This calories burned at work calculator estimates how many calories you burn during common work activities based on the activity type, the time spent doing it, and your body weight. It can be used as a daily calories burned calculator for your working hours and is especially useful when estimating calories burned at work for weight loss.
What this calculator is estimating
The result is an estimate of total energy used while doing the selected activity for the time entered. It is shown in food-label calories, which many people also call kilocalories.
If your workday includes several different tasks, you can run the calculator more than once for each activity and add the totals.
The number shown represents activity calories only. To estimate your full daily calorie use, combine this result with your resting metabolism from a BMR calculator.
How we calculate calories burned
This calculator uses the MET method. MET stands for metabolic equivalent of task. A MET value describes how demanding an activity is compared with resting quietly.
The calculation is:
Calories burned = MET × body weight (kg) × time (hours)
This is a standard approach used in exercise science and occupational activity research because it scales directly with body weight and time.
Unlike a treadmill calorie calculator or cycling calories calculator, this tool focuses on non-exercise activity. Many people burn a large portion of their daily calories during normal work rather than workouts.
Work activities used in the calculator
The calculator uses broad activity categories that match the way work is actually performed. They are not job titles. Each category represents a pattern of movement. MET values come from the Compendium of Physical Activities.
| Activity | MET | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Desk work | 1.3 | Computer work (sitting or standing), and meetings with minimal movement. |
| Standing work | 1.8 | Standing tasks with light movement such as retail, teaching, and patient care. |
| Driving | 2.0 | Driving for work such as delivery, transport, and travel between sites. |
| Light walking | 2.5 | Slow movement around a workplace with frequent short trips between tasks. |
| Active walking | 3.8 | Continuous walking, such as rounds, cleaning, picking, and large-site work. |
| Handling and tools | 4.5 | Lifting and carrying, stocking, workshop tasks, and hands-on work with tools. |
| Heavy physical work | 6.5 | Manual work such as digging, shoveling, heavy lifting, and construction. |
Most people underestimate how much energy regular movement uses. Walking between rooms, standing while talking, lifting objects, and moving around a workplace all contribute to daily calorie expenditure.
How to choose the right activity
Pick the option that best matches what you were physically doing during the time entered.
- If you were mostly at a computer or in meetings, choose Desk work.
- If you were on your feet but not walking continuously, choose Standing work.
- If you were driving as the main task, choose Driving.
- If you were moving around slowly with short trips between tasks, choose Light walking.
- If you were walking for long stretches around a workplace, choose Active walking.
- If you were regularly lifting, carrying, or working with tools, choose Handling and tools.
- If the work involved sustained heavy effort, choose Heavy physical work.
How accurate is this estimate?
This calculator provides a reasonable estimate, not a laboratory measurement. Calories burned vary with body composition, fitness, technique, temperature, and how continuously the task is performed in real workplaces.
A typical desk-based day is outlined in the office work calorie explanation on Office Organiser. Work tasks are often done in bursts.
If you enter a long duration for a high-effort task that you only did intermittently, the estimate will be too high. If you are unsure, estimate only the time you were actively doing the task and exclude waiting time. Because work happens for many hours, even light activity such as standing or slow walking can add hundreds of calories over a full shift.
Common questions
How many calories do you burn standing at work for 5 hours?
For a typical 75 kg adult, standing work for 5 hours burns about 675 calories.
This assumes light standing activity such as retail service, teaching, or being on your feet between tasks. Standing uses slightly more energy than sitting because your postural muscles stay active, but it is still a low-intensity activity.
Standing at a desk is little different from sitting desk work, while walking, lifting, or manual tasks increase calories burned much more.
Related: Health Cost of Sitting at a Desk, Measured in Calories
Why does body weight change the result?
Moving a larger body requires more energy. The MET method scales calories in proportion to body weight, so heavier people burn more calories for the same activity and duration.
Should I include breaks?
No. Enter the time you were actively doing the activity. If your time includes breaks, choose a lower-intensity activity for that portion or calculate activities separately.
Is “calories” the same as “kcal”?
Yes. In nutrition and exercise contexts, the “calories” people talk about are kilocalories. This calculator reports food-label calories.
How many calories do I burn a day at work?
It depends on how active the job is. A desk-based role may add a few hundred calories, while a job involving lots of walking or manual handling can add 700–1,200 calories or more across a full shift. The calculator lets you estimate each part of your day separately.
Example workday
A typical desk-based job still involves some movement.
A 75 kg worker spends about 7 hours at a computer, walks around the workplace for roughly 30 minutes, and stands talking to people for another 30 minutes.
- Desk work (7 hours): 683 calories
- Active walking (30 minutes): 143 calories
- Standing work (30 minutes): 68 calories
Total workday activity: about 894 calories burned.
This approach gives a more realistic estimate than treating a whole job as sedentary, which is important when using a calories burned at work calculator to lose weight.