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Calories Burned Eating | Calculator & Formula

LAST UPDATE: April 14th, 2020

The average person burns 100-150 calories sitting and eating. This does not include the caloric gain from the food, just from sitting and the body digesting food.

Calculator

Note: This calculates the number of calories burned eating as a physical activity. It does not calculate the calories added from food.

How many calories are burned eating?

Formula

Calories burned per minute = (MET x body weight in Kg x 3.5) ÷ 200

“MET” is a measurement of the energy cost of physical activity for a period of time. You can find an activity’s MET on the chart above.

A task with a MET of 1 is roughly equal to a person’s energy expenditure from sitting still at room temperature not actively digesting food.

A task with a MET of 2 uses twice as much energy as a task with a MET of 1. A task with a MET of 10 uses 10 times as much energy as a task with a MET of 1.

MET values “do not estimate the energy cost of physical activity in individuals in ways that account for differences in body mass, adiposity, age, sex, efficiency of movement, geographic and environmental conditions in which the activities are performed. Thus, individual differences in energy expenditure for the same activity can be large and the true energy cost for an individual may or may not be close to the stated mean MET level as presented in the Compendium.” (as quoted from the main page of the Compendium of Physical Activities).

Example

A person weighs 180 pounds (81.65kg) and eats while sitting (MET value of 1.5) for 1 hour (60 minutes).

Calories burned eating while sitting (per minute) = (1.5 x 81.65 x 3.5) ÷ 200 = 381.83 ÷ 200 = 2.14

Calories burned eating while sitting (for 60 minutes) = 2.14 x 60 = 128

Sources and more resources