Disclaimer: Nothing in this article should be construed as professional medical advice; only you, your doctor and nutritionist are qualified to provide customized healthcare that works for you.
Hello day hikers! After writing this article, I’ve come up with more comprehensive, sensitive and accurate energy models and calculators for day hiking. So if you’re here, looking for how many calories you’re going to burn on a particular hike, I would strongly suggest you visit my day hiking calories burned on the trail calculator, and my total daily needs for day hiking calculator, and if you’re just looking for how many calories per hour you’ll be burning on the trail, for different hiking scenarios (flat, moderate slopes, steep slopes), and corresponding tables, I’ve posted that info on the second article in this series.
The below model and tables likely underestimate daily needs for longer and more strenuous hikes. The model is a ‘Day Hike and Chill’ type, that assumes your hike is the bulk of your daily activity, and the rest of the day you’re taking it easy. I’m leaving the article up for posterity and personal reference.
How Many Calories Do You Need to Eat for Hiking?
In part 1 of this series, I’ll estimate a hiker’s daily energy requirements in kcal, as a function of number of minutes spent hiking and intensity level of the hike, using a model built off of the energy equations featured on the article ‘An Easy Approach to Calculating Estimated Energy Requirements‘ by Shirley Gerrior, PhD, RD, WenYen Juan, PhD, and Basiotis Peter, PhD, published in the CDC’s medical journal, Preventing Chronic Disease, 2006 Oct; 3(4): A129, with a PubMed ID number of PMCID: PMC1784117 and PMID: 16978504.
The calculations featured in this article quantize the results into 4 categories (sedentary, low active, active, and very active) which in my opinion limits the usefulness of the total daily energy expenditures calculated, with regard to the detailed hiking parameters I’m interested in examining. For example how does a 1 hour hike on a flat trail compare to a 2 hour hike, or a 3 hour hike, etc? We’re not going to get smooth differentials here, but nonetheless we can a least get some ballpark figures to start with, then build some better models for the latter parts in this series.
Hiking Energy Requirement Model’s Inputs and Assumptions
The body inputs into the model are as follows:
- Sex (M or F)
- Age
- Height
- Weight
The trail inputs into the model are:
- Minutes spent on each of the following conditions:
- Easy, Flat Hiking;
- Moderate Uphill Hiking;
- Steep Uphill Hiking;
- Steep Downhill Hiking
The model assumptions are:
- The hiker, as part of their daily routine, will walk around 45 minutes, outside of their hiking activity: walking to their car, to their mailbox, around the kitchen, etc., then otherwise be relatively sedentary, since we’re trying to isolate the hike as the main energy requirement above the hiker’s basal energy requirements (i.e. what their body burns just being inactive for 24 hours).
- That moderate downhill hiking expends the same energy as flat hiking. (Note: in my updated model I’ve updated moderate downhill hiking to be 10% more effort than flat hiking – see screen shot below)
- That the hiker is healthy and suffering no trauma, severe burns, chronic inflammation, or any other condition that would raise their basal energy expenditure significantly.
- That the hiker is packing light (under 10lb pack), and not burdened with a heavy pack.
- That the hiker is in pleasant weather conditions (70 to 90F degree weather), and is not in a low temperature environment (Northern U.S. Winter for example)
- That the hiker is walking 2.5mph or less and is not vigorously walking
Original Model Used in This Article
Updated Model I’m Currently Working On
METs
I originally guestimated my ‘metabolic equivalents’ or MET’s (as notated in the above original spreadsheet screenshot), based on the MET’s provided in the author’s model:
However, since then I’ve discovered a more contoured list of METs for hiking on the Compendium of Physical Activities – Walking page. I’m using it to make a more detailed model as time allows. It will allow me to include things like vigorous flat walking (3mph) for those hikers that don’t have mountains in their area of interest.
Edit: Again, I’ve completed my more accurate and detailed models, referenced directly above, here: Day Hiking Calorie Calculator, Day Hiking Total Daily Energy Needs Calculator, Day Hiking Calories Per Hour Summary for Different Trail Conditions and Reference Tables.
| Activity | MET |
| climbing hills, no load | 6.3 |
| climbing hills with 0 to 9 lb load | 6.5 |
| climbing hills with 10 to 20 lb load | 7.3 |
| hiking or walking at a normal pace through fields and hillsides | 5.3 |
| walking, 2.5 mph, level, firm surface | 3.0 |
| walking, 2.5 mph, downhill | 3.3 |
| walking, 2.8 to 3.2 mph, level, moderate pace, firm surface | 3.5 |
| walking, 2.9 to 3.5 mph, uphill, 1 to 5% grade | 5.3 |
| walking, 2.9 to 3.5 mph, uphill, 6% to 15% grade | 8.0 |
Results Based on Different Hiking Conditions
Easy, Flat Hiking
Healthy Weight Male = 30 years old; 70kg (154 lbs); 1.77m (5ft 9in.)
