Calories burned lifting weights calculator
What a weights session burns for your body, next to walking and running.
Updated
Your result
For an hour of lifting weights (moderate, 8–15 reps) at 65 kg:
170extra kcal
On top of the 55 kcal you’d burn anyway in that time. In total it uses about 220 kcal.
In your TDEE it counts as about 120–170 kcal. The low end allows for the body offsetting about 28% of exercise calories, the average in a study of 1,754 adults.
Calories burned lifting weights: the key numbers
- An hour of lifting weights adds about 170 to 330 extra kcal for a 65 kg person, depending on how hard and how fast you train.
- An hour of lifting weights (moderate, 8–15 reps) adds about 170 extra kcal at 65 kg and 260 at 100 kg.
- The figures come from 4 rows of the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, from 3.5 to 6 METs: each from published studies.
- Done on purpose, it counts in your TDEE at 72 to 100% of these extra calories, because the body offsets part of what exercise uses (Careau, 2021).
Counting it in your TDEE
If you do this on purpose, add it as exercise on the TDEE calculator. It counts there at 72 to 100% of these extra calories, because the body offsets part of what exercise uses.
For your body and time
| Activity | Extra kcal | Compendium value |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate, 8–15 reps | 170 | 3.5 METs, Compendium code 02054 |
| Squats and deadlifts | 270 | 5 METs, Compendium code 02052 |
| Supersets or circuits | 320 | 5.8 METs, Compendium code 02055 |
| Hard, heavy lifting | 330 | 6 METs, Compendium code 02050 |
| Bodyweight exercises: Squats, lunges, push-ups | 130 | 3 METs, Compendium code 02056 |
| Bodyweight exercises: High intensity | 370 | 6.5 METs, Compendium code 02057 |
| Walking: Brisk (3.7 mph, 6 km/h) | 250 | 4.8 METs, Compendium code 17200 |
| Running: 10 min/mile (6:13/km) | 550 | 9.3 METs, Compendium code 12050 |
Each figure uses the activity’s cost from the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, which gives it in METs of oxygen use per kg of body weight, so the extra scales with your weight. Only the part above resting counts as extra. What you’d burn anyway comes from your own resting rate (Mifflin-St Jeor), not the standard 1 MET: in 769 adults, measured resting burn averaged 0.84 kcal per kg an hour against the standard 1 (Byrne, 2005).
Compare every activity on the calories burned calculator.
More activities: walking, running, swimming, cycling, elliptical, treadmill, hiking, sleeping, standing, yoga, Pilates, climbing stairs, dancing, rowing, gardening, golf, cleaning.
Short answers
How many calories does lifting weights burn?
It depends on how hard and how fast you train, and on your weight. For a 65 kg woman, an hour adds about 170 kcal (moderate, 8–15 reps) up to about 330 (hard, heavy lifting) on top of what she’d burn anyway. For a 100 kg man it’s about 260 to 510.
Does lifting weights burn more calories than cardio?
Usually less, minute for minute. An hour of moderate weight training adds about 170 kcal for a 65 kg woman, against about 250 for an hour of brisk walking and 550 running at 10-minute miles.
Does lifting keep burning calories after the workout?
A little. In one study the hour after a session used about 20 to 25 kcal (Brentano, 2016). A 2024 review calls longer rises in metabolism “likely trivial” (Mitchell, 2024), and an earlier review, mostly of aerobic exercise, found the hopes for the after-burn in weight loss “generally unfounded” (LaForgia, 2006).
How accurate is the figure for weights?
It sits inside the measured range. A 2024 review of 166 studies found measured sessions ranged from about 3 to 8 METs, higher for circuits with little rest (Mitchell, 2024); the Compendium’s values run from 3.5 to 6. Oxygen-based figures may undercount lifting, because part of its energy is made without oxygen.
Should I eat back the calories from lifting weights?
Partly. In a study of 1,754 adults, the body offset about 28% of the calories burned through activity, on average (Careau, 2021). So when an hour of lifting weights adds about 170 kcal for a 65 kg woman, count about 120–170 of it.
Sources
Checked against each source on 22 and 23 October 2026
- Herrmann SD, et al. (2024). 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities: a third update of the energy costs of human activities. J Sport Health Sci 13(1):6–12. PMID 38242596
- Mitchell L, et al. (2024). Methods to assess energy expenditure of resistance exercise: a systematic scoping review. Sports Med 54(9):2357–72. PMID 38896201
- Brentano MA, et al. (2016). Supersets do not change energy expenditure during strength training sessions in physically active individuals. J Exerc Sci Fit 14(2):41–6. PMID 29541117
- LaForgia J, Withers RT, Gore CJ (2006). Effects of exercise intensity and duration on the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. J Sports Sci 24(12):1247–64. PMID 17101527
- Byrne NM, et al. (2005). Metabolic equivalent: one size does not fit all. J Appl Physiol 99(3):1112–9. PMID 15831804
- Careau V, et al. (2021). Energy compensation and adiposity in humans. Curr Biol 31(20):4659–66. PMID 34453886
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. (1990). A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr 51(2):241–7. PMID 2305711