Calories burned,
from the actual source
574 activities with 1,109 measured intensity levels, straight from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities — the research dataset the calculator sites quietly use. Free, no signup.
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·REVIEWED JUL 2026
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The hardest things in the Compendium
Ranked by MET — the energy cost relative to sitting still.
| Activity | MET | kcal/hr at 70 kg |
|---|---|---|
| Rollerblading | 15.5 | 1,139 |
| Taekwondo | 14.3 | 1,051 |
| Ski ergometer | 14.25 | 1,047 |
| Running uphill | 13.4 | 985 |
| Blackbox Immersive virtual reality exergaming… | 13 | 956 |
| Running curved treadmill | 13 | 956 |
| Triathlon | 13 | 956 |
| Biathlon training | 12.8 | 941 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Which burns more?
Head-to-head, both sides from the same MET data and the same equation.
How this is worked out
- Take the activity's MET value from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities — the measured ratio of its energy cost to sitting quietly.
- Convert MET to a rate using the ACSM relationship: multiply by 3.5, then by body mass in kilograms, then divide by 200. That gives kilocalories per minute.
- Multiply the rate by the number of minutes actually spent.
- Round to whole kilocalories. Nothing else is applied — no age factor, no sex factor, no proprietary adjustment, because the underlying data does not support one.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × mass(kg) ÷ 200 kcal = kcal/min × minutes
A number this clean is a model. Publishing the source and the arithmetic is the only honest way to hand one over.
Why the numbers here differ from your watch
Every calorie figure on this site comes from one place: the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, a research dataset that assigns each of 1,100+ activities a measured MET value — the ratio of its energy cost to sitting quietly. Multiply by body mass and time and you have an estimate that is transparent and reproducible.
Wearables use heart rate and proprietary models instead, which is why two devices on the same wrist disagree. Neither approach is "the truth": a MET-based figure is a population average, and your own metabolism, technique and fitness move the real number around. What this site gives you is the published reference figure, the equation used, and the full range so you can see how wide the uncertainty actually is.
