Do you know the answer to "how many calories does walking burn?"
If not, no worries ... you are not alone. Many don’t realize how a walk a day can benefit you.
In this article, we’ll answer this question and we’ll talk about the benefits of walking.
Why Walking Is Good For You
When most people talk about fitness and working out, they’re usually talking about lifting weights, running, or playing sports of some sort.
But one of the best forms of exercise you could do every day is walking.
That’s right, walking.
Walking is great for many reasons. Here are a few that are the most beneficial.
It’s an easy form of exercise
One thing that’s great about walking is that it’s easier to do than many other forms of exercise.
It’s almost always easier to walk a mile than run it.
Likewise, it’s easier to walk for an hour than hit the gym for an hour.
So, if you’re new to fitness, or just looking to add extra activity on top of your workouts without overdoing it, walking is a great way to do so.
IT’S PROBABLY THE MOST COMMON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY YOU ALREADY DO
You walk everywhere. You walk to your car. You walk to the bathroom. You walk to the kitchen. You walk around your office.
The fact is, for most people, walking is the most common way you get from Point A to Point B.
That means it’s also easy to find ways to walk more.
YOU CAN DO IT ANYWHERE
Whether you’re on a treadmill, at home, or out on a hiking trail, you can walk wherever and whenever you want. In that way, walking is one of the most versatile exercises that you could be doing.
Regardless of whether you just finished lifting weights, just woke up to your alarm, or even on lunch ... it’s likely that you can still get up and start your walk at any time.
IT’S A GOOD WAY TO DO CARDIO
We could all benefit from stronger cardiovascular health.
Well, if you’re looking to get more cardio in your life, walking is a great way to do it. You can even do it before or after you lift weights or do any other physical activity as your cardio!
Walking helps actively work the entire body over a long period of time.
It’s a great way to burn some extra calories all while encouraging your body to take some deep, oxygen-rich breaths of fresh air.
THE CALORIES YOU BURN WILL DEPEND ON MANY FACTORS
A lot of people have asked the question, “How many calories do you burn walking,” and of course, there is no straight answer.
That’s because the number of calories changes depending on a variety of factors.
Here are just a couple of reasons why you might burn more or fewer calories than someone else you know.
DISTANCE
In the end, you burn calories based on how much effort you put out, so the number of calories you’ll burn when you walk will partially depend on how far you walk.
The terrain that you walk on will have a huge impact as well.
You’ll burn a lot more calories if your path has a lot of uphill walking as opposed to flat stretches.
WEIGHT
Next, how much you weigh will also determine how many calories you can burn from walking.
The more you weigh, the more calories you’ll burn while walking.
That’s because your body has to do more work to get and keep itself in motion.
This can be advantageous for people looking to drop 20, 50, even 100 pounds or more, but aren't sure how to get started.
As stated earlier, walking is easier on the body than many other forms of exercise.
In addition, you can do it almost anywhere you have space to get up and move around!
HOW MANY CALORIES DOES WALKING BURN?
There’s a general rule of thumb for how many calories walking burns: you’ll burn about 100 calories each mile.
Now it’s important to note that this does depend on someone’s weight.
Someone who’s 120 pounds will burn closer to 65 calories, and someone who weighs 200 pounds will burn more than 100 calories per mile.
But the rule of thumb is about that much for someone who weighs 150–180 pounds.
Now what gets interesting to realize is that walking 1 mile will burn approximately 100 calories no matter how fast you go.
Really!
That means if you’re running a marathon or walking along, you’ll burn the same amount.
The trick is that a higher speed will help you burn those calories faster—helping you complete more mileage and burn more over time.
Basically, if you run that mile, you’ll burn those calories faster than if you walk slowly.
So it’s sometimes helpful to think about how many calories you burn per minute because that will vary depending on your speed.
If you walk a mile in 12 minutes, you’ll burn 8.3 calories per minute, and if you walk slowly and take 20 minutes to walk a mile, you’ll burn 5 calories per minute.
One caveat in all this is that most of the research for many years has been done on men.
That means that future research will begin to include more types of people and move away from the average person being a 150 pound adult man.
