How Many Calories Do Electricians Burn? (Stats Revealed)
How many calories does an electrician actually burn, and what physical activities require the most energy? Working in the electrical trade does, on occasion, require some strenuous physical labor. And as an electrician, I can certainly attest to that. Every profession out there burns a certain number of calories on a daily basis. But how many calories does an electrician burn while performing electrical work?
An electrician will burn 309 calories per hour on average. This is based on the average body weight of an American male, which is currently 197 pounds. The amount of calories burned is calculated by a MET ratio of 3.3 (electrical work) from the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities.
I’ve frequently seen my step counter show more than 10.000 steps, while some days have obviously been much lower. However, I’ve often times had to wipe my forehead and eyeglasses due to sweat on the vast majority of workdays. As a result, when my lunch break starts, I can’t wait to eat some well-deserved carbs, fruit, and water.
What You’ll Learn: This article will teach you how many calories an electrician burns on a daily and hourly basis. You will also be introduced to the calculator that specifically estimates how many calories an electrician will burn based on body weight.
Calculator: How Many Calories Do Electricians Burn?
Being an electrician does involve periodically hard physical labor. Electricians walk, crawl, lift and climb on weekly basis, which will prove to be exhausting and physically draining at times. And as we will also explore in this article, doing electrical work is also a quite demanding activity when measured in calories burned. In order to get exact measurements of calories burned by electricians, we will use what is called the MET ratio.
Use this calculator to estimate how many calories an electrician will burn per hour of electrical work. The calculator uses the official MET score of 3.3, which corresponds to code 11130 (electrical work such as hooking up wire and tapping-splicing).
[forminator_form id=”3084″]
MET (metabolic equivalents) is a measurement used to determine the level of intensity of an activity. The higher the score, the more calories you will burn during the activity. Sitting still, for example, has a value of one, whereas walking (four miles per hour) has a MET score of four. If you’re interested in comparing other activities you can take a look at this collection of METs.
We’ll use the working metabolic rate of doing electrical work relative to the resting metabolic rate to calculate how many calories electricians burn per hour. We were going to look up the occupation MET score of “electrical work” in the official compendium of physical activities to get the exact numbers. The working metabolic rate for electricians performing standard electrical work is 3.3. To get an accurate calculation of an electrician’s energy expenditure, we’ll use the average weight of an American male, which is 197 pounds.
Upon calculating the calories burned by an electrician weighing 197 pounds with the MET score of 3.3 we can conclude that an hour of electrical work will burn 309 calories.
I’ve provided some different amounts of calories that electricians will burn in comparison to different levels of body weight in the table below. If you can find your own weight that is close to the calculated weight, you can get an estimate of how many calories you will burn per hour doing electrical work.
| Bodyweight | Calories Electricians Burn Per Hour |
| 230 pounds (104 kg) | 360 |
| 197 pounds (89 kg) | 309 |
| 180 pounds (81 kg) | 280 |
| 160 pounds (72 kg) | 249 |
The answer to the question of “how many calories do electricians burn” is primarily determined by an individual’s bodyweight; the more an electrician weighs, the more calories and energy one will require to do electrical work.
How Many Calories Does an Electrician Burn a Day?
In this section, we’ll look at how many calories an electrician burns on a daily basis while performing various tasks. Obviously, electricians, like other professions, take breaks and engage in activities other than their electrical tasks. Electricians, like other tradespeople, are constantly on the move, and as a result, they burn a lot of calories every day. This is primarily because they are constantly climbing up and down ladders, working in awkward positions, and carrying heavy tools and equipment.
Also Read: Is being an electrician stressful?
However, answering this question is more difficult as we cannot simply multiply the number of calories consumed by electrical work by an 8-hour workday. I’ll list the various types of activities that an electrician will be involved in on a daily basis to provide a rough estimate. Among these are tasks such as:
- climbing ladders
- lifting and carrying heavy materials
- lifting, carrying, and handling heavy power tools
- working in physically demanding bodily positions
- crawling and kneeling
- working with the hands above the head
- walking (a lot)
There are a surprising number of activities that electricians perform that require a significant amount of energy. In fact, newcomers to the electrical trade, in particular, are unaware of how active the job can be in real life. Here is a list of some of the most common physical activities that electricians engage in.
| Activities | Met score | Calories burned per hour |
| Carry heavy tools and equipment | 8.0 | 747 |
| Operating heavy power tools | 6.3 | 588 |
| Walking while carrying materials | 4.8 | 448 |
| Standard electrical work | 3.3 | 309 |
| Standing tasks (repairing and installing) | 3.0 | 280 |
Electricians perform a wide range of tasks in addition to electrical work. We also need to keep in mind that electricians take breaks during the day. Lunch and coffee breaks are excellent opportunities to refuel your body with fluids and carbohydrates to help you get through the more physically demanding days.
How Many Calories Electricians Burn Compared to Other Professions
In this section, I’d also like to share some statistics about the differences between skilled trades. In my experience, while electricians do have a physically demanding job, some of the other trades appear to have an even more demanding job. This is also evident when looking at the MET scores of the various trades.
Note: The number of calories is calculated with the body weight (197 lbs) of an average American male.
| Profession | Met Score | Calories burned per hour |
| Fire fighter | 8 | 748 |
| Road builder | 6 | 561 |
| Coal mining | 5,5 | 514 |
| Commercial fishing | 5 | 467 |
| Farm worker | 4,8 | 449 |
| Carpentry | 4,3 | 402 |
| Masonry, concrete | 4,3 | 402 |
| Roof repairing | 4 | 374 |
| Garbage collector | 4 | 374 |
| Electrician | 3,3 | 308 |
| Locksmith | 3 | 280 |
| Plumbing | 3 | 280 |
| Electrical engineer | 1,8 | 168 |
How Many Calories Do Electricians Need?
The number of calories required by an electrician to get through a workday will differ depending on a variety of factors. The type of work, an individual’s body weight, and metabolism will all play a role. When compared to the tasks of an office worker or other sedentary professions, we can conclude that the work of an electrician is indeed physically demanding.
Also Read: Is being an electrician a dirty job?
I used to work in an office before deciding to become an electrician at 29 years of age. And I can assure you that as a result, I have consumed more calories before, during, and after working as an electrician. Working in construction has proven to be the most energy-intensive activity I’ve done as an electrician. Being an electrician, on the other hand, isalso a varied job that involves a wide range of activities. Many factors must be considered when estimating the amount of calories required to get through an electrician’s workday. I’ve provided you with some key physical activities of an electrician in this article, which you can use to get an idea of what to expect.