Yoga Calories Burned Calculator

Calories burned doing yoga means the energy your body uses in a session. It depends on your body weight, how long you practice and, most of all, the style: a slow hatha class and a fast power class are very different workouts. The calculator combines those three things with published energy values for each yoga style to make an estimate.

What the Yoga Calorie Estimate Measures

Your yoga result estimates the total energy used in the session, counting the energy your body would use at rest anyway. It does not measure your own heart rate or breathing, and it does not count flexibility, balance or stress relief, which are often the main reasons people do yoga.

The Formula

Each yoga style has a MET value, which compares its energy cost with sitting still. As a rule, one MET equals about 1 kcal per kilogram of body weight per hour¹.

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

Example: General yoga class, 2.3 METs, 70 kg, 1 hour = 2.3 x 70 x 1 = about 160 kcal

Every MET value comes from the yoga entries of the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities².

How This Calculator Computes Your Result

Enter your weight in kilograms or pounds, your session length and the style of yoga (pick General if unsure). The tool converts pounds to kilograms and rounds the answer to the nearest 5 kcal. If a session mixed two styles, such as 15 minutes of sun salutations and then a slower class, add a second part with its own time and style. A two-part result counts only the time you enter, so it is labeled active time only.

You get your total, calories per hour and per 30 minutes, the share above your resting burn, and a table of every style at your weight. If you are 60 or older, yoga results use adult values with a note that values for older adults may be lower, since the compendium covers adults aged 19 to 59¹. Under 18, the yoga tool gives no result, because youth values differ and are listed in the Youth Compendium.

What Your Result Means

The compendium lists seven yoga styles that suit a calculator². The table shows each one for a 70 kg (154 lb) adult and a 90 kg (198 lb) adult.

Under 3 METs counts as light activity and 3 to 6 METs as moderate⁶, so most styles are light, while hot yoga, sun salutations and power yoga reach the moderate range. The compendium marks its power yoga value as an estimate, not a direct measurement². The compendium has no separate entry for restorative yoga, so the gentlest option uses its breathing practice entry (Nadisodhana, alternate nostril breathing)².

What Studies Measured in Real Yoga Sessions

In one lab study, 20 people with at least a year of yoga experience followed a 56 minute beginner level hatha DVD inside a lab room built to measure how much oxygen they used³. The whole session averaged 2.5 METs, about the same as walking on a treadmill at 2 mph³. Sun salutations were the hardest part (2.9 METs), standing poses came next (2.3), and seated and lying poses were lowest (1.5)³.

Hot yoga has been measured too. In a study of 24 adults doing a standard 90 minute Bikram class in a lab climate chamber, the average burn was 286 kcal, with a range of 179 to 478 kcal⁴. That is far below the 1,000 calories per class sometimes claimed, and the authors rated the class as light to moderate exercise⁴.

A 2016 review of 17 studies pulled these measurements together. Full sessions averaged 2.9 METs once one very fast sun salutation study was set aside, single poses averaged 2.2 METs, and breathing exercises averaged 1.3⁶. The review concluded that yoga is usually light activity, but some sequences, such as sun salutations, can reach moderate or higher intensity⁶.

What Changes Your Burn in Yoga

• How much of the class you spend moving. A class built on flowing sequences and standing poses burns more than one with long holds on the mat. In the hatha study, lying and seated poses used about half the energy of sun salutations³.

• How fast you do sun salutations. Six young adults with over two years of practice did four rounds in about 30 minutes, and their oxygen use averaged 26 ml per kg per minute⁵. That is roughly 7 METs, double the compendium value of 3.5², so a brisk, nonstop practice can sit well above the table.

• Your experience. In the Bikram study, experienced practitioners burned more per kg of body weight than beginners (4.7 versus 3.7 kcal per kg over the class) and worked at a higher share of their maximum heart rate⁴.

• Heat. Hot yoga is listed only a little above other styles (3.0 METs)². The measured Bikram class worked out to roughly 2.7 METs from its average oxygen use⁴, so sweating more does not mean burning much more.

• Body weight. A 90 kg person burns about 29% more than a 70 kg person in the same class, because calories rise in step with weight.

Yoga Compared With Pilates, Walking, Stretching and HIIT

Hatha yoga burns about the same as mild stretching, and vinyasa is close to a general Pilates class². A walk at about 3 mph burns more than every yoga style except power yoga, and a HIIT class burns several times as much¹ ².