Paddling Calorie Calculator

This calculator estimates paddling calorie burn the same way exercise scientists do: Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) times body weight in kilograms times duration in hours. Each intensity level you pick — leisure, moderate, vigorous touring, whitewater, SUP, or racing — starts from a MET value looked up in exercise science's standard activity-energy-cost table, the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al.) — ranging from 3.5 for leisurely paddling (listed there as "canoeing, rowing, for pleasure, general") up to 12.0-12.5 for competitive sprinting, with stand-up paddleboarding's 6.0 MET taken directly from the Compendium's "paddle boarding, standing" entry — but the calculator doesn't stop at a fixed number. It adjusts that base MET using your actual stroke rate against an expected baseline cadence for the chosen activity (leisure ~30 strokes/min, moderate ~40, racing ~70+), so paddling harder or softer than the typical pace for your selected intensity nudges the effective MET up or down within a capped 0.8x–1.3x range. Whitewater gets special handling: instead of a single fixed MET, it scales from 5.0 upward based on stroke rate above a 30-stroke baseline, reflecting how much harder you're working through technical water.

From total calories, the calculator derives calories per minute, per stroke, and a rough fat-burned estimate — using a fat-oxidation percentage that drops from 50% at leisure/moderate intensity to 30% at racing pace, then converting to grams at 9 calories per gram of fat. It also estimates a hydration target in liters, scaled to both duration and effective MET. As with any MET-based estimate, this is a population-average approximation — actual calorie burn varies with fitness level, technique efficiency, water temperature, and boat type, so treat the number as a planning guide for fueling and hydration, not a precise metabolic measurement.