Cadence
100 reps completed in three minutes is a different workload from 100 reps spread across ten minutes.
How Many Calories Do Sit-Ups Burn?
A 70 kg person burns about 23 calories doing 100 moderate sit-ups when 20 reps per minute is used as the cadence assumption.
Rep count alone is not enough: body weight, effort and how quickly you complete the reps all affect the estimate.
CALORIES BY REPS & EFFORT
Calories burned doing sit-ups
Choose your body weight, then compare estimated calories for common sit-up counts using explicit moderate and vigorous cadence assumptions.
| Effort / cadence | 25 reps | 50 reps | 100 reps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moderate 20 reps/min | 6 kcal | 12 kcal | 23 kcal |
| Vigorous 30 reps/min | 8 kcal | 15 kcal | 31 kcal |
SIT-UPS CALCULATOR
Calculate calories burned doing sit-ups
Enter your body weight and number of sit-ups, then choose the effort/cadence assumption closest to your set.
WHY THE NUMBER VARIES
What changes sit-up calorie burn?
A rep count only becomes a calorie estimate after you make assumptions about time and effort.
Effort
The Compendium assigns 3.8 METs to moderate calisthenics and 7.5 METs to vigorous calisthenics.
Body weight
At the same MET and duration, a higher body weight produces a higher estimate.
Rest between sets
Long rests reduce average expenditure across the full session compared with continuous work.
One exercise is easy to estimate. The whole day is harder.
Kibora helps you put food, calories and activity into context so you can understand how everything adds up across your day.
Calculation methodology and sources
The 2024 Adult Compendium includes sit-ups within moderate and vigorous calisthenics categories. Because calorie expenditure depends on time, this page converts rep count to estimated duration using clearly disclosed cadence assumptions.
MET values
The Compendium lists moderate calisthenics, including sit-ups, at 3.8 METs and vigorous calisthenics, including sit-ups, at 7.5 METs.
Rep-to-time assumptions
For the count-based calculator, moderate effort assumes 20 sit-ups per minute and vigorous effort assumes 30 sit-ups per minute.
These cadence values are calculator assumptions used to turn reps into active minutes; they are not official Compendium cadence definitions.
Calculation
Estimated duration = sit-up count ÷ assumed reps per minute.
Calories = MET × 3.5 × body weight in kilograms ÷ 200 × estimated active minutes.
Common questions about sit-up calories
How many calories do 100 sit-ups burn?
There is no single number because calorie burn depends on body weight, effort and how long the reps take. With the explicit cadence assumptions on this page, a 70 kg person burns about 23 calories for 100 moderate sit-ups at 20 reps per minute and about 32 calories for 100 vigorous sit-ups at 30 reps per minute.
Do faster sit-ups burn more calories?
Faster work can raise intensity, but it also reduces the time needed to complete a fixed number of reps. That is why count-based calorie estimates need both an effort level and a cadence assumption.
How many sit-ups burn 100 calories?
At 70 kg and the moderate assumption used here, 100 calories would be roughly 430 sit-ups. The exact number varies with cadence and effort.
Are sit-up calorie estimates exact?
No. The Compendium provides MET values for calisthenics that include sit-ups, but it does not assign a specific MET to each sit-up cadence. This page makes its cadence assumptions explicit.