Burn It Off

How long do you have to cycle to burn off a slice of pizza? Activities are measured in METs: how many times your resting energy use they cost.

Human bodyExerciseMETs

Inputs

Input examples

1 MET is the energy you use sitting quietly, about 3.5 mL of oxygen per kg per minute. The MET values come from the Compendium of Physical Activities.

Food energy — from the label

Your body mass

Activity

Or your own MET value — optional

Food Energy and Exercise

A MET (metabolic equivalent) compares an activity with sitting still: walking briskly costs about 3.5 times as much energy, running about 10 times. Researchers have measured hundreds of activities and collected them in the Compendium of Physical Activities.

The numbers are humbling: a can of cola takes about half an hour of brisk walking, a burger about two hours. Exercise is great for your health, but for weight it is easier to skip the snack than to burn it off.

1 METsitting quietly

3.5brisk walking

9.8running 10 km/h

heavierburns faster

Minutes to Burn It Off

per activity

your activity

other activities

Result

Enter the values above

Key Relations

Energy per Minute

3.5 mL of oxygen per kg per minute at rest, and about 5 kcal per litre of oxygen, give this standard formula (m in kg).

Example:

Time Needed

Divide the food energy by the burn rate. This counts the total energy of the activity, including what you would use resting anyway.

Rule of Thumb

Close to the formula: 70 kg × 8 MET ≈ 560 kcal per hour of cycling.

Sources & Verification

References

B. E. Ainsworth et al., “2011 Compendium of Physical Activities: a second update of codes and MET values”, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 43(8), 1575–1581 (2011).