How Many Calories Does Walking Burn?

If you walk for exercise, you likely want to know how many calories are burned walking one mile, two miles, or more. Your weight and the distance you walk are the biggest factors in how many calories you burn while walking.

A rule of thumb is that you burn about 100 calories per mile for a 180-pound person and 65 calories per mile for a 120-pound person. Your walking speed matters less. To burn 1000 calories then, you'd need to walk for 10 miles as a 180-pound person.

Use these charts to learn how many calories you are burning on your walk, depending on your weight and pace for various distances from one mile to the marathon distance of 26.2 miles.

First, take a look at the calories you would burn per mile at a typical walking pace you'd enjoy while taking a healthy walk or walking your dog. This pace is the natural one you'd assume when just going for a walk without attempting to walk fast.

Those last two figures are the 13.1-mile half-marathon distance and the 26.2-mile marathon distance.

Calories Burned Per Mile

Now see the effects of taking your walking speed up to brisk walking paces of 4 mph or more. You will burn more calories per mile as you increase your speed, but the most significant factor will still be how much you weigh.

One benefit of walking faster is walking farther in the same amount of time. Walking for a set amount of time will mean burning more calories during an exercise session.

Other Tools to Track Calories

Suppose you walk for a specific time, such as 15 minutes or 30 minutes, rather than for a particular distance. In that case, you may want to check a chart of walking calories burned by minutes walked and walking pace or use a calories burned exercising calculator.

You can check a pedometer chart for the calories burned by step counts using a pedometer. A mile averages 2,000 to 2,400 steps, depending on height and stride length.

How to Burn More Calories

If you want to burn more calories while walking, the metabolic equivalents (MET) research that produced these calorie numbers show some ways to do it. You will burn more calories by walking more miles.

Going faster at a walking pace has little effect on the calories burned per mile, but it can make a difference because you'll cover more distance in the same amount of time. Going faster is a good strategy if you only have 15 minutes or 30 minutes for walking.

Running and racewalking burn more calories per mile. Running burns more calories per mile than walking, likely due to the effort of the lift phase, which raises both feet off the ground simultaneously while running. You can burn more calories by adding running intervals to your walking workouts.

With the racewalking technique, you use more muscles during a stride than regular walking or running, which results in burning more calories per mile. Adding hills, stairs, or treadmill incline to your walking workout will burn more calories and add intensity to your activity.

The charts show that you burn more calories per mile by weighing more. You might be tempted to carry weights or put on a weighted backpack. But it would help if you considered that this would put more strain on your joints and feet. Walking for a couple of extra minutes is better to make up the difference instead.

Are You Burning Enough Calories?

To lose weight, you need to increase your activity to burn more calories each day and/or eat fewer calories each day. You can use a weight loss calculator to see what your calorie goal should be depending on how physically active you are.

A pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. To lose one pound a week, you need to burn about 500 more calories daily than you eat. You can do this by increasing your calorie-burning activity, eating fewer calories, or both.

It is easier to achieve this goal by combining increased activity and eating less. Exercising enough each day to burn 300 to 400 calories is a good goal for the exercise portion of your weight loss plan.

A Word From Verywell

The key to burning more calories with physical activity is finding something you enjoy and doing it consistently. If you enjoy walking with your dog or it is convenient to walk on your work breaks, you are likelier to keep doing it. While the numbers look small, they will add up.

To reduce your health risks and maintain fitness, health authorities recommend 10 minutes of brisk walking at a time, three times per day, or a single 30-minute walk per day. By walking a total of 2 to 3 miles per day, you will not only be burning calories but also boost your health.