Calories burned during soccer

The short answer

A half-hour of casual soccer burns roughly 220–295 kcal for a 70 kg person — a range, because a match swings between sprinting and standing, and your position changes it. A busy midfielder covers far more ground than a keeper. Enter your own weight and time on the pitch below.

Your range

Enter your weight and how long you moved — the estimate comes back as a range, the same way our diary does it.

kg
min
Calories burned during soccer, by weight and time
Weight 15 min30 min45 min60 min
50 kg 78–106156–211234–317312–423
60 kg 94–127187–254281–380375–507
70 kg 109–148219–296328–444437–592
80 kg 125–169250–338375–507500–676
90 kg 141–190281–380422–571562–761
100 kg 156–211312–423469–634625–845
110 kg 172–232344–465515–697687–930

Each cell is a range (±15%). Read down for your weight, across for your time. These are population estimates, not a measurement of you.

Energy cost from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities (Herrmann, Willis, Ainsworth et al.). kcal = MET × 3.5 × weight(kg) ÷ 200 × minutes; we show it as a band because a MET is a population average. Why a range, not one number →

Common questions
How many calories does soccer burn?

It depends on your weight, how long you keep it up and — a lot — your pace and fitness, so there is no single true number. The table and the calculator give a range for your weight and time. Two people of the same weight can differ by 15–25% at the same activity.

Why show a range instead of one number?

Because a MET value is a population average. Your real burn shifts with fitness, technique, terrain and how hard you actually went. A single "347 kcal" reads as precise when it isn't — the honest answer is a band, and that is what we show.

Do calories burned mean I can eat that much back?

No. This is an estimate of energy spent, not calories you have to "earn" or a licence to eat more. Movement is worth doing for its own sake. If you track a day's balance, use the range — never treat the top of it as exact.

Where do the numbers come from?

MET values from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, a public reference cited by researchers. We apply the standard MET formula and widen it into a ±15% band (±25% for strength work, which a MET barely captures).

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