You’re probably aware that your body burns energy all the time, no matter what you’re doing. But have you ever wondered how much energy you’re burning throughout the day, or when you’re indulging in big-time calorie burners, like running or lifting weights? One way to calculate your body’s energy expenditure is with metabolic equivalents, also known as METs. You might see METs listed on exercise equipment or mentioned by personal trainers to help you measure your physical activity.

    A MET (metabolic equivalent of task) value represents the ratio of energy (i.e. calories) required to perform a particular activity relative to your BMR, where BMR is the amount of energy required to simply sit or lie quietly (while not digesting any food). The MET values are not displayed to you when you use the calculator, but they are entered into a formula that estimates your calorie burn by multiplying the MET value for your chosen activity by the duration time of your activity and by your calculated BMR. Estimation of BMR is based on the widely used and accepted Harris-Benedict equations. The formulas used by this calculator are shown below.

CALCULATOR FORMULAS

Calorie Burn = (BMR / 24) x MET x T

where

For males: BMR = (10 x WKG) + (6.25 x HC) - (5 x age) + 5

For females: BMR = (10 x WKG) + (6.25 x HC) - (5 x age) - 161

and

BMR = Basal Metabolic Rate (over 24 hours)

MET = Metabolic Equivalent (for selected activity)

T = Activity duration time (in hours)

HC = Height (in centimetres)

WKG = Weight (in kilograms)