Calories burned rowing calculator
Use the watts on the rowing machine’s monitor to see what a session burns for your body.
Updated
Your result
For 20 minutes of rowing (100–149 watts) at 65 kg:
140extra kcal
On top of the 20 kcal you’d burn anyway in that time. In total it uses about 160 kcal.
In your TDEE it counts as about 100–140 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 rowing: the key numbers
- 20 minutes of rowing adds about 90 to 290 extra kcal for a 65 kg person, depending on your power output.
- An hour of rowing (100–149 watts) adds about 430 extra kcal at 65 kg and 670 at 100 kg.
- The figures come from 5 rows of the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, from 5 to 14 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, under 100 watts | 90 | 5 METs, Compendium code 02071 |
| 100–149 watts | 140 | 7.5 METs, Compendium code 02072 |
| 150–199 watts | 220 | 11 METs, Compendium code 02073 |
| 200 watts or more | 290 | 14 METs, Compendium code 02074 |
| Hard effort, watts not known | 140 | 7.3 METs, Compendium code 02070 |
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, lifting weights, swimming, cycling, elliptical, treadmill, hiking, sleeping, standing, yoga, Pilates, climbing stairs, dancing, gardening, golf, cleaning.
Short answers
How many calories does rowing burn?
It depends on your power output, and on your weight. For a 65 kg woman, 20 minutes adds about 90 kcal (moderate, under 100 watts) up to about 290 (200 watts or more) on top of what she’d burn anyway. For a 100 kg man it’s about 140 to 440.
What do the watts on a rowing machine mean for calories?
Watts are the power you put into the machine, and the Compendium’s measured values climb steeply with them. In 20 minutes, a 65 kg woman adds about 90 kcal under 100 watts, 220 at 150–199 watts and 290 at 200 watts or more.
Should I eat back the calories from rowing?
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 20 minutes of rowing adds about 140 kcal for a 65 kg woman, count about 100–140 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
- 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