Free tool
How many calories do you burn sitting all day?
The math behind your desk job: kcal per hour sitting, kcal per year, and how much you would save by spending some of those hours standing instead.
Sitting burns
129
kcal/hour at your weight · 1157 kcal/day total at your desk
- Per year at desk
- 422,429 kcal
- Annual lb-equivalent
- ≈ 120.7 lb
- Per standing-hour gain
- +43 kcal
- Per walking-hour gain
- +111 kcal
If you swapped sitting for…
These are annual differences. Your body adapts hunger to chronic intake, so the scale won't track these numbers cleanly — but the energy difference is real and compounds over years.
Buy it back
Open the CalBurndown app to log 1157 kcal and see what to walk, ruck, or stand to stay on budget.
Formula & assumptions
We use METs (Metabolic Equivalents of Task) from the Compendium of Physical Activities. One MET ≈ resting metabolic rate. Higher MET = more energy burned per unit time.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × weight_kg / 200 sitting quietly (TV / driving): 1.3 MET sitting at desk, light work: 1.5 MET standing quietly: 1.8 MET standing at desk, light work: 2.0 MET walking 2 mph (slow office): 2.8 MET sleeping: 0.95 MET
For "calories per year of sitting", we multiply daily sitting kcal by 365 and convert to lb-equivalent at 3,500 kcal per pound of body fat. This is a useful order-of-magnitude number, not a weight-change prediction — your body adapts to chronic energy intake, and small daily differences rarely translate cleanly to scale weight over years.
Important caveat: a standing desk is not exercise. Real interventions for weight management start at brisk walking and up. The standing-desk swap typically buys 30–60 kcal/day — meaningful over years, not a substitute for actual movement.
References
Ainsworth, B. E. et al. (2011). Compendium of Physical Activities: a second update of codes and MET values. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 43(8), 1575–1581.
Pulsford, R. M. et al. (2013). Sitting behavior and obesity: evidence from the Whitehall II Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 44(2), 132–138.
Levine, J. A. (2002). Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 16(4), 679–702.