How Many Calories do I Burn While Sleeping?

Calories Burned Sleeping Calculator

Weight in Pound
Height in Feet
Height in Inches

What are calories?

A calorie is a unit of energy. It is used to measure how much energy we get through food consumption and how much energy we expend throughout the day. Your body requires fuel to sustain bodily functions like maintaining blood circulation, breathing, and physical activity1.

Why should you use a calorie calculator for sleeping?

Many people only consider calories when thinking about the food they eat or the exercise they do. However, our bodies are consistently burning calories even at rest. The body even burns calories while we sleep. To fully assess your body’s function and how your resting state may contribute to your weight loss goals, you should determine how many calories you burn while sleeping.

There are many reasons why you might want to utilize a calorie calculator for sleeping. For a lot of people, keeping track of their calories is a great way to ensure they are sleeping the correct amount to support their weight loss goals. Others may just want to ensure they have a diet and exercise routine that is adequate to support their energy needs in addition to sleep. Regardless of the reason, using a calculator can help.

Calculating the calories you burn during sleep can be tricky, as there are various factors to consider. Things like muscle composition, body fat, daily activity, and metabolism can all affect how many calories you burn and need. Additionally, as your body changes, so will your body’s metabolic processes. If you are using this calculator for weight loss, it is important to continue using this calculator throughout your journey. Our calculator aims to simplify the variables and the math regardless of what your goals are. After entering just a few numbers and checking a few boxes, you can have a strong estimate of how many calories you burn every night.

How to use our calculator

Using our calculator to determine your calorie requirements is relatively easy. Just input some personal information to generate a calories burned estimate. The list below includes step-by-step instructions on how to plug in your information.

Step 1: Select your desired unit of measurement. Imperial means that the measurement is described in terms of pounds, hours, and minutes. Metric means that the measurement is described in terms of kilograms, hours, and minutes.

Step 2: Select your gender.

Step 3: Enter your weight in the unit of measurement selected above.

Step 4: Enter your height in the unit of measurement selected above.

Step 5: Enter your age.

Step 6: Enter the number of hours that you slept or plan to sleep.

Step 7: Click “Calculate”.

Understanding the results

After inputting your information, our calculator will provide you with the number of calories that you burn while sleeping. The results will display the calories you burn nightly depending on your weight, age, and other factors. Happy with your results? That’s great! If you would like to adjust the calories from what was outputted from the calculator, try changing how long you sleep. For example, if you sleep 8 hours instead of 7 hours you will likely burn more calories. Playing around with the calculator can help you to tailor your sleep routine to match your weight loss goals.

Explaining related information

Now that you know how many calories you need to eat each day, it is important to understand how different factors can increase or decrease your calories burned while sleeping. Knowing these details can help you to make informed decisions about your night routine, health, and fitness. We outline below how certain aspects of your body composition can influence your energy expenditure.

Gender

Males typically have a higher basal metabolic rate compared with women of the same height and weight. This is because men tend to have higher muscle mass and less body fat.

Age

As you age, your body replaces muscle with fat. Therefore, the rate at which your body burns calories peaks during younger age. After the first few decades of life, your metabolism begins to decline. According to one study, starting at age 60 your metabolism slows down by about 0.7% each year2.

Weight

Weight is a critical factor to consider when estimating how many calories you burn while sleeping. The general rule of thumb for body weight indicates that the heavier you are, the more calories that you burn. For example, take two women that are both the same age and sleep for 8 hours. One is 160 pounds, and one is 120 pounds. An individual who weighs 160 pounds will burn more calories than the individual who weighs 120 pounds.

Why does this happen? Well, a calorie is a measurement of how much energy we use. Someone who weighs 160 pounds is going to require more energy to make the same bodily function as someone who weighs 120 pounds. Think of it like a car; a larger car typically guzzles up more gas than a smaller car. This is because heavier and larger cars require more fuel to move the same distance as a smaller car3.

Frequently asked questions

How does my body burn calories while sleeping?

