Calculate the total number of calories burned while walking. Just enter your total number of steps, height, age, gender, and weight to calculate your calories burned walking.

Calories Burned Walking Formula

Calculating the total amount of calories burned from walking may seem straightforward, but the calculator above uses some nuances to get a more accurate picture. In general, the following formula can be used:

# of steps*.04 = calories

What this formula doesn’t take into account is things like age, weight, or gender, however, the calculator above does take these into account.

First, it calculates your BMI from your height, weight, and gender. Then it applies a “BMI factor” to the calories burned while walking calculated with the formula above.

This factor will increase the number of calories burned if you have a high BMI and decrease if you have a low BMI. If you think about it, it makes sense. The more you weigh the harder it will be for your body to move and the more calories it will take.

The next thing the calculator does is apply an age factor. Older people have a slower metabolism so they burn fewer calories, and vice versa with teenagers.

The last factor that goes into this formula is the speed at which you were walking. The average walking speed of a person is 3.0 mph.

Finally, it puts all of these factors together to estimate the total number of calories burned while walking. Of course, this is still an estimation because every person is different.

How many calories does “X” amount of steps burn?

The following list outlines the calories burned for an average person at an average speed with the most common requested amount of steps.

Calories Burned Walking

With the introduction of smartwatches and things like fit bits into modern society, most people have become very aware of how many steps they take a day. Most people don’t know how that translates into the calories they burn each day.

In general, most people burn about .04 calories per step. This might seem like a minuscule amount, but if you are getting 10,000 steps per day, that can add up to an extra 400 calories or in terms of food, about an extra cheeseburger!

The amount of calories you burn per step is also affected by your age and weight.

As you get older your metabolism slows down, and you burn fewer calories. Similarly, if you are extremely overweight, you will burn up to 3 times more calories per step than a person or normal weight.

That’s why the calculator above needs to know your weight, age, and gender. These are all factors that go into how many calories you burn with each step.

Walking Calories

Often times your smartwatch or other wearable devices will estimate the calories you burned through walking, but it’s important to not take this at exact face value.

Usually, these watches don’t take into consideration your age, height, and weight. Instead, they use a simple ratio of steps to calories. Similarly, you should not trust the steps on those watches to be 100% accurate. It will pick up an extra movement and count it as a step.

Walking calories might just be the easiest way to increase the number of calories your burn each day.

For instance, just a walk around the block will not only burn calories with each step, but you will also increase your body’s metabolism for minutes and hours afterward. This is called the workout effect.

There are several other ways you can try to lose weight. Some use diets like keto, others workout out more to burn more calories.

Step Your Way to Weight Loss

With the ever-increasing presence of smartwatches on the market, the awareness of one’s activity level, and in particular the number of steps you take in a day, people are starting to realize how much they move, or how much they lack movement. 

Getting around and walking every day, and exercising every day is one of the key ingredients to a happy life and optimal performance. A prevalent doctor once said, if he could proscribe the benefits of exercise in a pill in order to treat depression, he would be able to essentially cure depression.

Another doctor said that the mental benefits of exercise are so profound they could be considered a performance-enhancing drug in academic settings.

Increasing the number of steps you take in any given day will in turn increase the number of calories you burn. If you increase the number of calories you burn, without eating more food, you will lose weight. Step your way to a skinnier waistline.