Calories Burned Calculator

Energy used during exercise, from MET values.

Age-predicted heart-rate formulas carry a standard deviation of ten to twelve beats per minute across a population, so the figure is a rough centre rather than a personal maximum. MET values come from the Compendium of Physical Activities and assume steady-state effort.

Training numbers follow the standards used in American gyms and laboratories: heart-rate zones from the age-predicted maximum and Karvonen formulas, one-rep max estimated with the Epley equation, and calorie burn from MET values assigned to each activity. MET tables assume an average body and a steady effort.

Activity energy is estimated from MET values, which are multiples of resting metabolism assigned to each activity, multiplied by body mass and time. The tables assume steady effort, so intervals and stop-start sport are poorly captured.

Estimates from a formula are a starting point for a training log, not a measurement — the only true one-rep max is the lift itself.

Training load matters more than any single session: weekly volume, recovery and consistency decide adaptation. Heart-rate zones drift as fitness improves, so the same effort sits at a lower heart rate after months of training.

Calories Burned Calculator sits with the rest of the library's health work, and it rests on the same training arithmetic the way a clinical reference table does. Its answer is only as good as the assumptions standing behind it.

The quantities it works from — weight, duration, activity and sessions per week — are the ones a real training question actually turns on, and each carries a convention of its own, set out below.

Health figures in the United States are read against reference tables published by federal agencies and professional bodies, and those tables describe populations rather than individuals. One measurement is a data point; a series taken the same way over months is information.

Clinical guidance also shifts as evidence accumulates, which is why a range that was standard a decade ago may no longer be quoted.