The calories you burn while sleeping is normally the lowest rate at which you burn calories. It depends primarily on your body weight and the length of time you spend sleeping. Your calorie expenditure rate while sleeping allows you to calculate your total calorie expenditure per day.
Metabolic Equivalent
An activity's metabolic equivalent, or MET, is a measure of that activity's calorie expenditure rate relative to that of resting while awake. This means that resting while awake has an MET of one. An activity with an MET of two burns calories twice as fast as resting while awake, an activity with an MET of three burns calories three times as fast as resting well awake and so on.
Weight
The formula that calculates your calorie expenditure rate requires your body weight in kilograms, while most scales in United States measure weight in pounds. Convert your weight from pounds to kilograms by dividing your weight in pounds by 2.2. Assume you weigh 150 lb. for this example. You therefore weigh 150 / 2.2 = 68.2kg.
Formula
My-calorie-counter.com provides the following formula for calculating your calorie expenditure for an activity: Calories = (Weight x MET). The "Weight" variable in this equation is your weight in kilograms and "MET" is the MET for the activity. This equation provides your calorie expenditure for one hour.
Calculation
Assume you weigh 68.2 kg for this example. The MET for sleeping is .9, according to the "Journal of Applied Physiology." This means that your calorie expenditure rate while sleeping is 90 percent of your calorie expenditure rate while you're resting. You will therefore burn (68.2 x 0.9) = 61.4 calories per hour while sleeping.
Estimates
Fit Watch provides a calculator that provides the calorie expenditure for sleeping. Input your weight, select the units and enter your sleeping time in minutes. For example, a person weighing 160 lb. that sleeps for 43 minutes burns 49 calories.
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