I would say that walking is my favourite type of outdoor activity. Sure, I like running too, but when I’m out of practice it becomes a mental challenge to get back into the rhythm because I know that for the first few days that it will probably hurt! One reason why I do like running though, is because it seems to be the only way that I can lose body fat. Sometimes I persuade myself that frequent walks of a reasonable length should have the same effect, but it doesn’t. So I’m left wondering about how many calories do I burn walking a mile or more.
I suppose that the number of calories burned walking depends on several factors. For example, walking up uneven hills of inconsistent gradients should burn more than a gentle flat walk in a town. Also, walks in the countryside or mountains tend to be a lot longer and so more a test of stamina and muscle strength, and muscle actually burns more calories than fat. Then consider that walking in windy conditions must also take more energy. So I wonder how many calories does walking burn when it’s mostly uphill, in windy conditions and for several hours. Oh, and I almost forgot, invariably I will be carrying a pack of some sort with my all-weather gear and essentials inside – that’s got to mean more burning!
Despite all of these various factors, I did a search online to see what some generic tools would calculate. My weight fluctuates, but I used 190 pounds as mine. Using this tool I discovered that hiking for 60 minutes would burn 512 calories. Increasing this to 4 hours would mean 2050 calories. At the same time, walking at 3 mph for 1 hour would only burn 376 calories. Apparently to lose 1 pound of body weight requires burning 3500 more calories than consumed, so it would take me around 7 hours of hiking or 8 and a half hours of normal walking to lose a measly pound!
On this second tool I put my weight as 87kg, height at 185cm, and walked at 5.6kmph and lost only 319 kilocalories in 1 hour. That’s worse; it would take me over 11 hours of normal-paced flat walking in calm weather to lose a pound!
What about the third calories burned walking calculator I tried? For this one, 1 hour of cross country hiking burns 547 calories and 1 hour of walking at 3.5 mph burns 365. I think that I prefer this one as it will take me less than 6 and half hours of hiking and less than 10 hours of standard walking to lose that pesky pound!
So, based on the best case scenario, if I walk for 2 hours every day for a week at 3.5 mph then I should lose about 1.5 pounds in that week, or about 6 pounds in a month. That’s a lot of time and walking to fit around other commitments though. Maybe it will be easier to just eat fruit and vegetables for a month! That reminds me, I haven’t worked out how many calories I would burn walking a mile and then stopping, but never mind, I’ve definitely worked out that losing body weight by burning calories means a heck of a lot of walking! How many calories do YOU burn walking a mile or more?
