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Calories Burned Walking 1 Hour — Complete Guide

Walking for one hour burns 200–350 calories. See your personalized estimate by weight, plus tips to boost your hourly calorie burn.

An hour-long walk burns approximately 200–365 calories, making it one of the most effective low-impact exercises for sustained calorie expenditure.

One hour of walking covers roughly 3 miles (4.8 km) at moderate pace and accumulates 6,000–8,000 steps — well over half the popular 10,000-step daily target in a single session. This duration allows your body to fully transition into aerobic metabolism, efficiently burning a mix of carbohydrates and stored fat for fuel.

A 60-minute brisk walk burns nearly as many calories as a 30-minute moderate run, but with far less joint impact. Compared to an hour of cycling, walking burns roughly 60–70% as many calories but requires no equipment or specific route.

Hour-long walks are powerful tools for weight management. Five weekly sessions at 300 calories each create a 1,500-calorie weekly deficit — enough to lose nearly half a pound per week without dietary changes. Break long walks into a morning and evening session if finding a continuous hour is difficult.

Direct answer: 1 hour of walking burns an estimated 207–364 calories, depending on body weight (180 lb / 82 kg: ~287 kcal). Intensity assumed: Moderate (3 mph) (MET 3.5). This is an estimate, not a measurement.

Calories burned by body weight

Body weightCalories burned
130 lb (59 kg)~207 cal
155 lb (70 kg)~245 cal
180 lb (82 kg)~287 cal
205 lb (93 kg)~326 cal
230 lb (104 kg)~364 cal

How this is calculated

Example: At MET 3.5, a 180 lb (82 kg) person doing 1 hour of walking burns approximately 287 calories: 3.5 × 82 × 1.00 h ≈ 287 kcal.

Limitations

Other intensities of walking

There is no single universal calorie figure for this activity. At 180 lb (82 kg) and the same 60 minutes:

Style / effortMETEstimate
Slow (under 2 mph)2~164 cal
Brisk (3.5 mph)4.3~353 cal
Fast (4 mph)5~410 cal
Power walking (4.5+ mph)7~574 cal

Frequently asked questions

How many calories does 1 hour of walking burn?

An estimated 207–364 calories, depending on body weight. A 180 lb (82 kg) person burns about 287 kcal, calculated as MET 3.5 × 82 kg × 1.00 hours.

How many calories per minute is that?

About 4.8 kcal per minute for a 180 lb (82 kg) person, or 3.5 kcal per kilogram of body weight across the whole session.

Why do heavier people burn more calories doing the same walking?

Because the MET formula scales directly with body mass: a 130 lb person burns about 207 kcal here versus 364 kcal for a 230 lb person — a 76% spread for the identical session.

Where does the MET value of 3.5 come from?

From the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, the reference database of measured MET intensities for physical activities. Every figure on this page uses that value in the formula Calories = MET × body weight (kg) × duration (hours).

How accurate are these walking calorie estimates?

They are estimates from population averages, not measurements. Individual results commonly land within about ±15% of the figure shown; actual intensity and pace, body composition and fitness, terrain and technique all shift the real number. The values are gross calories, so they include the energy you would have burned at rest.

Use the interactive calculator

Open the walking calorie calculator to enter your own weight, intensity and duration.

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