How many calories do we burn when we exercise? Calories are measured in METS which is the metabolic equivalent for a task, so for example when we are resting or sitting at idle, we are burning 1 MET per minute, (1 MET is 1 kilocalorie per kilogram of body weight times the minutes of activity or 3.5 millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body weight times the minutes of activity). We know to burn a calorie we need oxygen so by using oxygen we can measure the number of METS.
When we exercise at a higher intensity, we are using more oxygen and that means we are burning more calories, so when we exercise at low intensity activities, we are burning 3 METS per minute. When we exercise at moderate to vigorous, we are burning 3 - 6 METS per minute and when we exercise at that extreme high intensity vigorous activity, we are burning 6 – 10 METS per minute.
When the amount of work we do increases the amount of calories we burn increases too.