Work out calories and kilojoules burned from walking, based on your body weight, your pace, and either the time you walked or the distance you covered.
Walking burns calories in proportion to how hard your body is working, which is captured by a MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) value for each walking pace. The formula is calories = MET × body weight in kilograms × time in hours. A faster pace carries a higher MET, so a brisk 6.3 km/h walk burns noticeably more than a slow stroll over the same weight and duration. A 70 kg adult walking briskly for 30 minutes burns close to 168 kcal, or about 703 kJ.
| Metric | Value |
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The calculation rests on three things: your walking pace (expressed as a MET value), your body weight, and how long you were moving. Heavier bodies and harder paces both burn more per minute, and more minutes simply means more total calories.
The table below uses a moderate walking pace (MET 3.8, about 5.5 km/h) held for a full hour, so you can see how much body weight alone changes the outcome.
| Body Weight | MET | Calories (60 min) | Kilojoules |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 kg | 3.8 | 228 kcal | 954 kJ |
| 70 kg | 3.8 | 266 kcal | 1,113 kJ |
| 80 kg | 3.8 | 304 kcal | 1,272 kJ |
| 90 kg | 3.8 | 342 kcal | 1,431 kJ |
| 100 kg | 3.8 | 380 kcal | 1,590 kJ |
Here the body weight and duration are fixed at 70 kg and 30 minutes, and only the pace changes, so you can see exactly how much speed matters on its own.
| Pace | MET | Speed | Calories (30 min) | Distance Covered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy stroll | 2.3 | 3.2 km/h | 81 kcal | 1.6 km |
| Slow walk | 2.8 | 3.9 km/h | 98 kcal | 1.95 km |
| Comfortable walk | 3.0 | 4.0 km/h | 105 kcal | 2.0 km |
| Moderate walk | 3.8 | 5.5 km/h | 133 kcal | 2.75 km |
| Brisk walk | 4.8 | 6.3 km/h | 168 kcal | 3.15 km |
| Power walk | 5.5 | 7.1 km/h | 193 kcal | 3.55 km |
| Very fast walk | 7.0 | 7.9 km/h | 245 kcal | 3.95 km |
| Speed walking | 8.5 | 8.9 km/h | 298 kcal | 4.45 km |
Everything above assumes flat, level ground. Add an incline — a hill outdoors or a raised treadmill deck — and your legs have to work against gravity with every step, which pushes the effective MET well above the flat-ground figures used in this calculator. Even a gentle grade adds a meaningful amount to your total burn, and the effect grows quickly as the incline steepens. If most of your walking happens on hills or on an inclined treadmill, treat the numbers on this page as a conservative floor rather than an exact total — your real-world burn is likely a bit higher.
Australian nutrition panels list energy in kilojoules, not calories, so it helps to convert your walking burn into the same unit your food packaging uses. Multiply your calorie figure by 4.184 to get kilojoules. A 70 kg person doing a 30-minute brisk walk burns about 168 kcal, which is roughly 703 kJ — useful to know if you want to weigh a walk against the energy value printed on a snack or drink label.
How many calories does a 30-minute walk burn?
It depends heavily on pace. For a 70 kg adult walking for 30 minutes, a comfortable walk (MET 3.0) burns about 105 kcal, a moderate walk (MET 3.8) burns about 133 kcal, and a brisk walk (MET 4.8) burns about 168 kcal. Speed walking pushes that up to around 298 kcal. Use the calculator above with your own weight for a more exact figure.
Does walking speed change how many calories I burn?
Yes, and the effect is larger than most people expect. Each walking pace has its own MET value, and MET rises faster than speed does as you move from a stroll to a fast walk. Going from a comfortable 4.0 km/h walk to a brisk 6.3 km/h walk for the same 30 minutes lifts calorie burn for a 70 kg person from about 105 kcal to about 168 kcal, even though the time spent is identical.
How many calories does walking 10,000 steps burn?
Ten thousand steps typically covers around 7 to 8 kilometres for an adult with an average stride length. At a moderate walking pace (MET 3.8, about 5.5 km/h) that distance takes roughly 1 hour 27 minutes, and a 70 kg person would burn approximately 387 kcal, about 1,619 kJ, completing it. Taller people with a longer stride cover 10,000 steps in less distance and time, so the figure moves around from person to person.
How much more do I burn walking uphill or on an incline?
This calculator uses flat-ground MET values, but walking uphill makes your muscles work harder against gravity, which raises the effective MET well above the flat-pace figures listed here. Even a modest incline can add a meaningful amount to your total burn, and the effect grows with steeper grades. If most of your walking happens on hills or an inclined treadmill, treat the numbers above as a conservative floor rather than an exact total.
Is it better to walk faster or walk for longer to burn more calories?
Both increase total calorie burn, but they do it differently. Walking faster raises your MET value, so you burn more per minute; walking longer simply gives more minutes for the same rate to add up. A 20-minute brisk walk and a 30-minute comfortable walk can end up fairly close in total calories for a given body weight, so the better choice usually comes down to which pace and duration you can sustain regularly.
How do I convert calories burned walking into kilojoules?
Multiply the calorie figure by 4.184, since that is the standard conversion between kilocalories and kilojoules used on Australian food labels. A 70 kg person doing a 30-minute brisk walk burns about 168 kcal, which converts to roughly 703 kJ, useful to know if you want to compare your walk against the energy value printed on a snack or drink label.
Does body weight affect how many calories walking burns?
Yes, body weight is one of the three inputs in the calculation along with pace and time. Because calories equal MET multiplied by weight in kilograms multiplied by time in hours, a heavier person burns proportionally more calories than a lighter person walking at the identical pace for the identical duration. At a moderate pace for 60 minutes, a 100 kg person burns roughly 380 kcal compared with about 228 kcal for a 60 kg person.
Can I calculate calories for a set distance instead of a set time?
Yes. Switch the calculator to distance mode, enter how far you walked in kilometres and choose your pace, and it will work out how long that distance would take at that speed before calculating calories, kilojoules and the other results. This is useful if you tracked a route on a map or treadmill display but did not time yourself precisely.