Activity Calories Burned
I was recently in church, kneeling during a special prayer session that lasted well over 15 minutes. As my knees, legs and back started to ache, I was wondering how many calories I was burning (evil thought during a prayer, ha?). I looked on the web but couldn't find a clear answer. And that's how this calories burned by 600+ types of physical activity page was born.
Activity Calories Burned Calculator
If you used our
simplified exercise calories counter, you are familiar with the concept. What this calculator does is tell you how many calories you can burn by various types of physical activity.
What is new in this version of the activity calories calculator is that you can now search from over 600 types of physical activity. That is over
10 times more activities than are available in the simplified calculator. Moreover, this version includes not only sports-like activities, but also various other types of physical activity, like shopping, cooking, playing the piano, etc.
This calculator works in two steps. First, you'll have to search for the activity you performed. Once you found it, you will be presented with a form to enter enter the
duration in minutes you engaged in that activity and
your weight in lbs.
Eamples of Calories Burned by Several Activities
If I spend 15 minutes in the following activities, at my cureent weight of 150 lbs, I burn:
- 18 calories by kneeling in church/at home & praying (those aches I had in church must have been a distraction from the devil...)
- 18 calories by watching television while lying quietly (same as praying, hmm...)
- 23 calories by sitting & reading a book or newspaper
- 27 calories by typing, electric, manual, or computer
- 36 calories by driving an automobile or light truck (not a semi)
- 41 calories by washing dishes - standing
- 41 calories by food shopping with or without a grocery cart, standing or walking
- 45 calories by playing the piano (never thougth one could burn quite a few calories if you play the piano for several hours :-))
- 45 calories by cooking or food preparation - walking (not bad...)
- 54 calories by carrying small children (this is how new moms lose weight, isn't it?)
- 107 calories by shoveling snow, by hand
- 116 calories by horseback riding, trotting
- 152 calories by bicycling, BMX or mountain (I definitely need to start doing this!)
- 214 calories by rope jumping, fast (wow!)
Want to Find out More With Our Customized Exercise Calories Google Search Engine?
No problem! Just use to form below and clic on the "Search" button.
How Do You Calculate Calories Burned by Activity?
There are various resources on the web providing information regarding how many calories are burned by physical activity. While some are better than others, none is as comprehensive as the University of South Carolina's
Compendium of Physical Activities. Besides being the most comprehensive, with over 600 types of physical activity included, we found it to be the most accurate, as it used the metabolic equivalents (MET) to assign intensity units to each activity.
Based on the MET value of the activity and the length of time you spent performing it, we calculated the number of calories you burned. Note that we also took into account your weight, as it impacts on the energy expended, too (those of us who are heavier burn more calories than those who are slimmer with the same type of activity).
The actual formula looks like this:
Calories burned by exercise = ((METs * 3.5 * weight in kg) / 200) * duration in minutes.
If you have any suggestions for future improvements or additions to this free exercise calorie counter, please email them to me at admin@drgily.com.
Dr Gily
