Calories Burned Standing Calculator

Standing takes a little more energy than lying down, because your leg, hip and back muscles work to hold you upright. This calculator estimates that energy from your weight, your time on your feet and the type of standing. It also shows how much more that is than sitting, which is the number most people want.

What the Standing Calorie Estimate Measures

The main result is the total energy you use while standing, including the energy your body burns at rest anyway. The extra part is shown separately, above resting and compared with sitting. The tool does not track weight shifts, steps or carrying.

The Formula

Calories burned = MET x body weight (kg) x time (hours)

Extra compared with sitting = 0.15 kcal per minute x minutes standing

A MET (metabolic equivalent) compares an activity's energy use with sitting at rest, which is 1.0 MET, and the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities lists quiet standing at 1.3 MET¹. The 0.15 kcal per minute figure is the average gap between standing and sitting measured across 46 studies².

How This Calculator Computes Your Result

Choose your age group, enter your weight in pounds or kilograms, and enter how long you stand. Then pick one of four types: standing still, standing desk work, standing and shifting or fidgeting, or light standing tasks such as store clerk or bartending work.

The tool shows your total calories, calories per hour, and calories above resting. A "standing vs sitting" panel adds the measured extra for the same time, a weekly figure for the days you choose, and the Compendium value for the same task done seated. An optional sex choice adjusts the measured figure, since lab studies found a gap of about 0.19 kcal per minute in men and 0.10 in women². Small totals (below 50 kcal) are shown to 1 kcal so the gap over sitting stays visible; larger ones are shown to the nearest 5 kcal. Adults 60 and over get the same values with a note that older adults may burn less. Under 18s get no result, because youth values differ.

What Your Result Means

Standing burns only a little more than sitting. Here is one hour at two body weights¹:

Note the middle rows. The Compendium lists typing at a standing desk and typing while seated at the same 1.3 MET¹. So it gives no calorie gain for a standing desk unless you also move more.

Standing vs Sitting: What the Studies Measured

A 2018 meta-analysis pooled 46 studies with 1,184 people and found standing burned about 0.15 kcal per minute more than sitting². That is about 9 kcal per hour. The authors worked out that a 65 kg person who swapped 6 hours of sitting for standing every day would burn about 54 kcal more per day². They estimated this could add up to about 2.5 kg of body fat in a year, but only if food intake stayed exactly the same, which the review did not test².

The gap was larger in randomized trials (about 0.2 kcal per minute) than in observational studies (about 0.11)². The Compendium gap between quiet standing and quiet sitting (0.3 MET) is roughly twice the measured average, so this tool leads with the measured figure.

What Changes Your Burn

Movement matters far more than posture. In a lab study of 24 adults, energy use rose 4% above lying down when sitting still and 13% when standing still³. Fidgeting while seated raised it 54%, and fidgeting while standing raised it 94%³. Walking at just 1 mph raised it 154%³. So shifting your weight or pacing during calls adds much more than standing still. This everyday movement is called NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis).

• Body weight: heavier people burn more per hour, and the extra burn from fidgeting while standing rose with body weight³.

• Sex: the measured standing vs sitting gap was larger in men².

• Task: stocking shelves or serving uses more than standing still, so pick "light standing tasks" for that kind of work.

Is a Standing Desk a Weight Loss Tool?

Not in any meaningful way. A Cochrane review found sit-stand desks cut workplace sitting by about 100 minutes per workday in the first months, falling to about 57 minutes at 3 to 12 months, and the evidence was low quality⁴. At 0.15 kcal per minute, 100 minutes of standing is about 15 extra calories a day.

The better case for standing desks is about breaking up long sitting. In a lab trial of 22 women after menopause with overweight and raised blood sugar, standing for 5 minutes every 30 minutes lowered the rise in blood sugar after meals by about a third compared with sitting all day⁵. Light walking breaks helped too⁵.

More standing is not always better. In a study of 83,013 UK adults, standing time was not linked to lower heart disease risk⁶. Above 2 hours a day, each extra half hour of standing was linked to a higher risk of circulation problems tied to being upright, such as varicose veins⁶. Together, these findings point to mixing sitting, standing and moving rather than standing all day.