To answer this question, it is important to understand how metabolism works. Metabolism refers to the numerous biochemical processes required to sustain human life. It involves two main activities known as anabolism (building) and catabolism (breaking down). Essentially, metabolism is the amount of energy (calories) the body burns to sustain basic functions4.

Many might believe that the only way to burn calories is through exercise. However, that is not the case. As aforementioned, the body needs energy to perform basic functions to keep us alive. These include breathing, blood pumping, digesting, and more; all of which occur while we are at rest and sleeping. In fact, the energy expenditure from these vital activities accounts for roughly 50 to 70 percent of the calories you burn every day2.

Does the number of calories I burn change throughout the night?

The human sleep cycle is divided into different stages: nonrapid eye movement sleep (NREM) and REM sleep. NREM and REM sleep happen in a continuous cycle of roughly 90 minutes. The first half of sleep is primarily NREM sleep, and the second half of sleep is primarily REM sleep.

Within NREM sleep, there are three sub-stages known as N1, N2, and N3. Stage N3, also considered wave sleep, is what you may know as “deep sleep”. In this stage, the body has minimal metabolic activity.  Likewise, the body’s glucose (sugar) metabolism is highest when we are awake, intermediate during REM sleep, and lowest during NREM sleep4.

How does sleep affect your weight?

With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, a lot of us may put sleep on the backburner. It is not a surprise that roughly 30% of adults report that they sleep less than 6 hours each night, which is less than the recommended seven to eight hours a night. Research suggests, however, that weight gain could be associated with our sleep patterns. Data indicates that both sleep deprivation and prolonged sleep can cause weight gain. Weight gain and obesity are linked to other diseases and health complications. Therefore, it is important that you always prioritize sleep and get a sufficient night’s rest. According to research on sleep duration and weight, having proper sleep hygiene could help you to reach your weight loss goals.

What are the other benefits of sleep?

Sleep has many advantages outside of just calorie burning and avoiding weight gain. These advantages include, but are not limited to:

  • Improving your immune system
  • Protecting your cardiovascular health and preventing certain conditions such as high blood pressure
  • Bettering your memory
  • Boosting your mood
  • Increasing productivity
  • Regulating blood sugar levels
  • Improving exercise performance5

How much sleep do I need?

How much sleep you require for optimal functioning will depend on your age. See the chart below to determine how many hours of sleep you should get each night.

Age Group Ages Recommended hours of sleep
Newborn 0 to 3 months 14 to 17 hours per 24 hours
Infant 4 to 12 months 12 to 16 hours per 24 hours
Toddler 1 to 2 years 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours
Preschool age 3 to 5 years 10 to 13 hours per 24 hours
School age 6 to 12 years 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours
Teens 13 to 18 years 8 to 10 hours per 24 hours
Adults 18 to 64 years 7 to 9 hours per night
Older adults 65 years and older 7 to 8 hours6

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Conclusion

It is no secret that sleep is beneficial to your health and wellness. Whether your goals are to lose weight or maintain your energy throughout the day, enough sleep is necessary to meet your physical and mental needs. Particularly, if your hope is to burn calories and start losing weight, you may want to start by utilizing a calorie calculator. Our calculator considers the numerous factors that can affect your energy expenditure including weight, age, and time spent asleep. Using a calculator will help you to meet your weight loss goals quickly and efficiently.

References

  1. Weight management: Finding the healthy balance: practical applications for nutrition, food science and culinary professionals. (2013). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-391882-6.00010-8
  2. Metabolism changes with age, just not when you might think. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://today.duke.edu/2021/08/metabolism-changes-age-just-not-when-you-might-think
  3. Calories burned in 30 minutes of leisure and routine activities. (2004, July 1). Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-weight-loss/calories-burned-in-30-minutes-for-people-of-three-different-weights
  4. Sharma, S., & Kavuru, M. (2010). Sleep and metabolism: An overview. International Journal of Endocrinology, 2010, 270832. https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/270832
  5. The benefits of slumber. (2017, May 31). NIH News in Health. https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2013/04/benefits-slumber
  6. CDC- How much sleep do I need? – Sleep and sleep disorders. (2019, March 5). https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/how_much_sleep.html

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