• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

TotalHiker

Your Hiking Guide

  • Apparel
  • Gear
  • Hikes
  • Info
Total Hiker > Hiking Info > Fitness > How Many Calories Are Burned Hiking And How Can You Burn More?

How Many Calories Are Burned Hiking And How Can You Burn More?

Regardless of the intensity, walking and hiking are good things to do. But, the ability to burn calories on a hike varies in relation to the terrain, speed, intensity, and pack weight.

So let's go into the four factors that influence the calories burned on a typical hike:

Hiker's weight

Unsuprisingly, a hiker's weight has an impact on the calories lost on a typical hiking session. Quite simply, for hikers with higher body weight, it is necessary to work harder to complete the hiking course.

The need to work harder means more calories are lost per hour. For instance, a hiker weighing in the region of 185 pounds is likely to drop 615 calories per 60-minute hike, while this will increase to 750 calories for a 225 pound hiker.

Backpack weight

In the same way as a heavier hiker will burn more calories than a lighter one, the same is true of the extra weight carrid.

A heavy load on the back is certain to mean more calories are burned while on the hiking trail. A combination of rugged terrain and heavy pack gives the perfect opportunity to burn plenty of calories on the trails.

For instance, a pack loaded with essential supplies at 42 pounds can help to increase the calorie burn to 650 for a female hiker or 765 for a male hike. This is assuming the trail condition is rugged and elevated.

For hiking trails of 3 miles or shorter isn't likely to demand a lot of supplies to complete with safety. Water is likely to be the heaviest supply to pack, although on certain elevated or difficult trails it might be necessary to pack special hiking or climbing equipment.

>>  Is Hiking Good Exercise? We look at the facts

However this will not up your calorie count too much, but you can address this with the next factor, speed.

Speed

Hiking a 3 mile round trip is a relatively short hiking distance, although the time-frame to finish can differ from 30-120 minutes. The completion time will of course differ based on the average walking speed.

For instance a generally flat trail is easier and makes it possible to hike at an average speed of 4 miles per hour, while an uphill hike is more difficult and might cut the average speed to approx 1 mile per hour.

For instance, the hiker at a walking speed of 2 miles per hour and weighing 165 pounds has the potential to lose 185 calories per 60 minutes, while a faster walking speed of 3.5 miles per hour will up the calorie loss to 275 per 60 minutes.

Average speed is influenced by several factors, including the terrain and fitness levels, which leads us nicely on to the final factor - the type of terrain you are trekking across.

Terrain

A flat vs an uphill trail has a significant impact on the ability to burn calories. A rugged trail with noticeable elevation gain is certain to be the most desirable option for those wishing to increase the calorie burn.

For instance, a moderate elevation gain for the hiker weighing 185 pounds has the potential to burn approx 625 calories per 60 minutes, while this will increase to about 750 calories for the hiker navigating the steep uphill terrain.

So if you want to increase the burn, find some good inclines or rough terrain that will work your body more and build up that calorie count.

>>  Hiking vs Running - Which is Better For You and Why?

Summary

Hiking will burn different amounts of calories depending on the hiker, the terrain and the intensity.

You should tailor these factors to your overall goals and the trail length - there is no point going off at a storming pace if you have to cover 20 miles in a day, you will burn out.

Also, if you want to have an all-over workout as well as some extra stability, look at using trekking poles...your knees and ankles will love you for this too, especially on rougher terrain.

Contents

  • 1 Hiker's weight
  • 2 Backpack weight
  • 3 Speed
  • 4 Terrain
  • 5 Summary

March 21, 2020

Primary Sidebar

Increase the Speed of Your Hikes

How to Increase the Speed of Your Hikes

Post Hike Recovery

Post Hiking Recovery: 8 Useful Tips

Hiking vs Running - Which is Better For You and Why?

What Muscles Does Hiking Work? The Answer May Surprise You

How to Prepare Your Knees for Hiking

Reduce Hiking Knee Pain and Prepare Your Knees for Hiking

How Many Calories Are Burned Hiking And How Can You Burn More?

More on Hiking Fitness >>

Footer

  • Affiliate Disclosure
  • About Total Hiker
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy & Cookie Policy
  • Contact Us

Affiliate Disclosure

We believe in being as transparent as possible when it comes to this site. With this in mind, please be aware that we may receive remuneration for some of the products we review on this site.

Total Hiker is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com (and other Amazon programs).

We will also list ads from time to time. You should be able to see these as text links or blocks of ads which have a small notation indicating “Ads by Google” or “AdChoices”.

Our mission is to help our visitors, but this is also very clearly a for-profit site and you should realize as much. We include only those products that we believe could benefit you, some of which we may get a commission if you purchase them. However, we also provide links on the site to information resources for which we receive no compensation.

If you have any questions whatsoever, please contact us using the "contact" option on the site menu and we will be happy to answer any questions.

Trademark Dislosure

Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.

In addition, any other trademarks and logos we mention on this site are also the property of their respective owners.

Copyright © 2022 Total Hiker