Deadlifting burns roughly 5 to 10 calories per minute, depending on your body weight and how heavy you’re lifting. A typical 20-minute deadlift session burns somewhere between 100 and 200 calories during the exercise itself. That’s less than running for the same duration, but the full picture is more interesting than that single number suggests.
Calories Burned Per Minute by Body Weight
The standard way to estimate calorie burn for any exercise uses a value called a MET, or metabolic equivalent of task. The Compendium of Physical Activities, a widely used reference in exercise science, assigns moderate weightlifting a MET of 6.0 and heavy, vigorous lifting (like powerlifting-style deadlifts) a MET of 7.5. A MET of 6.0 means you’re burning six times more energy than you would sitting still.
The formula is straightforward: multiply your body weight in kilograms by the MET value and by 3.5, then divide by 200. That gives you calories burned per minute. Here’s what that looks like in practice for vigorous deadlifting (MET of 7.5):
- 150-pound person (68 kg): about 9 calories per minute
- 180-pound person (82 kg): about 10.7 calories per minute
- 200-pound person (91 kg): about 12 calories per minute
- 220-pound person (100 kg): about 13 calories per minute
These numbers apply to actual lifting time. The catch is that a “20-minute deadlift session” doesn’t mean 20 minutes of continuous pulling. You’re resting between sets, adjusting the bar, maybe changing plates. If your session lasts 20 minutes but you spend 8 of those minutes actually lifting, your real calorie burn during the workout is closer to half the estimate you’d get by multiplying the per-minute rate by 20. For a 180-pound person doing heavy deadlifts across five working sets with rest periods, a realistic in-session burn is around 90 to 150 calories.
The Afterburn Effect Adds More
What makes deadlifts more metabolically interesting than the session numbers suggest is what happens after you rack the weight. Heavy compound lifts trigger a measurable increase in your metabolic rate for hours afterward, a phenomenon researchers call excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC. Your body is repairing muscle tissue, replenishing energy stores, and clearing metabolic byproducts, all of which costs energy.
A study published in the International Journal of Exercise Science measured resting metabolic rate after a vigorous resistance training session performed at 80% of maximum strength. Participants showed an 11.8% increase in resting metabolic rate that was still present 14 hours after the workout, though it returned to baseline by the 24-hour mark. That 11.8% bump, sustained over most of a waking day, can add another 50 to 100 calories on top of what you burned during the session itself.
The afterburn scales with intensity. Heavier sets and shorter rest periods create a bigger metabolic disruption, which means a larger and longer-lasting EPOC response. Light deadlifts with long rest breaks won’t produce the same effect.
How Deadlifts Compare to Cardio
Minute for minute of actual exercise, cardio burns more calories. Running at a moderate pace for 30 minutes will outpace 30 minutes of resistance training in pure energy expenditure during the session. A study of recreationally active men found that heart rate during a 30-minute weight training session at 75% of max strength averaged 138 beats per minute, roughly the same as treadmill running at 70% of max heart rate. But the continuous nature of running means you’re working the entire time, while resistance training includes rest periods that lower your average output.
The comparison shifts when you factor in EPOC and long-term effects. Deadlifts and other heavy compound movements build muscle mass, and muscle tissue burns more calories at rest than fat tissue. Over months and years, the additional muscle from consistent deadlifting raises your baseline daily calorie expenditure. This doesn’t show up in any single-session calorie count, but it changes the math over time.
What Affects Your Calorie Burn Most
Four variables make the biggest difference in how many calories your deadlift session actually burns.
Body weight is the most straightforward factor. A heavier person expends more energy moving the same percentage of their max because their body is doing more total metabolic work. A 220-pound lifter burns roughly 40% more calories per minute than a 150-pound lifter at the same relative intensity.
Load on the bar matters because heavier weights demand more muscular effort, elevate your heart rate further, and create a larger afterburn. Working at 80 to 85% of your max is significantly more metabolically costly than lifting at 50 to 60%. The Compendium of Physical Activities reflects this by assigning vigorous lifting a MET of 7.5 compared to 6.0 for moderate effort, a 25% difference in estimated calorie burn.
Rest periods change the equation more than most people realize. Shortening rest between sets keeps your heart rate elevated, increasing total energy expenditure for the session. A lifter taking 90-second rests will burn noticeably more calories over the same number of sets than someone resting three to four minutes, though the trade-off is that shorter rests may limit how much weight you can handle on subsequent sets.
Total volume is simply how many reps and sets you perform. Five sets of five reps burns less than five sets of ten reps at a given weight, because you’re doing twice the total work. Higher volume forces your cardiovascular system to work harder and extends the duration of actual lifting time within the session.
Realistic Numbers for a Full Session
Putting it all together, here’s what a typical deadlift-focused workout actually burns for a 180-pound person. Assume five working sets (not counting warm-ups), resting two minutes between sets, with the whole session taking about 25 minutes including setup.
During the workout itself, you’re looking at roughly 120 to 180 calories, depending on intensity. Add the afterburn effect from a heavy session, and the total climbs to somewhere between 170 and 280 calories over the next 14 hours. If you include warm-up sets and any accessory work around the deadlifts, a full hour in the gym built around heavy deadlifts might account for 250 to 400 total calories when EPOC is included.
These numbers won’t rival an hour of running, which can burn 500 to 800 calories depending on pace and body weight. But deadlifting isn’t primarily a calorie-burning tool. Its value lies in building strength, increasing muscle mass, and raising your resting metabolism over time. The calories burned during and after each session are a real bonus, just not the main reason to do the movement.