Now let’s look at the specifics of how much you’ll burn while walking, broken down by weight:
120–140 pounds
At a moderate pace (3 mph)
- 15 minutes: 50 calories
- 30 minutes: 100 calories
- 1 hour: 200 calories
At a fast speed (4–5 mph)
- 15 minutes: 95 calories
- 30 minutes: 185 calories
- 1 hour: 370 calories
Walking uphill (3.5 mph)
- 15 minutes: 90 calories
- 30 minutes: 180 calories
- 1 hour: 355 minutes
140–160 pounds
At a moderate pace (3 mph)
- 15 minutes: 60 calories
- 30 minutes: 112 calories
- 1 hour: 225 calories
At a fast speed (4–5 mph)
- 15 minutes: 100 calories
- 30 minutes: 214 calories
- 1 hour: 430 calories
Walking uphill (3.5 mph)
- 15 minutes: 102 calories
- 30 minutes: 204 calories
- 1 hour: 408 minutes
160–180 pounds
At a moderate pace (3 mph)
- 15 minutes: 65 calories
- 30 minutes: 127 calories
- 1 hour: 255 calories
At a fast speed (4–5 mph)
- 15 minutes: 120 calories
- 30 minutes: 245 calories
- 1 hour: 485 calories
Walking uphill (3.5 mph)
- 15 minutes: 115 calories
- 30 minutes: 230 calories
- 1 hour: 465 minutes
As you can see, picking up your pace or hitting a hill, boosts how many calories you’ll burn per minute.
HOW TO BURN MORE CALORIES WHEN WALKING
There are lots of ways you can increase the total number of calories your body burns during a long walk.
We’ve briefly touched on some ways, but we’ll dive into them in more depth—and point out a few more ways you can boost your exercise regimen.
Here are some tips we have to help maximize the benefits of your next walk.
Change your terrain
Like we’ve mentioned before, walking uphill can help you burn more calories per minute.
You can see exactly how that works in the section above, but here’s an example: If you weigh 150 pounds, you’ll burn 60 calories walking moderately but 102 calories uphill.
That’s a HUGE difference!
So one of the simplest ways to get more out of your walk is to change your terrain and go uphill.
Go take a walk on a hiking trail or find a hill to climb. The more resistance you face, the more calories you’ll burn.
Go a little bit faster
Since the total calories you burn is determined by the work you’re putting in, by just simply increasing your pace slightly, you can start to burn a few more calories each walk. Walking even half a mile per hour faster can make a big difference over time.
Here’s that in numbers: if you weigh 120 pounds, you’ll burn 50 calories at a moderate pace but 95 at a faster pace.
Turn it into a competition
If you are like us, you may be competitive, and that is a great way to stay motivated.
There are quite a few apps that can help you and your friends compare and contrast how far you’ve each walked, if walking together is not an option.
The 1st Phorm App has a step counter right on the home screen of the app!
INVEST IN A VEST
The more you weigh, the more calories you’ll burn per minute.
But you can manipulate that to get a better workout.
How?
Add more weight!
Here's one way to do it: Look into things such as a weighted vest or a ruck. Both of these can add weight and increase the difficulty of your walk.
Thus, increasing the calories you burn.
That’s because it adds weight and can help you burn more calories per minute.
TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT YOUR DIET
The fact is, you can’t out-walk a bad diet.
I know, I too have tried outworking a bad diet myself, and it never yields the results I want.
You need to be consuming fewer calories than you’re burning if you’re hoping to lose weight while walking.
Make sure to reduce calorie-heavy foods and opt instead for nutrient-dense foods/meals.
Making sure to consume adequate amounts of protein can also help improve fat loss efforts, while helping you build lean muscle.
At this point, I hope you have a better understanding of the answer to, “How many calories do you burn from walking?” … because while I can’t give you an exact number, you now know a few considerations on what will determine the number of calories you burn from walking.
Plus, although the calories burnt will vary from person to person, we can all agree that walking is a great way to exercise and can be performed almost anywhere.
If you have any questions about walking, working out, or anything else to help you reach your goals, don’t hesitate to reach out.
No matter what your fitness goals are, we can help.
Here at 1st Phorm we have a team of NASM Certified Personal Trainers that can answer your questions and help you all for free.
And we’ll help you even if you don’t shop with us or use any supplements.
So if you have questions, feel free to send us an email at CustomerService@1stPhorm.com or give us a call at 1-800-409-9732.
