How Many Calories Do You Lose Crying? | Tear Burn Facts

What Crying Means For Calorie Burn

When you cry, your body keeps doing what it always does: pumping blood, breathing, and running all the tiny jobs that keep you alive. Tears add a bit more work on top of that, mostly from breathing changes and muscle tension.

That extra work can bump calorie burn a little. It’s closer to light fidgeting than it is to a brisk walk. So yes, there is a number, but it’s small enough that you won’t feel it on the scale.

Calories Burned During Crying With Realistic Ranges

There isn’t a lab-standard “crying” entry in the activity lists many calorie calculators use. A practical way to think about it is to compare crying to quiet sitting and to sitting with fidgeting or light movement.

The table below shows a simple estimate for a 10-minute session using MET-style math. “Quiet tears” is set near sitting quietly, while “sobbing” is set a bit higher to reflect faster breathing and more muscle work.

Body Weight	Quiet Tears (10 Min)	Sobbing (10 Min)
50 kg (110 lb)	11 kcal	16 kcal
70 kg (154 lb)	16 kcal	22 kcal
90 kg (198 lb)	21 kcal	28 kcal

How To Read That Table Without Overthinking It

Use these figures as a range, not a promise. If you sit still and dab tears with a tissue, you’ll sit near the lower side. If you’re rocking, pacing, or breathing hard, you’ll drift upward.

Body size matters too. A heavier body burns more calories at rest, so any light activity stacked on top tends to land higher.

Resting Burn Sets The Floor

Your “doing nothing” burn is the backdrop for every estimate on this page. Even lying on a couch, your body is spending energy each minute. That’s why the best comparison for crying is often calories burned while resting, not a workout.

If you’re wiped out after a cry, your body may slide back to that baseline fast. That can make the full “extra” from the crying spell smaller than it feels in the moment.

Why Crying Uses Extra Energy

Think of crying as a mix of breathing shifts, face and throat muscle work, and a short spike in tension. None of those pieces is huge, but they stack together.

Tear fluid itself doesn’t carry enough energy to matter. Water on your cheeks isn’t fat leaving your body. The calories come from muscle work and breathing, not from tears draining out.

If you’ve heard claims about hundreds of calories, treat them like gossip.

Breathing Gets Choppy

Sobbing often means fast inhales, longer exhales, and pauses that feel like a hitch in your chest. That pattern makes the diaphragm and other breathing muscles work harder than calm breathing.

Quiet tears can be the opposite: slow, deep breaths between sniffles. That stays closer to a normal sitting burn.

Your Face And Throat Muscles Stay Busy

Squinting, trembling lips, swallowing, and a tight jaw all use muscle. It’s not the same as lifting weights, but it’s still work.

If you talk while crying, you add another layer of muscle use from speech, plus more breath control.

Heart Rate Can Rise For A Short Stretch

Many people notice a warm face, faster pulse, or sweaty palms during a hard cry. A higher heart rate often pairs with a small bump in total energy burn.

It can fade quickly once the crying slows down. That’s one reason a “per hour” number is a shaky way to describe it.

A Simple Math Method To Estimate Your Own Number

If you want a personal estimate, you can use the same MET equation used for many activity calculators. One MET is tied to the energy cost of sitting quietly, and you can scale up from there.

Here’s the handy version: calories per minute = MET × 3.5 × weight(kg) ÷ 200. Then multiply by minutes of active crying.

If you track weight in pounds, divide by 2.2 to get kilograms. A quick check: 154 lb is close to 70 kg.

Pick A MET That Fits Your Session

Since crying isn’t listed as a single code, pick a “nearest neighbor” based on what your body did.

• Quiet tears, still posture: choose a MET near 1.3–1.5.
• On-and-off crying, talking, shifting: choose a MET near 1.6–1.8.
• Full sobs with movement: choose a MET near 2.0–2.3.

When in doubt, pick the lower number. It keeps the estimate honest and avoids turning a tough moment into a fake workout.

Try A Quick Example

Say you weigh 70 kg and cried hard for 12 minutes. If you pick a MET of 1.8, the math is 1.8 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200 = 2.2 calories per minute. Over 12 minutes, that lands near 26 calories.

If the same 12 minutes was mostly quiet tears, a MET closer to 1.3 drops the result to about 19 calories.

What Changes The Number Most

Two people can cry for the same amount of time and end up with different calorie totals. The difference usually comes from body size, how hard the breathing got, and how much movement happened.

Body Weight And Lean Mass

Heavier bodies burn more calories at baseline. People with more lean mass often run a higher resting burn too. That shifts the whole range upward.

Even so, the gap is small in daily terms. A higher estimate rarely matches a short walk.

Duration And Breaks

A few minutes of tears between tasks is not the same as an hour of on-and-off sobbing. Breaks matter because your breathing and pulse can settle quickly.

If you want to log it, count only the time you were actively crying, not the time you were wiping your face and staring at the ceiling.

Movement During Crying

Pacing, rocking, kneeling, or walking around a room adds activity on top of the crying itself. That’s the fastest way the calorie count climbs.

If you stayed seated, the number stays closer to the baseline range.

Heat, Clothing, And Shivering

If you cry in a cold room and start shivering, shivering can raise energy burn far more than tears alone. If you’re wrapped in a blanket, that extra piece may never show up.

This is one reason calorie apps can’t pin down one clean number for everyone.

How Crying Compares To Everyday Activities

It helps to see crying in context. The table below uses a 70 kg adult and the same MET-style math to compare a few common activities. The goal is perspective, not perfection.

Activity (70 kg)	Time	Estimated Calories
Quiet sitting	10 min	12–14 kcal
Quiet tears	10 min	15–17 kcal
Hard sobbing	10 min	20–24 kcal
Slow walk (easy pace)	10 min	35–45 kcal
Light housework	10 min	30–40 kcal

Can Crying Help With Fat Loss

On its own, crying won’t create the kind of calorie gap that changes body fat. Even a hard cry session is usually a small slice of one snack.

If you notice weight changes during a rough week, it’s more likely tied to sleep shifts, appetite changes, salt intake, or daily movement dropping.

When The Scale Moves After A Cry

Tears can leave your eyes puffy, and big emotions can change how much water you hold. A scale can swing from fluid changes, especially if you ate salty food or slept poorly.

That’s not fat gain or fat loss. It’s the body doing normal fluid bookkeeping.

What Works Better Than Counting Tears

If your aim is weight change, the levers that move the needle are food intake and steady movement. A simple step is to track a few days of meals and see where the calories stack up.

Small shifts add up over weeks, and they don’t demand that you feel bad to “earn” them.

After A Cry: Small Steps That Feel Grounding

A hard cry can leave you with a headache, a dry throat, and heavy eyelids. A few basic moves can make the next hour feel smoother.

• Drink water: mouth breathing and tears can dry you out.
• Rinse your face: cool water can ease the tight, hot feeling around the eyes.
• Try slow breaths: a longer exhale can calm the chest after sobbing.
• Take a short walk: even five minutes can shift your body out of “stuck” mode.

If crying feels constant or you feel unsafe, talk with a licensed clinician.

A Quick Way To Log A Cry Session

If you track calories or activity, keep the logging simple. Treat crying like light sitting and adjust only when there was clear movement.

1. Write down minutes of active crying.
2. Pick a MET: 1.3 for quiet tears, 1.8 for sobbing with fast breathing.
3. Run the calories-per-minute equation and multiply by minutes.
4. Round to a whole number and move on.

Want a step-by-step walkthrough for setting daily targets? Try our daily calorie intake breakdown.