Soccer Calorie Calculator

A 154 lb (70 kg) player burns about 515 calories in an hour of casual soccer

A 154 lb (70 kg) person who plays casual or pickup soccer for a full hour burns about 515 kcal, and about 772 kcal if they play all 90 minutes. Competitive soccer, the kind played to win in a league or tournament, burns about 1,047 kcal over the same 90 minutes. An hour of futsal comes to about 573 kcal, and an hour of walking soccer to about 257 kcal. Here a “calorie” means the kilocalorie (kcal) on a food label.

If your game involves subbing in and out, count the minutes you actually played, not the length of the session. Take a rec league night with six 15-minute blocks where you sit out the last two: that is 60 minutes played, or about 515 kcal, not the 772 kcal you would get by entering 90. The calculator above splits the pitch into halves, quarters or any block size, and tapping a block you sat out removes that time. Energy comes from the MET values in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. The tool also gives a goalkeeper estimate, a table from 30 minutes to 2 hours, and a comparison with a professional match.

When it helps to calculate soccer calories

• After a rec league game or a pickup session: The session may run two hours, but if you rotate out the minutes on the field add up to less. Tap the blocks you sat out and the time played is sorted for you.
• Choosing between soccer, futsal and walking soccer: In the same hour the burn can differ by a factor of two or more. The bars in the type list compare all four for the weight and time you entered.
• Planning meals around exercise: The big number includes the energy you would burn sitting still. When you compare it with food, use the “extra from soccer” figure instead. The tool also converts that figure into medium bananas.
• Checking your weekly activity: Casual soccer (7.0 MET) and competitive soccer count as vigorous activity because they are above 6 MET. The WHO 2020 guidelines suggest adults do 150 to 300 minutes of moderate or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity a week, and one vigorous minute counts as two moderate ones. So 75 minutes of casual soccer in a week reaches the lower end of the guideline.

How to use the calculator

1. Enter the match layout: Type the length of each block in minutes and the number of blocks. The chips give one-tap layouts such as 45 min × 2 (two halves), 15 min × 6 (six short blocks), 20 min × 2 (futsal halves) and 90 min × 1. If you only know the total time, set the block count to 1 and put the total in the length box.
2. Tap the blocks you sat out: Each band on the pitch is one block. A block you were subbed out of turns hatched (bench) and its time is left out of the total. Tap it again to count it as played.
3. Pick the type of game: Choose casual or pickup soccer, competitive soccer, futsal or walking soccer. Every row shows the calories for your time played as a bar and a number.
4. Set your weight and position: Calories scale in direct proportion to body weight, and you can switch between lb and kg. Choosing goalkeeper reduces the extra energy from soccer to 0.52 times (11-a-side games only). Your weight is not saved or added to the address.
5. Read the result: The large number is the total burn over your time played. The bar below splits it into the extra from soccer and the energy you would burn at rest anyway. Each band on the pitch shows its own block, the table covers 30 minutes to 2 hours for all four types, and a side panel compares you with a pro match.

How the calories are calculated

Calories burned (kcal) = MET × 3.5 × body weight (kg) ÷ 200 × minutes played

A MET tells you how many times more energy an activity uses than sitting still. The Compendium defines 1 MET as 3.5 mL of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute. Converting oxygen to energy at roughly 5 kcal per liter gives the formula above. The four soccer values come straight from the 2024 Compendium sports table. Pounds are converted to kilograms (1 lb = 0.4536 kg) before the formula is applied.

Worked example: A 70 kg (154 lb) player who plays 60 minutes of casual soccer burns 7.0 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200 = 8.575 kcal per minute, and 60 minutes of that is about 515 kcal. Of this total, the 1 MET you would burn at rest anyway (1 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200 × 60, about 74 kcal) is subtracted to get roughly 441 kcal extra from soccer, which is about 4.2 medium bananas. Time on the bench is not counted at all.

Goalkeeper estimate: The Compendium has no separate goalkeeper row. A study that tracked 62 Premier League goalkeepers over 109 matches found an average of 5,611 m per match, with 73% of the time spent walking (Di Salvo et al. 2008). Premier League field-player match records (n = 810) showed 10,690 m and 10,778 m per match in the two groups studied (Bradley et al. 2013). The calculator uses the ratio of these distances (5,611 ÷ about 10,700 ≈ 0.52) to scale down the extra energy from soccer, which gives a goalkeeper MET of 1 + (MET − 1) × 0.52. That works out to 4.12 MET for casual soccer and 5.42 MET for competitive soccer. For futsal and walking soccer there is no goalkeeper data, so they are calculated as a field player.

Soccer calories by time and body weight

Forty minutes of futsal is the regular playing time under the FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game (two halves of 20 minutes). A regular 11-a-side match is two halves of 45 minutes under Law 7 of the IFAB Laws of the Game, with a half-time break of no more than 15 minutes. The calculator’s first screen uses 45 min × 2, so the opening value is for a 90-minute match at 154 lb (69.9 kg), about 770 kcal for casual soccer.

How much does a pro burn in a match?