Healthy Weight Female = 30 years old; 54kg (118 lbs); 1.63m (5ft 4in.)
| Hiking Condition | Hiking Length (hours) | Daily Energy Needed (kcal) |
| Easy, Flat | 1 to 2 hours | M = 2,450 F = 1,830 to 2060 |
| Easy, Flat | 3 hours | M = 2,680 F = 2,060 |
| Easy, Flat | 4 to 6 hours | M = 2,960 F = 2,280 |
| Easy, Flat | 6.5 hours or more (model’s limit is 6.5 hours) | M = 3,470 F = 2,580 |
Male with BMI = 27.5 (Overweight); 30 years old; 86kg (190 lbs); 1.77m (5ft 9in.)
Female with BMI = 27.5 (Overweight); 30 years old; 73kg (160 lbs); 1.63m (5ft 4in.)
| Hiking Condition | Hiking Length (hours) | Daily Energy Needed (kcal) |
| Easy, Flat | 1 hour | M = 2,680 F = 2,040 |
| Easy, Flat | 2 to 3 hours | M = 2,940 F = 2,300 – 2,540 |
| Easy, Flat | 4 to 5 hours | M = 3,250 F = 2,540 |
| Easy, Flat | 6 to 8 hours | M = 3,820 F = 2,880 |
Moderate, Uphill Hiking then Moderate, Downhill Hiking in Equal Parts (Up and Back Trail)
Healthy Weight Male = 30 years old; 70kg (154 lbs); 1.77m (5ft 9in.)
Healthy Weight Female = 30 years old; 54kg (118 lbs); 1.63m (5ft 4in.)
| Hiking Condition | Hiking Length (hours) | Daily Energy Needed (kcal) |
| Moderate Uphill, Moderate Downhill | 2 (1 hour up, 1 hour down) | M = 2,680 F = 2,060 |
| Moderate Uphill, Moderate Downhill | 3 to 4 (1.5 to 2 hours up, 1.5 to 2 hours down) | M = 2,960 F = 2,280 |
| Moderate Uphill, Moderate Downhill | 5 to 6 (2.5 to 3 hours up, 2.5 to 3 hours down) (model’s limit is 5 hours) | M = 3,470 F = 2580 |
Overweight Male = 30 years old; 86kg (190 lbs); 1.77m (5ft 9in.)
Overweight Female = 30 years old; 73kg (160 lbs); 1.63m (5ft 4in.)
| Hiking Condition | Hiking Length (hours) | Daily Energy Needed (kcal) |
| Moderate Uphill, Moderate Downhill | 2 (1 hour up, 1 hour down) | M = 2,940 F = 2,300 |
| Moderate Uphill, Moderate Downhill | 3 to 4 (1.5 to 2 hours up, 1.5 to 2 hours down) | M = 3,260 to 3,820 F = 2,540 to 2,880 |
| Moderate Uphill, Moderate Downhill | 5 to 6 (2.5 to 3 hours up, 2.5 to 3 hours down) (model’s limit is 5 hours) (model’s limit is 4 hours) | M = 3,820 F = 2,880 |
Steep Uphill and Steep Downhill Hiking (Up and Back Trail)
Healthy Weight Male = 30 years old; 70kg (154 lbs); 1.77m (5ft 9in.)
Healthy Weight Female = 30 years old; 54kg (118 lbs); 1.63m (5ft 4in.)
| Hiking Condition | Hiking Length (hours) | Daily Energy Needed (kcal) |
| Steep Uphill and Downhill | 1 (30 minutes up, 30 minutes down) | M = 2,680 F = 2,060 |
| Steep Uphill and Downhill | 2 to 3 (1 to 1.5 hours up, 1 to 1.5 hours down) | M = 2,960 F = 2,280 |
| Steep Uphill and Downhill | 4 (2 hours up, 2 hours down) (model’s limit is 4 hours) | M = 3,470 F = 2,580 |
Overweight Male = 30 years old; 86kg (190 lbs); 1.77m (5ft 9in.)
Overweight Female = 30 years old; 73kg (160 lbs); 1.63m (5ft 4in.)
| Hiking Condition | Hiking Length (hours) | Daily Energy Needed (kcal) |
| Steep Uphill and Downhill | 1 (30 minutes up, 30 minutes down) | M = 2,940 F = 2,300 |
| Steep Uphill and Downhill | 2 to 3 (1 to 1.5 hours up, 1 to 1.5 hours down) (model’s limit is 3 hours) | M = 3,260 to 3,820 F = 2,540 to 2,880 |
How Many Extra Calories Do You Need to Hike?
