Walking is one of the easiest ways to increase your fitness, control your weight, and improve your health. Because it requires no athletic skill or special equipment, walking is very accessible, and most people can do it.
In addition, walking is a low-stress activity, so you can walk far and often. You don’t even have to limit yourself to walking just once per day. Instead, you can walk several times each day, accumulating a high volume of steps.
However, if you are walking for weight loss, it’ll be handy to know how many calories you burn while walking.
Use our steps to calories calculator to determine how much walking you need to do to burn fat and lose weight.
Steps to Calories Calculator
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Calories Burned
What Is the Steps to Calories Calculator?
The Steps to Calories Calculator is a simple tool for determining how many calories you burn when walking a predetermined number of steps. This can be useful when working out how many steps you need to do for weight control and fat burning.
For example, suppose you want to burn an additional 500 calories per day. In that case, you can use this calculator to discover how many steps you need to take to hit your goal.
The Steps to Calories Calculator uses your weight and age to estimate your calorie expenditure for your specified step count. You can enter any step count, including the popular 10,000 steps per day.
Related: How to Use Counting Steps to Get Lean
How to Use the Steps to Calories Calculator
The Steps to Calories Calculator is very straightforward to use. Just follow these step-by-step instructions:
- Select your preferred units, choosing between imperial (feet, inches) and metric (meters, centimeters).
- Enter your proposed step count, e.g., 5000.
- Hit “calculate.”
- Read off your result.
Interpreting your Results
Your result is the number of calories burned walking the specified number of steps. This is in addition to your normal daily calorie expenditure, which includes your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), the Thermal Effect of Food (TEF), and the Thermal Effect of Activity (TEA).
Armed with this information, you may want to increase your step count per day so you burn more calories per day. Input different step counts until you arrive at the number of calories you want to burn.
Factors Affecting Your Results
While the Steps to Calories Calculator is pretty accurate, there is a margin for error. That’s because it does not take into account all of the variables that affect your caloric expenditure while walking.
As such, it’s only an estimate of how many calories you burn while walking. Factors that can affect the number of calories you burn include:
Walking speed
Walking faster burns more calories than walking slowly. The average walking speed is three to four miles an hour, or 15 to 20 minutes per mile. The faster you walk, the harder you’ll be working, and the higher your caloric expenditure will be.
If you want to burn more calories, pick up the pace and stride out with purpose. Swing your arms and try to walk as quickly as possible without breaking into a jog.
Related: How Long to Walk a Mile Calculator
Terrain
Walking uphill and over rough ground burns more calories than walking on flat, even surfaces. The more challenging the surface, the harder you’ll need to work to maintain your balance, overcome gravity, and propel yourself forward. This will probably be reflected in a more elevated heart and breathing rate.
You can burn more calories by seeking out hills or walking on uneven trails. This will use more energy than walking on flat pavements or using a motorized treadmill, even if you do the same number of steps.
Additional weight
Our calculator uses your body weight to determine how many calories you burn while walking. However, carrying extra weight, e.g., a backpack, will increase your caloric expenditure.
While it’s almost impossible to accurately determine how much carrying weight will affect your caloric expenditure, walking with a backpack or weighted vest will inevitably burn more calories than walking without one.
Wearing a backpack or weighted vest while walking is known as rucking, which is a cornerstone of military fitness training.
One way to estimate how many extra calories you’ll burn while carrying a load is to add the extra weight to your body weight when you do your steps to calories calculation. For example, if you weigh 180 lbs. but plan on carrying an additional 25 lbs., enter 205 lbs. in the bodyweight box.
While not 100% accurate, this should provide you with a rough idea of how many extra calories you’ll burn while carrying weight.
Fitness
The fitter you are, the easier walking becomes, and the fewer calories you’ll use to cover the same number of steps. As a result, less-fit individuals will burn more calories than their fitter counterparts as they must work harder.
As such, your calorie count will decrease as you get fitter. However, this can be offset by walking faster, which will probably happen naturally as your fitness improves.
Summary: To maximize your caloric expenditure while walking, walk at a brisk pace, seek out hills and uneven terrain, wear a backpack or weighted vest, and pick up the pace as you get fitter.
Related: How to Walk for Fitness and Fat Loss – Your Ultimate Guide
Steps to Calories FAQ
1. How many steps does it take to walk a mile?
The average person takes about 2,000 steps to cover a mile. However, this varies according to your speed, height, and stride length. You can get a more accurate estimate of how many steps you’ll take walking a mile with this easy-to-use calculator.
2. How many steps do I need to lose weight?
This is a tricky question to answer because it depends on your current diet and calorie intake/expenditure. In fact, you could do a lot of walking and still not lose weight if you are eating too much.
So, assuming your calorie intake currently matches your calorie expenditure and your weight is stable, walking 10,000 steps per day will give you a calorie deficit of about 3,500 per week, which should result in a weight loss of one pound.
If you aren’t losing weight, you are probably overeating and need to create a more significant calorie deficit. Alternatively, you could try increasing your step count.
3. How many calories does walking three miles burn?
While step counting is a popular way to determine how far you’ve walked, you can also use miles or kilometers. This is useful if you have a measured route you like to walk.
The same factors that affect your calorie expenditure for steps walked also affect calories burned for distance, i.e., body weight, height/stride length, fitness, speed, etc. However, you can get a reasonable estimate of how many calories you burn by walking with this calculator.
4. How much weight should I use for rucking?
Rucking, or walking with a backpack or weighted vest, is a great workout. It burns a similar number of calories to running but is much easier on your joints. If you want to maximize your calorie burn but don’t want to start jogging or running, rucking could be a great option.
However, it’s crucial that you don’t use too much weight too soon, as rucking can be tiring.
Start with an additional load of about 10% of your body weight. So, if you weigh 160 lbs., put about 15 extra pounds in your rucksack or weighted vest. Increase this weight gradually by a few pounds at a time as you get used to walking with additional weight.
In addition, don’t walk too far or too fast when you’re starting out. The last thing you want to do is get halfway around your route and realize you are too tired to finish. So be conservative and increase the distance gradually.
5. Isn’t walking too easy to be beneficial?
Walking is pretty easy compared to running, jumping rope, HIIT, CrossFit, etc. However, that easiness is what makes walking such a powerful workout!
Because it’s a low-stress, low-intensity workout, you can walk long and often and do it alongside your regular workout routine. As such, it provides a great way to increase your daily caloric expenditure without tiring you out or taking energy away from your primary training. Walking is also a very low-risk activity and unlikely to result in injuries.
In addition, walking increases general blood flow and oxygenates your tissues, enhancing recovery between workouts. Walking is also good for general health and can help lower stress levels. It’s a natural sleep enhancer, and getting more sleep is almost always a good thing.
So, while there is nothing wrong with doing more intense workouts, there is a limit to how often and how long you can do them. In contrast, walking is far easier on your body, so you can do it daily if you wish – and you probably should!
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Steps to Calories Calculator – Wrapping Up
Knowing how many steps you need to do to burn a specific number of calories can be very helpful when planning your weight loss diet and exercise plan. It tells you how much additional physical activity you need to do to reach your body composition goal.
Walking is easy and convenient, making it a great addition to a more structured and intense workout routine. However, walking is more than just a form of exercise – it’s also very beneficial for your general physical and mental health. Walking can also boost creativity and improve your mood.
Use this calculator to determine how many calories you burn while walking. But remember that walking has benefits that far exceed simple weight management!