Calorie & Macro Calculator

A MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) expresses how hard an activity works your body as a multiple of your resting metabolic rate — sitting quietly is 1 MET, and a vigorous run might be 11–13 METs. Every cardio activity type and intensity level in this calculator carries its own MET value, sourced from Compendium-of-Physical-Activities-style reference tables, rather than a single generic “cardio” number.

Running, cycling, swimming, rowing and team sports all burn energy at meaningfully different rates even at a matched *perceived* intensity, so treating them identically would understate or overstate real energy cost depending on which one you actually did.

The conversion from MET to calories uses the standard exercise-physiology formula:

kcal/min = METs × 3.5 × body weight (kg) / 200

For General (METs) resistance training specifically, total session time is split into active lifting time and rest-between-sets time on a 1:3 ratio (a commonly used approximation, since most working sets last well under a minute but typical rest periods run two to three times longer), with the higher training MET applied only to the active portion and a light resting-MET applied to the rest.

EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption) is the elevated calorie burn that continues after a workout ends, while the body restores itself to baseline, replenishing phosphocreatine stores, clearing metabolic byproducts, and recovering from the elevated heart rate, breathing rate and core temperature exercise produces. It’s a genuine, well-documented physiological phenomenon, and it’s larger after resistance training performed close to failure than after light training.

In the Powerlifting (Biomechanical) sub-mode, this calculator applies an EPOC bonus on top of each lift’s calculated mechanical work: +14% for Back Squat and Deadlift, +8% for Bench Press, Overhead Press and Barbell Row, reflecting that squat and deadlift recruit substantially more total muscle mass and produce a correspondingly larger afterburn effect. In the interest of transparency: published EPOC research reports a wide range depending on training load, volume, rest periods and individual training status. These percentages sit within that published range as reasoned midpoint estimates for a near-failure protocol, not a precise measurement calibrated to any specific person’s exact session.

Rather than treating all resistance training the same way, Powerlifting mode calculates actual mechanical work for each lift you log:
Mechanical work (J) = sets × reps × load (kg) × 9.81 × bar displacement (m)

Bar displacement is estimated from your height and the lift pattern (squat and deadlift move the bar through roughly 35% of standing height; overhead press roughly 30%; bench press and barbell row roughly 25%). That mechanical work is then converted to metabolic (calorie) cost using 22% human muscular efficiency,  a standard, published figure for how much of the energy your muscles use during resistance work actually goes into moving the load, with the rest lost as heat, before an anatomical multiplier (1.35× for squat/deadlift, 1.20× for overhead press/row, 1.0× for bench press) accounts for the stabiliser and synergist muscles a compound lift recruits beyond the primary movers.

Baseline fluid loss rate is estimated per activity intensity (0.5–1.5 L/hr), then scaled for conditions warmer or more humid than a mild 21°C/50% baseline, roughly +2% fluid loss per °C above that, and +0.4% per percentage point of humidity above it, calibrated against published ballpark heat-stress effects on sweat rate. 

This is a deliberately simplified two-input model, not a true WBGT (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature) heat-stress calculation, which also factors in solar radiation and wind speed. Anyone with actual sweat-test data can override the estimate directly in the calculator with their measured rate.