Osgnach et al. (2010) estimated the energy cost of a match from video of 399 Serie A players in the 2007–08 season, with an average body weight of 75.8 kg (167 lb). The players covered 10,950 m on average and spent 61.12 kJ/kg per match. At the average weight that is about 1,107 kcal, and scaled to 70 kg it is about 1,023 kcal, close to this calculator’s competitive 90-minute value of about 1,047 kcal for 70 kg. In the same study, high-power effort (above 20 W/kg) made up 26% of the distance but about 42% of the energy. Frequent accelerating and braking cost more energy than steady running over the same distance.

Position matters too. A study of 300 outfield players in Spain’s top league and the Champions League found that midfielders ran more than defenders and forwards (Di Salvo et al. 2007). In an English Premier League study, the high-intensity running distance was 3,138 m for wide midfielders, 2,825 m for central midfielders, 2,605 m for full backs, 2,341 m for attackers and 1,834 m for central defenders (Bradley et al. 2009). We found no study that measured energy by outfield position in amateur games, so the calculator treats all field players the same and estimates only the goalkeeper separately, since goalkeepers cover about half the distance.

Common mistakes

• Entering the whole session: If you played 60 minutes of a 90-minute rec league session and enter 90 minutes, a 70 kg player sees 772 kcal. Counting the 60 minutes actually played gives about 515 kcal, a 257 kcal difference.
• Counting half-time and warm-up as playing time: A 90-minute match with up to 15 minutes at half-time and water breaks should not be entered as 90 minutes of play. Low-intensity time such as a warm-up jog does not match the soccer MET.
• Multiplying by a position factor: Some calculators multiply by something like 1.15 for midfielders, but the Compendium has no position values and we could find no source for such factors. This calculator uses only the goalkeeper distance ratio, which has a source.
• Treating the total as extra calories burned: The large number includes the 1 MET you would burn at rest anyway. When you subtract it from your food intake or estimate weight loss, use the “extra from soccer” figure.
• Using the competitive value for a pickup game: 9.5 MET is for soccer played to win. A park game or a rec league match fits 7.0 MET, and over 90 minutes at 70 kg the gap is about 275 kcal.

Limits of this calculation

• Compendium MET values are adult averages from several studies. Fitness, level of play, temperature and humidity change the real burn for the same game.
• The goalkeeper estimate applies a distance ratio from pro matches to amateur play. Dives and jumps do not show up in distance.
• Differences between outfield positions are not included. A busy midfielder may burn a little more than this value, and a player who moves less a little less.
• Bench time is counted as zero. You do burn some energy sitting there, but it is not extra from soccer, so it is left out.
• Children and teenagers use a different amount of energy per kilogram than adults (Harrell et al. 2005), so a calculation with adult MET values can be off for them.
• The banana conversion uses the USDA FoodData Central value for raw bananas (89 kcal per 100 g) times a medium banana of 118 g, which is about 105 kcal. Actual bananas vary in size and ripeness.

As of 2026-10-22 We checked the 2024 Adult Compendium soccer, futsal and walking football METs, IFAB Laws of the Game 2025/26 Law 7, and the USDA FoodData Central value for raw bananas on 2026-10-22.

Sources

• 012024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities — Sports15605 Soccer, competitive 9.5 · 15610 Soccer, casual, general 7.0 · 15195 Futsal 7.8 · 15615 Walking football/soccer 3.5
• 02Herrmann SD, et al. 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities: A third update of the energy costs of human activities. J Sport Health Sci. 2024;13(1):6-121 MET = 3.5 mL/kg/min, 2024 update
• 03Di Salvo V, et al. Activity profile of elite goalkeepers during football match-play. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2008;48(4):443-44662 Premier League goalkeepers, 109 matches, 5,611 m per match, 73% walking
• 04Bradley PS, et al. The effect of high and low percentage ball possession on physical and technical profiles in English FA Premier League soccer matches. J Sports Sci. 2013;31(12):1261-1270810 field-player match records, 10,690 m and 10,778 m per match
• 05Di Salvo V, et al. Performance characteristics according to playing position in elite soccer. Int J Sports Med. 2007;28(3):222-227300 field players, midfielders ran more than defenders and forwards
• 06Bradley PS, et al. High-intensity running in English FA Premier League soccer matches. J Sports Sci. 2009;27(2):159-168High-intensity running by position, 1,834 to 3,138 m
• 07Osgnach C, et al. Energy cost and metabolic power in elite soccer: a new match analysis approach. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010;42(1):170-178399 Serie A players, 10,950 m and 61.12 kJ/kg per match
• 08IFAB. Laws of the Game 2025/26 — Law 7 The Duration of the MatchTwo halves of 45 minutes, half-time break of up to 15 minutes
• 09FIFA. Futsal Laws of the Game 2024/25 — Law 7Two halves of 20 minutes playing time, half-time break of up to 15 minutes
• 10World Health Organization. WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour (2020)Adults: 150 to 300 min moderate or 75 to 150 min vigorous a week; 1 vigorous minute = 2 moderate minutes
• 11USDA FoodData Central. Bananas, raw (fdcId 173944)89 kcal per 100 g; one medium banana is 118 g, about 105 kcal
• 12Harrell JS, et al. Energy costs of physical activities in children and adolescents. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2005;37(2):329-336295 children and teenagers aged 8 to 18, energy cost per kilogram higher than in adults

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