burns roughly 490–700 calories per hour cycling at moderate to vigorous intensity. This calculator uses a MET of 7.5 for moderate cycling — enter your weight and duration to get a personalized estimate for bike riding or indoor cycling.
A 155 lb (70 kg) person burns approximately 580–700 calories per hour running at a moderate pace (5–6 mph) on a treadmill. Calorie burn scales directly with body weight — a heavier person burns more doing the same activity at the same pace. Use the calculator above with your actual weight for the most accurate treadmill estimate.
Slightly, but MET values are based on population averages and don't individually adjust for body composition. Someone with more muscle generally has a higher resting metabolic rate, which compounds with exercise burn, but the difference during the activity itself is smaller than most people assume.
Not necessarily — total daily calorie balance matters more than any single workout's burn number. A 300-calorie burn that leaves you ravenous and overeating later in the day can be worse for fat loss than a more moderate session that doesn't trigger compensatory eating. Carrying a weighted pack? MET values underestimate load carriage — use our Rucking Calorie Calculator instead.