SnapCalorieBurn — free MET-based calorie calculators
Walking 5 miles burns 325–570 calories. Weight-based table with tips for long-distance walking and fat burning.
Walking five miles burns approximately 325–570 calories, making it a serious calorie-burning session equivalent to many gym workouts.
Five miles is the distance covered by someone hitting the popular 10,000-step target. It takes roughly 75–100 minutes at a moderate pace and represents a meaningful daily exercise commitment. At this distance, your body has been in sustained aerobic activity long enough to efficiently metabolize stored fat, making longer walks particularly effective for body composition changes.
Walking 5 miles burns comparable total calories to running 5 miles — roughly 325–570 calories vs 325–575 for running. Five miles of walking also burns more than an hour of moderate cycling at typical speeds.
A daily 5-mile walk creates a weekly calorie expenditure of 2,275–3,990 calories from walking alone — enough to support about 0.65–1.1 pounds of weekly fat loss without dietary changes. Consider replacing car trips under 5 miles with walking when time allows.
Direct answer: 5 miles (8 km) of walking burns an estimated 290–511 calories, depending on body weight (180 lb / 82 kg: ~403 kcal). Intensity assumed: Moderate (3 mph) (MET 3.5). This is an estimate, not a measurement.
| Body weight | Calories burned |
|---|---|
| 130 lb (59 kg) | ~290 cal |
| 155 lb (70 kg) | ~344 cal |
| 180 lb (82 kg) | ~403 cal |
| 205 lb (93 kg) | ~457 cal |
| 230 lb (104 kg) | ~511 cal |
Example: At MET 3.5, a 180 lb (82 kg) person doing approximately 5 miles (8 km) of walking burns approximately 403 calories: 3.5 × 82 × 1.40 h ≈ 403 kcal.
There is no single universal calorie figure for this activity. At 180 lb (82 kg) and the same 84 minutes:
| Style / effort | MET | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Slow (under 2 mph) | 2 | ~230 cal |
| Brisk (3.5 mph) | 4.3 | ~494 cal |
| Fast (4 mph) | 5 | ~574 cal |
| Power walking (4.5+ mph) | 7 | ~804 cal |
An estimated 290–511 calories, depending on body weight. A 180 lb (82 kg) person burns about 403 kcal, calculated as MET 3.5 × 82 kg × 1.40 hours.
About 4.8 kcal per minute for a 180 lb (82 kg) person, or 4.9 kcal per kilogram of body weight across the whole session.
Because the MET formula scales directly with body mass: a 130 lb person burns about 290 kcal here versus 511 kcal for a 230 lb person — a 76% spread for the identical session.
Not by much. For a fixed distance the energy cost is dominated by moving your body mass, so a 180 lb person lands near 403 kcal either way. A faster pace raises the calories per minute but shortens the session.
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).
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.
Open the walking calorie calculator to enter your own weight, intensity and duration.