How to Calculate Squash Calories in 5 Simple Steps

Squash calories in one line

Squash calories are counted in four moves: turn the weight from pounds into kilograms, multiply by the MET value for calories an hour, scale by the minutes for the session total, and divide by the minutes for calories a minute. A 180 lb player, playing squash for 60 minutes at MET 12, burns 979.76 kcal. Everything else in this guide is about getting the weight, the minutes, and the MET honest, because the formula is simple and the inputs are where calorie estimates go wrong.

Step 1: Weigh yourself before the court

Weigh yourself in pounds before anything else: the worked example uses 180 lb. The weight that matters is the weight actually moving on the court, because every sprint, lunge, and swing moves that weight and the formula charges for it. Weigh on the day, not from memory, because a weight remembered from last season is a burn remembered from last season too: twenty pounds of error moves the 60-minute burn by about one hundred and nine calories, which is nearly seven minutes of squash.

Step 2: Convert pounds to kilograms

Convert the pounds to kilograms: 180 × 0.45359237 = 81.65 kg. This is the weight in the units the MET formula is defined in, and it is the number everything else is multiplied from, because calories an hour equal MET × weight in kilograms. One pound is 0.45359237 kilograms, so the pounds multiplied by that figure give kilograms, and a weight converted by a round 0.45 instead comes out short by more than half a kilogram — a small error, but one that rides through every minute that follows.

Step 3: Pick the MET value honestly

Pick the MET value for the squash: the worked example uses 12. A MET value is how many times harder an activity is than sitting still, and vigorous general squash sits at 12 — a gentle knockabout nearer 10, a fiercely competitive match nearer 13. Pick the average across the whole session, easy passages and harder passages included, not the hardest rally: a session that mixes easy passages with a few fast rallies is not a 13 all the way through if most of it was gentle, and a MET borrowed from the hardest rally lifts the whole session by more than a tenth. The figure that results is the intensity input, and it is the number that sets the calories of every minute, because the per-hour figure is this value multiplied by the kilograms: at MET 12 the hour is 979.76 kcal, at MET 10 it is 816.47 kcal, and at MET 13 it is 1061.41 kcal.

Step 4: Multiply MET by kilograms for calories an hour

Multiply the MET value by the kilograms: 12 × 81.65 = 979.76 kcal an hour. This is the burn rate, and it is the figure to compare exercises by — a rate, not a session total, because sessions differ in length and only the rate compares fairly. The rate figure is also the number to use when a different intensity is weighed against a different weight, because both levers act on this figure alone: doubling the MET doubles it, doubling the weight doubles it, and halving either halves it.

Step 5: Scale by minutes, and sanity-check it

Scale the hourly rate by the minutes: 979.76 × 60 ÷ 60 = 979.76 kcal, and 979.76 ÷ 60 = 16.33 kcal a minute. This is the session total and the per-minute figure, and they are the numbers to set against a daily target — sixty minutes of vigorous squash burns about nine hundred and eighty calories, which is a real contribution to a day without being a meal in itself. Sanity-check the total against the rate: 979.76 kcal over 60 minutes should equal the hourly rate itself, since 60 minutes is a full hour, and 979.76 = 979.76 — the figures agree, which is the check that the minutes were scaled and not merely added. For the interactive version, use the squash calories calculator, which runs the same four moves on any weight, minutes, and MET value.

Worked example, start to finish

Weight 180 lb, 60 minutes, MET 12. Kilograms: 180 × 0.45359237 = 81.65 kg. Per hour: 12 × 81.65 = 979.76 kcal. Total: 979.76 × 60 ÷ 60 = 979.76 kcal. Per minute: 979.76 ÷ 60 = 16.33 kcal. The same five steps on 90 minutes give 1469.64 kcal; at 150 lb they give 816.47 kcal; and at MET 13 they give 1061.41 kcal. Weight, minutes, and MET are the only three levers, and the kilogram conversion is the only fixed number in the whole calculation.

How squash compares with other exercise

Squash at MET 12 sits above steady cycling and below a hard run, which is why the per-minute figure of 16.33 kcal feels solid beside cycling and modest beside a sprint. The comparison that matters is the rate, not the session total: a 45-minute game at 979.76 kcal an hour burns 734.82 kcal, while a 60-minute gentle session at MET 10 burns 816.47 kcal, so length and intensity trade against each other and neither alone decides the burn. Use the rate to compare sessions fairly, use the total to compare days, and never compare a squash total with another exercise total unless the minutes match.

Three mistakes to avoid

The first mistake is counting court time as playing: minutes on the bench, between games, and waiting to rotate in are not minutes on the court, and a visit with twenty minutes on the bench burns for forty playing minutes, not sixty. The second mistake is skipping the kilogram conversion: multiplying MET by pounds instead of kilograms overstates the burn by more than double, which is the largest error in squash maths and the easiest to make. The third mistake is picking the peak MET: a session is an average, not a highlight, and a MET borrowed from the hardest rally lifts every minute that follows. Weigh on the day, convert to kilograms, average the MET, scale by playing minutes only — in that order, every time a session is turned into calories.