Walking is an easy, accessible form of exercise that requires neither a bunch of expensive equipment nor a special set of skills. It doesn’t call for a high level of fitness or an elaborate workout space. And it comes with a plethora of benefits.

According to research walking may help to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease.¹²³ It may also boost immune function and reduce the risk of developing acute respiratory infections such as cold and flu.⁴ Walking regularly is associated with increased longevity, and studies show it may slow down age-related decline in memory.⁵⁶ Walking may also improve mood, especially when walking in nature.⁷⁸

All that, plus the fact that walking strengthens muscles, boosts endurance and stamina, and burns calories. So how many calories can you burn walking?

Calories Burned Walking

How many calories you burn walking depends on how far you walk and your bodyweight. You burn about 100 calories per mile if you weigh 180lbs, and a one-hour walk will burn between 300 and 400 calories when walking at a brisk pace.

Using that rule of thumb, you can easily work out how many calories you burn walking. To make things even easier, we’ve put together some charts to help you determine how many calories you’ll burn.

Calories Burned Walking per Mile

The chart below shows how many calories you burn walking per mile for your bodyweight, at a pace of 4 mph. The further you walk, the more calories you burn.

The above chart shows how many calories you burn per mile walking on flat, firm ground. However, walking uphill burns about 60% more calories per mile than walking on the flat. So a 140-pound person would burn an extra 40 calories per mile compared to walking on a level surface.⁹

How to plan a walking route

If you walk outdoors, keep track of how far your walk. You can plan different walking routes to inject variety, and make some workouts more challenging and others easier. For example, you may want to include rolling hills to burn more calories.

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Calories Burned Walking per Hour

Walking pace is important because the faster you walk, the more miles you can cover, which means you burn more calories.

Just to underscore how effective it is to pick your pace, a 150 lbs person walking for 1 hour at a leisurely pace of 2.0 mph burns roughly 170 calories. Increase that walking pace to 3.5 mph (brisk walk), they’ll burn about 260 calories. At a very brisk of 4.0 mph, it would be almost 340 calories. You can literally double your calorie burn, just by walking faster.

The chart below shows the calories burned walking for 1 hour according to walking speed and bodyweight.

An average person walks at a speed of about 2.5 to 3 miles an hour (about 20 minutes a mile).¹⁰ To lose weight and get fit aim to walk at a brisk pace, which is generally about 3.5 to 4 miles an hour (15 minutes a mile). Increasing your pace from 3 mph to 4 mph means you’ll burn about one third extra calories.

Walking is a great way to lose weight. And it’s easy to incorporate walking into your schedule by adding mini-workouts into your day. Using a pedometer can also help you keep track and encourage you to take more steps.

How to start walking

If you’re just starting to exercise after being inactive keep your walking workouts relatively brief. Start with 10 to 15 minute walks at a comfortable pace and gradually increase your speed and the length of your walks, working your way towards the recommendations below.

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Here are some tips to help you lose weight, get fit, and improve your health by walking.

How fast should you walk? To lose weight walking, aim to walk at a brisk pace. A brisk pace should feel like you’re walking with purpose. Start walking at a pace as though you are on your way to an appointment with little time to spare. If that pace seems too easy, try walking at a pace as though you were several minutes late for an appointment. You should be walking faster than usual and be slightly out of breath, but still able to talk in short sentences.

How much should you walk to lose weight?

To lose a substantial amount of weight (more than 5% of body weight), the CDC recommends at least 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.¹¹¹²

You can break up your walking time any way you like to suit your preferences and your schedule. For example, you could do several short bouts of walking over the course of the day, instead of one long workout.¹³ Remember to also follow a calorie-restricted diet in combination with your walking workouts.

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What happens when you lose weight? People who weigh less burn less calories walking per mile. Therefore, when you lose weight you burn fewer calories doing the same activity. So if you want to keep burning a similar amount of calories, you need to make your walking workouts more challenging.¹⁴¹⁵

How should you progress? To make your workout more challenging you can walk further at the same pace, so you’ll spend more time walking. Or you can walk faster and cover more distance in the same time. For example, if your current walking route takes 30-minutes to complete, try and cover a slightly longer distance in the same time. Maintain your new speed or distance for a week or two and then try to slightly increase it again.

How can you burn more calories walking?

Other than increasing your walking pace and distance, there are other ways your can burn more calories. You can walk up hills, use walking poles (called Nordic walking), add intervals, or incorporate bodyweight exercises.

Not only does this burn more calories, but it also keeps your workout interesting and targets your muscles in different ways, making you stronger and increasing fitness.

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What are the benefits? Walking faster doesn’t just help you burn more calories, but can also increase the health benefits of walking. Research suggests that walking at a brisk pace lowers the risk of heart disease, cancer, dementia and death more than walking a similar distance at a slower pace.¹⁶

Next steps. Once you can easily walk at a brisk pace of about 4 mph for 30 minutes, you can try gradually incorporating 30-second bouts of slow jogging (at a pace not much faster than a fast walk) or try this walk-run plan.