Bodyweight squats at a moderate pace burn roughly 5 to 7 calories per minute for most people, depending on body weight and speed. That works out to about 50 to 70 calories for a focused 10-minute squat session. The actual number shifts quite a bit based on how fast you move, how much you weigh, and whether you’re adding resistance.
The Math Behind Squat Calorie Burn
Calorie estimates for any exercise come from a unit called a MET, or metabolic equivalent of task. One MET equals the energy your body uses while sitting still. An exercise rated at 5 METs burns five times that resting amount. The formula is straightforward:
Calories per minute = 0.0175 × MET value × your weight in kilograms
To convert pounds to kilograms, divide by 2.2. So a 170-pound person weighs about 77 kg. At a moderate squat pace (roughly 10 reps per minute), the MET value is about 5.4. Plug that in: 0.0175 × 5.4 × 77 = approximately 7.3 calories per minute. Over 10 minutes, that’s about 73 calories.
A lighter person, say 130 pounds (59 kg), doing the same workout burns closer to 5.6 calories per minute, or 56 calories in 10 minutes. A 200-pound person (91 kg) burns around 8.6 calories per minute, hitting 86 calories over the same stretch.
How Speed Changes Everything
The pace of your squats matters more than most people realize. Research from a multistage exercise test measured the energy cost of squats at different repetition speeds, and the differences were dramatic. At a slow pace of just 3 reps per minute, squats registered only about 2.4 METs, barely more intense than a casual walk. At 6 reps per minute, that jumped to 3.7 METs. And at a brisk 10 reps per minute, squats reached 5.4 METs, putting them in the same intensity range as cycling at a moderate effort.
Here’s what that looks like in calories for a 170-pound person:
- Slow pace (3 reps/min): about 3.2 calories per minute
- Moderate pace (6 reps/min): about 5.0 calories per minute
- Brisk pace (10 reps/min): about 7.3 calories per minute
That means doubling your squat speed can more than double the calories you burn. If you’re doing squats specifically for calorie expenditure, tempo matters. Slow, controlled squats have their own strength benefits, but they won’t burn nearly as much energy as faster-paced sets with shorter rest periods.
Bodyweight vs. Weighted Squats
Adding weight increases the energy demand significantly. The MET values above are for bodyweight squats only. When you hold dumbbells, wear a weighted vest, or load a barbell on your back, your muscles work harder to move the extra load through the same range of motion. Weighted squats at moderate intensity typically fall in the 5 to 8 MET range, and heavy barbell squats with rest periods between sets can spike even higher during the working sets themselves, though the rest periods bring the average down.
A practical way to think about it: if you add 30 to 50 percent of your body weight to the squat, expect roughly 20 to 40 percent more calorie burn per rep compared to bodyweight alone. The exact increase depends on the depth of your squat, the tempo, and how long you rest between sets. Circuit-style workouts where you keep rest periods under 30 seconds burn more total calories than traditional strength sets with 2 to 3 minutes of rest.
Calories Burned Per Rep
People often want a clean per-rep number. At a moderate pace, one bodyweight squat takes about 3 to 6 seconds depending on your tempo. Using the 10-rep-per-minute data, each squat burns roughly 0.6 to 0.7 calories for a 170-pound person. That’s not much on its own, which is why individual rep counts can feel misleading. Doing 100 squats sounds impressive, but it only adds up to about 60 to 70 calories for an average-sized adult, and it takes around 10 minutes of steady work to complete.
For context, that’s roughly equivalent to walking briskly for 15 minutes or jogging for about 7 minutes. Squats aren’t the most efficient pure calorie burner, but they offer something cardio doesn’t.
The Afterburn and Muscle Effect
The calories you burn during squats are only part of the picture. Squats target the largest muscle groups in your body: the quadriceps, glutes, and hamstrings. Training these muscles, especially with added resistance, creates a post-exercise oxygen demand as your body repairs tissue and restores energy supplies. This elevated calorie burn can last several hours after your workout, adding roughly 5 to 15 percent to the total energy cost of the session.
More importantly, building muscle in your legs and glutes raises your resting metabolic rate over time. Muscle tissue burns more energy at rest than fat tissue does. Each pound of muscle you add burns an estimated 6 to 7 additional calories per day at rest. That sounds small, but gaining 5 to 10 pounds of lower body muscle over months of consistent training adds up to meaningful calorie expenditure over weeks and years without any extra effort.
Quick Reference by Body Weight
These estimates assume bodyweight squats at a moderate pace of about 10 reps per minute, sustained for 10 minutes:
- 130 lbs (59 kg): ~56 calories
- 150 lbs (68 kg): ~64 calories
- 170 lbs (77 kg): ~73 calories
- 190 lbs (86 kg): ~81 calories
- 210 lbs (95 kg): ~90 calories
For 15 minutes, multiply by 1.5. For 20 minutes, double the 10-minute number. If you’re doing weighted squats or squat variations like jump squats, add 20 to 50 percent to these estimates. Jump squats in particular push the intensity into the 8 to 10 MET range, which can bring a 170-pound person up to roughly 10 to 12 calories per minute.