How many calories do you burn walking a kilometre?

The short answer

About 59 calories, for an adult of average height who weighs 70 kg (154 lb). Your weight changes it more than anything else: about 47 calories at 55 kg (121 lb) and about 85 at 100 kg (220 lb). A kilometre is 0.62 miles, about 1,400 steps for an adult of average height, and about 12 minutes at a normal pace.

Calories for 1 km, by body weight

Body weight	Calories for 1 km
55 kg (121 lb)	about 47 kcal
70 kg (154 lb)	about 59 kcal
85 kg (187 lb)	about 72 kcal
100 kg (220 lb)	about 85 kcal

For an adult of average height, about 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in), on level ground, from a model of walking energy built on height, weight and speed, which tested within a few percent of measured values.

Does pace matter?

Hardly, on the flat. Walking briskly burns calories faster, but you finish sooner, so the total comes out almost the same: for a 70 kg adult, about 61 calories at a stroll of 4 km/h and 60 at a brisk 6 km/h. If you want to burn more on the same walk, the levers are distance and hills, not speed.

Why your watch may show less

These are total calories, including what your body burns anyway just by being alive. Apple Watch shows less, about 45 for 1 km at 70 kg, because its Move ring counts only the calories on top of that.

Your own number

The walking calories calculator works it out for your weight, height and distance, and how many steps in a km has the steps and times. For a single mile, see calories per mile.

A reason to walk today

The hard part of walking more is not the walking. It is having a reason to go out today. reTrek gives your walks a finish line: pick a famous route, like the Camino de Santiago or the Inca Trail, and every walk moves you further along it, with a short film about the place waiting at each milestone. You stop looking for a spare moment to walk and start walking to reach the next milestone.

Everest Base Camp is free. Get reTrek.