Crying only burns a handful of extra calories—roughly the same as resting—so tears alone won’t make a real dent in your daily energy spend.
Extra Burn Per Minute
Strong Crying
Weight Loss Impact
Quiet Teary Moments
- Short sting in the eyes or a few tears.
- Breathing stays steady.
- Calorie burn looks like simple rest.
Low extra energy
Sobbing On The Couch
- Face muscles work, shoulders shake.
- Heart rate edges up.
- Energy burn creeps above baseline.
Moderate extra energy
Crying With Movement
- Walking while upset or pacing a room.
- Leg muscles add to the load.
- Most calories come from the movement, not the tears.
Higher total burn
Crying is part of being human. Many people wonder whether those tears also chip away at energy stores.
The short answer is that crying does use energy, yet the extra burn is small. Most of the work still comes from your resting metabolism, with a modest bump from tense muscles, changing breathing, and a racing heart.
Why Crying Uses Energy At All
A crying spell is more than moisture on your cheeks. Your brain sends emotional signals, stress hormones rise, breathing patterns shift, and muscles in your face, throat, chest, and belly start working harder. All of that activity takes fuel from stored energy, measured in calories or kilocalories. Even when you lie still, organs such as the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys keep humming along. This background work is called basal or resting metabolic rate, and it already burns hundreds of calories across the day.1
During crying, your heart may speed up, you might breathe harder, and muscles in your shoulders and torso tense and relax again. Those changes raise oxygen use a bit, yet the shift stays limited next to walking, climbing stairs, or any steady movement that uses large muscle groups.
Estimated Calorie Burn During Crying Bouts
There are not many laboratory studies that measure calorie burn from tears alone. Health writers who track the science, including a recent health article on crying, point toward values close to quiet sitting or gentle laughing.2 That keeps crying in the “minimal extra burn” category.
An average resting adult uses around 1 kilocalorie per kilogram of body weight per hour. A 70 kilogram person lands near 70 kilocalories per hour just by being awake and calm.3 Crying can nudge this figure up, especially during loud sobbing, yet the change still sits close to that base range.
| Activity (70 kg adult) | Calories Per Hour (Approx.) | Energy Level |
|---|---|---|
| Sitting quietly, awake | 60–80 kcal | Resting baseline for an average adult. |
| Sitting and crying softly | 70–90 kcal | Small bump in breathing and muscle tension. |
| Easy walking at about 3 km/h | 150–210 kcal | Large leg muscles add steady movement. |
These ranges are only rough guides, yet they show the pattern clearly. Crying brings a modest rise in burn compared with quiet sitting, while light walking or housework lift that burn far more.2,3,4
It can still help to know how many calories burned every day before extra movement enters the frame. That base number puts crying in context and shows why it stays such a small player in your total.
How Experts Estimate Energy Use From Tears
Scientists rarely strap people to machines just to measure a sad film marathon. Instead, they rely on tools that estimate energy burn for categories of movement. One common tool uses metabolic equivalents, or METs, which describe how hard an activity works your body in relation to rest.
One MET matches the energy burn of quiet rest. A gentle task that uses twice as much energy comes in near 2 METs. Walking at about 2 miles per hour hits around 2.5 METs in many charts.5 Sitting while laughing is listed as 1 MET in the Compendium of Physical Activities, which means it looks just like rest on paper.2 You can see this method in action in a university METs guide that walks through the math for different tasks.5 Health writers who track crying draw on that same logic and place mild sobbing near 1–1.3 METs, or barely above rest.
Crying Versus Other Quiet Activities
To place tearful spells into daily life, it helps to compare them with other quiet tasks. Reading, watching a show, working at a desk, and chatting with a friend all hover near that 1–2 MET range, so they leave calorie totals mostly in the hands of your resting metabolism.
Mild crying while you sit or lie down looks similar to these moments. Strong sobbing can push toward the top of that quiet range for a short stretch, yet it still falls below brisk housework or yard work.
Sample Crying Sessions And Extra Calories
Because the calorie burn from tears sits near your resting rate, any estimate needs a careful label. The figures below describe extra energy above rest for a 70 kilogram adult body. They show how modest the effect stays, even when emotions run high.
| Crying Session | Extra Calories Above Rest | What It Feels Like |
|---|---|---|
| Watery eyes for 2–3 minutes | 0–2 kcal | A few tears, breathing steady, no shaking. |
| Short cry for about 10 minutes | 5–10 kcal | Some sobs, deeper breaths, then calm again. |
| Strong sobbing for 30 minutes | 15–30 kcal | Chest and shoulders move a lot, breathing louder. |
Even that longest row lands near the energy in half a slice of bread. A short walk or a few light chores would match it. Tears feel intense, yet from a calorie view they sit closer to rest than to a workout.
Crying, Stress, And Your Weight Over Time
While crying does not move the calorie needle much by itself, the feelings that lead to tears can shape habits that steer weight over time. Strong sadness or stress may drain your desire to cook, make you skip regular meals, or nudge you toward snacks that feel soothing in the moment.
If you notice that long tearful evenings line up with skipped meals, repeated snack runs, or restless nights, gentle structure can help. Keeping simple meals on hand, sticking with basic bedtimes, and penciling in small bursts of movement can protect your energy balance during rough patches.
Practical Ways To Care For Yourself After Crying
Crying can leave you drained, puffy, and thirsty. A small care routine brings your body back toward balance and keeps you from leaning on food or screens in ways that feel unhelpful later.
Rehydrate And Cool Your Face
Tears pull fluid from your body. After a long cry, a glass of water or a caffeine free tea can settle your throat. Splashing cool water on your face or using a clean, damp cloth around your eyes can ease redness and swelling.
Add Light Movement, Not Punishment Workouts
Some people feel tempted to “work off” tough feelings with intense training. When your body already feels worn out, a softer plan usually serves you better. A short walk, stretches on the floor, or a slow bike ride offers a calm outlet without tying exercise to guilt in your mind.
If you want movement to play a steady part in weight change, consistent activity across the week counts more than any single sad afternoon. You can pair that with a steady meal pattern and, when needed, tools such as a structured calories and weight loss guide.
When Frequent Crying Needs Extra Help
Tears now and then during stress, grief, or sweet moments are part of normal life. When crying shows up almost every day, arrives without clear triggers, or comes with heavy thoughts about self worth or safety, it may point toward depression, anxiety, or another mood condition.
Warning signs include loss of interest in usual hobbies, sudden shifts in sleep, big swings in appetite, moving much slower than usual, or thoughts of self harm. In those moments, reach out to a doctor, therapist, or trusted health service in your area. If you ever feel at risk of hurting yourself or someone else, contact local emergency services or a crisis hotline right away.
Crying can nudge your daily calorie burn up by a few points, yet it stays a tiny part of your energy story. The real gains for both mood and weight come from steady habits: meals that match your needs, regular movement you can stick with, solid sleep, and timely medical care when feelings grow too heavy to carry alone. Small steps still count, and they add up faster than any crying fit over the course of weeks.