Walking is the simplest form of physical activity that offers numerous advantages including providing you with improved overall health, being inexpensive and being available to anyone, regardless of his or her age. Some fitness professionals point out that walking offers a great opportunity for individuals to start managing their weight and developing a healthier lifestyle.

You can better keep track of how many calories you burn after walking, so that you will know how much of a workout you did and if you are making progress. It can also serve as a motivation tool because you will know what your goal is for future physical exercise. The World Health Organization has identified 5 major areas of benefits for regularly participating in some form of physical activity like walking.

This guide will give you different alternatives for estimating how many calories are burned while walking, as well as how to create a successful walking program.

Benefits of Walking

Walking regularly can be an excellent source of helping you to improve your heart health and manage your weight without very much effort.

Health Benefits

As well as burning calories, walking has a number of additional health benefits, including mental health benefits, such as stress relief, and providing full body exercise (for both the body and mind).

Key Benefits

Improved heart health
Improved mood & reduced anxiety
Strong muscles & joints
Weight loss support

Walking is simple to integrate into your life (for example; walking in the morning or walking for a short time in the evening), does not require special skills or equipment, is accessible to all people, and is low-impact; therefore has a long duration of use across various ability levels. Long-term consistency is a major contributor to the effectiveness of walking to assist with weight loss and overall good health.

Factors that Affect Calories Burned When Walking

One important factor is body weight. Generally, a larger person has a greater calorie burn than a smaller person because they have more body mass to carry around. Additional factors that affect calorie burn when walking include distance walked, speed of walking; and total distance of the walk.

Other factors that may affect how many calories are burned may include the environmental conditions, such as weather (e.g., temperature or humidity, etc.); and intermittent periods (rather than constant walking).If someone walks on a hilly surface like a driveway or sidewalk with an incline they will use more energy to walk per mile than if they were walking on flat ground. In addition, the intensity at which you walk every time you step is important when determining how much weight you lose while doing so.

Daily Caloric Factors

The total number of calories you burn throughout the course of the day while walking depends on many of your unique characteristics.

Main Variable

Your individual characteristics (body composition, metabolic rate)

As an example: If you were to walk up hill (compared to walking at a normal rate on flat ground) then your total caloric expenditure for the entire walk may be nearly double that of if you were to walk at a normal rate and on flat ground.

Estimating Calories

Simple Formula

Calculating your caloric expenditure while walking does not need to be a complicated task.To arrive at a rough estimate of how many calories you’ve burned based on three pieces of information: weight, distance and intensity of exercise; you can use an extremely simple formula.

The basis of the most commonly used calculation is through the use of MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) values.

The above formula enables you quantify your energy usage without requiring sophisticated calculations.

Manual Limitations

While the above calculations may be a useful way of providing you an estimate of the number of calories burnt throughout your walking activity, it should be noted that the calculations are estimates based on general guidelines and do not take into account all the variables which could apply.

Due to these limitations, results of the calculations should be used as an estimate versus an absolute value, and small differences between estimates should be acceptable.

In order to provide more accurate results, you may choose to use manual calculations in addition to a tracking system, as this will provide more reliable results for tracking progress and therefore provide you with an effective means of staying on track and maintaining motivation.

Tracking Devices & Apps

Some examples of popular activity apps include Google Fit and Fitbit, which provide users with means of tracking the number of calories burnt during activity.

In addition, fitness apps provide users with the opportunity to track their progress over an extended period of time and have the ability to make amendments to your overall fitness goals based on past and/or present progress made by the individual.

Selecting Method

To select the best device for your use depends on two factors: (1) your budget and; (2) your level of sophistication desired/needed from your device.

Depending on the device you choose, you may have variability in accuracy of the calorie estimates, so may require researching the brand of device selected prior to purchasing. If you choose to purchase a device that also has the capability of measuring heart rate, you will be provided with a more accurate estimate of calories burnt.

Technology used in conjunction with your basic understanding of your activity will allow you to achieve a comprehensive understanding of your walking activity, and will allow you to make more informed decisions and ultimately improve your walking program.

Walking Speed

The rate at which one walks plays an important role in determining the number of calories consumed. Higher walking rates cause greater amounts of energy to be expended as a result of increased workload placed on muscles, which leads to increased exertion (increased heart rate) in support of increased effort.

Walking at a slower pace is usually pleasant but expends less energy than walking at a faster rate.

Walking Rate Types

The consumption of calories while walking can be categorized into four primary classifications based on walking rate:

Types

Slow walking uses fewer calories -- therefore, maintenance is easier
Moderate walking has equal benefits as tapering speed between walking rates
Brisk walking yields a higher level of calorie expenditure
Power walking has the highest number of calories burned per mile walked

Each person will derive varying benefits from varying walking rates depending on an individual's level of fitness and his/her respective goals.

Walking Improvement

Your ideal walking pace should create a slight amount of challenge (but is manageable).

A Simple Guide to Calculating Calories Burned While Walking