Calories burned during yoga

The short answer

A half-hour of gentle Hatha yoga burns roughly 70–100 kcal for a 70 kg person — a range, because how much you hold, flow and breathe changes it. Power or hot styles run higher, closer to a light workout. Yoga’s real value isn’t the calorie count; use your own weight and time 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 yoga, by weight and time
Weight 15 min30 min45 min60 min
50 kg 26–3551–6977–104103–139
60 kg 31–4262–8392–125123–167
70 kg 36–4972–97108–146144–194
80 kg 41–5682–111123–167164–222
90 kg 46–6292–125139–187185–250
100 kg 51–69103–139154–208205–278
110 kg 56–76113–153169–229226–305

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

Yoga at different intensities
Intensity30 min60 min
Yoga, Hatha · 2.3 MET 72–97 144–194
Yoga, power · 4 MET 125–169 250–338

A 30-minute session at 70 kg — the pace changes the cost far more than a few kilos do.

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 yoga 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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