This is a day hiking, light pack (less than 10 pounds) calculator designed to let you know how many calories you expended, or will expend when day hiking, under the following conditions:
- You have a light pack (under 10 lbs)
- you are wearing appropriate clothing for the weather conditions you’re hiking in
- You have no underlying inflammatory conditions that would increase their energy needs significantly
- You are an adult (18+)
This calculator is an adjunct to, and is featured on my article Energy Requirements for Hiking – Part 2 which is part of an ongoing series about energy requirements and nutrition for light pack, day hiking. That particular article explains the calculations behind this calculator, and provides some generalized tables and requirements for day hiking, contoured to both men and women.
Other Related Hiking Calorie Calculators
I’ve also created a total daily energy calculator for day hikers, which allows them to input the same personal metrics and hiking times for different conditions, but further allows them to pick their activity level outside of their day hike, in order to get an estimate of their total daily energy needs on the day they are hiking. For more hiking nutrition articles, check out my hiking nutrition page.
If you’re backpacking with a heavier pack, then head on over to my thru-hiking calories calculator which allows you to input your pack weight. I also have a total daily calories burned calculator for thru-hiking also which lets you add in your hours of sleep to give you a total daily calories estimate.
How To Use This Calculator To Find the Calories Burned For Your Hike
I’ll post both a men’s and a women’s calculator below so you can further customize your hike. Just enter your age, height (in both the feet and inches fields), weight in pounds, and how many minutes of each hiking condition you did, or plan to do. The calculator will tell you your basal energy expenditure and how many calories you burned, or will burn, for your hike.
Men’s Day Hiking, Light Pack Calorie Calculator
Women’s Day Hiking, Light Pack Calorie Calculator
How Does This Calculator Work?
This calculator calculates your basal energy expenditure, i.e. how much energy your body would use were you lying perfectly still in bed, on a calories per minute basis. Then it simply multiplies that number by a customized activity multiplier called a MET, for a given hiking activity, then further multiplies it by the number of minutes spent on that activity.
Hiking related MET’s are usually in the 3 to 8 multiplier range. That means, depending on the hiking activity you are participating in, you are burning 3 to 8 times the number of calories you would, lying perfectly still on a bed.
There is a simpler calories burned equation using MET’s that may make the concept easier to understand:
Calories Burned = weight (in kilograms) * MET (for a given activity) * hours spent (on that activity)
It is less customizable than my calculator’s equations, in terms of sex, age, and height. For example, in my calculator, a man weighing 140 pounds, who is 5’10”, and 20 years of age would burn 205kcals walking for an hour on flat land. A woman also weighing 140 pounds, who is 5’4″, and 70 years of age would only burn 148kcals walking for an hour on flat land, next to her male counterpart. But this simple MET equation estimates both parties would burn 190kcals during that same walk.
Example of a Hiking Calorie Calculation Using This Calculator
Check out my elevation profile of O’Melveny Park’s Mission Point hiking trail on my article on the subject. At my normal hiking speed of 2 to 2.5 miles per hour, I’ll guestimate it took me about 50 minutes of walking to climb 1,500 feet over 1.6 miles and maybe 60 minutes to get back down, having gotten lost that day on my decent. This hike is extreme, so after entering my age, weight, and height in the appropriate calculator (men’s), I’ll enter 50 minutes of steep climbing, and 60 minutes of steep downhill walking, leaving the other hiking conditions blank.
Turns out this hike cost me 640 calories (kcal on the calculator = calories). And that’s just on the hiking; I also stopped to take pictures, and stopped to rest at the top, and grab something to eat and drink out of my pack, which also burned a few calories.
Day Hiking Calculated Calories Questions and Answers
How Many Calories Do You Burn Day Hiking?
According to the calculator, a smaller older man would burn 180kcals per hour hiking, by walking on flat land, while a younger, larger man would burn 450kcals hiking up and down steep terrain for an hour. Generalizing these, on average, a man may spend about 300 calories per hour, on a given hike. A woman can spend anywhere from 120 to 340kcals per hour, or 230 calories on average, while day hiking with a light pack.
How Many Calories Are Burned Hiking 10 Miles?
A man can burn between 1,300 to 1,800 calories hiking 10 miles with a light pack, where there is a variety of hiking conditions. This averages out to be 1,550 calories. A smaller, older man would be on the lower range of this, and a younger, larger man would be on the higher range. A woman can burn between and 850 and 1,350 calories hiking 10 miles under similar conditions. This averages to 1,100 calories.
Use this calculator to find a calories burned estimate for yourself, and the trail conditions, for your 10 mile hike.
How Many Calories Are Burned Hiking in the Mountains?
A man can burn 290 to 400 calories per hour, hiking in the mountains with a light pack, where there is a variety of hiking conditions. This works out to 345 calories per hour on average. A woman can burn 190 to 300 calories per hour, hiking in the mountains under similar conditions. This averages to 245 calories.