Hiking Calorie Calculator

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Enter a few details to quickly calculate calories burned and fat loss for hikes of any distance, duration, and elevation.

Your Weight

Hike Distance

Duration/Pace

or your hike pace/speed

Climb Options

Either enter the elevation gain

°
MORE OPTIONS
expand/collapse

Uphill only

Check this box if the entire hike was uphill (i.e. no downhill hiking)

Backpack Weight

Enter the weight of any backpack or load you were carrying (leave empty if none)

Over 60

Check this box if you're aged over 60 (calorie burn is different for older adults)

Calorie Burn & Hiking

Introduction

This calculator predicts the calories burned by hiking various distances at a variety of paces for hikers of different weights.

Hiking is a popular recreational activity that comes with a range of benefits, and a popular exercise for weight loss. There is evidence that hikers burn more calories than walkers or runners since they tend to attack difficult routes with hills and challenging surfaces.

As with all sports, it's important to understand calorie burn when hiking in order to plan effectively for pre-fuelling and refuelling.

Weight loss

Hiking is an excellent way to lose weight. Unlike urban walking, hiking usually involves steeper inclines, uneven and changing terrain, carrying gear, and sometimes higher altitudes. This all means that your body needs to work harder. And this extra effort means more calories are burned when hiking is compared to walking.

A massive benefit of using hiking for weight loss is that its enjoyable nature means it's much easier to hike regularly and for longer periods.

Weight gain

The steep trails, uneven paths, and carrying a backpack means that load is placed on your legs, core, and stabilizing muscles. So, combining hiking with a calorie surplus can certainly support lean muscle, rather than fat, gain.

However, since hiking burns a lot of energy, if you're a regular hiker and trying to gain weight, then it's essential to ensure that your calorie intake is sufficient.

Weight maintenance

Those who hike for pleasure, but have no weight loss or weight gain goals, need to be aware of how much they need to compensate for extra activity.

Running Calorie Calculator

Hiking Calorie Burn Calculation

METs

We use METs, Metabolic Equivalent of Task, to estimate calorie burn. METs are a popular way of calculating the energy requirements of various sports and activities.

One MET is approximately the energy used when a person is sitting down relaxing. This baseline is used to determine the METs for all other activities.

For example, hiking at 3.5 mph demands approximately 5.7 times the energy required to sit down. Therefore, hiking at 3.5 mph equals 5.7 METs.

METs and Calories (kcal)

Conversion from METs to Calories (kcal) is achieved as follows:

Calories = activity (METs) x weight (kilograms) x duration (hours)

The number of Calories used for a 5 MET activity performed for 1.5 hours by a person weighing 75 kilograms is:

5 × 1.5 × 75 = 562.5 Calories

Hiking METs

To determine hiking METs, we use values for walking from the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities Reference List for Walking and the 2024 Older Adult Compendium and apply an adjustment based on research on the biomechanics and energetics of walking on uneven terrain.

Where MET values are unavailable for specific paces, we use linear interpolation to derive a suitable value.

Hiking Hills and Calories

We use the Load Carriage Decision Aid (LCDA) walking equation to determine the impact of hills on calorie burn. The LCDA is an equation based on data from 11 separate studies:

EE = 1.44 + 1.94S0.43 + 0.24S4 + 0.34SG(1 - 1.051 - 1.1G + 32)

where

EE = Energy Expenditure in watts per kilogram
G = Grade, expressed as a percentage
S = speed in meters per second

This gives us energy expenditure in watts per kilogram. Since watts are equivalent to joules per second, we can calculate overall energy expenditure by multiplying this result by the hike time (in seconds) and weight (in kilograms):

joules = EE x weight in kilos x hike time in seconds

From here it is trivial to convert to kilojoules and kilocalories.

Carrying a backpack while hiking

It is very common for hikers to carry gear when on a hike. This extra weight will increase the calorie burn.

Carrying extra weight when hiking will have an impact on calories burned: the greater the weight, the greater the energy used. The calculator offers the option to add the weight of any load, and it's simply added to your body weight and included in the calculation.

Hiking vs. Walking

As mentioned above, hiking is more energetically demanding than walking. If you're a walker, rather than a hiker, then we recommend our walking calorie calculator.

Hiking Fat Burn Calculation

Assuming 3,500 calories equals one pound of fat:

Weight loss (lbs) = Calories ÷ 3,500

or in metric:

Weight loss (kg) = kilojoules ÷ 32,217

For example, if somebody weighing 180 pounds hikes 12 miles at 3 mph they will burn about 1,533 kcal / 6,414 kJ and lose approximately

1,533 ÷ 3,500 ≈ 0.44 lbs

or in metric:

6,414 ÷ 32,217 ≈ 0.20 kg

Using the Calculator

Weight

Enter your weight in pounds, kilograms, or pounds and stones. Your weight will impact your energy requirements, with greater weights requiring more energy.

Backpack Weight

Enter the weight of the backpack in pounds or kilograms. The extra weight of any hiking gear will make the journey more demanding and therefore result in a greater calorie burn.

Distance

Specify the hiking distance in miles, kilometers, or meters. Longer hikes will burn more calories.

Duration/Pace

Enter the length of your hike or your hiking pace. You can specify miles per hour, kilometers per hour, minutes per mile, or minutes per kilometer. Speedier hikes and those of longer duration will result in greater calorie burn.

Age

Check the "Over 60" checkbox if appropriate. Hikers aged over 60 will burn more calories for similar hiking speeds, distances, and durations.

Elevation

If your hike is hilly then you can include the elevation gain in feet or meters. If you prefer can indicate the grade or angle. Hilly hikes have greater energy demands.

Climb Options

If the route only involves hiking up hills then check the "Uphill only" checkbox. If this is unchecked then the calculator will assume that the route includes both uphills and downhills and make adjustments based on hiking down hills being less demanding than hiking up hills.