The model’s baseline daily total estimated energy for a healthy weighted male (30 years old; 70kg (154 lbs); 1.77m (5ft 9in.)) is 2,450kcal and for a healthy weighted female (30 years old; 54kg (118 lbs); 1.63m (5ft 4in.)) is 1,830. This baseline assume about 45 minutes of walking for daily, routine activities and the rest of the day is spent in a sedentary condition. So to figure out your extra calories needed, assuming you are healthy weighted, you would look through the tables I constructed above for the weight, gender, trail condition, and hours spent (or are planning to spend) that matches your hike, then subtract that energy requirement from the baseline I stated above.
Example Calculation
For example, if you are a healthy weighted male, similar to the model conditions above (5ft 9in., 154lbs), going for a 2 hour hike, with 1 hour up a moderately graded hill, and 1 hour back down that hill, then your calculated energy requirement is 2,680kcal. Your baseline is 2,450kcal so the extra energy you need is the difference in these two numbers, which is 230kcal or about one Chocolate Brownie Cliff Bar.
The same idea holds true if you are the overweight male described in the section above, save your baseline kcal would be 2,680. If you are the overweight female, then your baseline is 2,040kcal.
Using the same example as above, but with the overweight male, instead of the healthy weighted male, we would use 2,940 from the table and 2,680 as the baseline for an extra energy expenditure of 260kcal.
If you are somewhere in between these two men, then your expenditure is somewhere between the two example’s numbers (230 to 260kcal).
I’ll post more tables for taller men and shorter women as time allows.
Examining the Original Model This Hike and Chill Model is Based On
If you’re interested in looking at the original nutrition article’s energy model, just click the link, An Easy Approach to Calculating Estimated Energy Requirements, Table Page, then find the link on that page next to the ‘Download the Excel Spreadsheet’ to grab it. It will open in your local spreadsheet program on your computer.
You can even recreate my model to get a customized plan for yourself by copy and pasting the description boxes row and first data row into your spreadsheet, duplicating the activity, duration, MET, and delta PAL components below the first line, down those columns, a couple more times, then copy and pasting the last row as your 4th data line to get the PAL, PA, and TEE equations that are in that row. Then just replace the activity descriptions with my hiking descriptions and MET’s with my hiking METs posted in the picture of my model above. And finally modify the PAL, PA, and TEE equations to reflect the appropriate boxes you used. If you don’t want to recreate my calculator, you can alternatively just follow the researcher’s methods below:
Calculating Your Energy Requirements By Hand: Researcher’s Method
The following calculation methods were pulled from the Preventing Chronic Disease article, posted at the top of this article.
- BEE = Basal energy expenditure, i.e. what your body would burn if you just sat perfectly still all day and didn’t eat anything. It’s based on your age in years, height in meters, and weight in kg. Ask Google to convert your parameters if you are unfamiliar with feet to meters and pounds to kilograms conversions.
- Delta PAL (triagle shape then letters PAL) is you physical activity modifier(s). You’ll need to calculate a few different PAL’s if your hike has different intensities (flat hiking vs moderate climb vs steep climb vs steep descent). The MET’s I used for these different hiking conditions were MET = 3 for flat hiking, MET = 4.7 for moderate climbing, MET = 6 for steep climbing and MET = 4.3 for steep descending. You’ll also need to know how many minutes each hiking condition happened (or will happen if you’re planning your hike out). Once you calculate all your PALs, add them all together, then also add in 1.1 to get your final PAL number.
- Pick the appropriate PA for your final Pal number and sex. For example if your a man and your final PAL is 1.68 then your PA will be 1.27 based on the method described below.
- To get your total daily energy requirement you’ll need that PA and then again your age, height and weight, using the final equation posted below.
Example calculation using a real world hike
So here’s the hike we want to do. It’s Topanga State Park’s trail to Eagle Rock :
Let’s say you’re a 5ft 8in female that weighs 155 pounds and are 36 years old.
Step 1 – Conversion to Metric System
Convert your pounds and height to kg and meters. Google says 155 pounds is 70.3kg, and 5ft 8 in is 1.73 meters
Step 2 – Find Basal Energy Expenditure
Calculate you’re basal energy expenditure
BEE = 247 – (2.67*36) + 401.5(1.73) + 8.6(70.3) = 247 – 96.1 + 694.6 +604.6 = 1,642kcals
Step 3 – Find PALs
Find you delta PALs:
delta PAL 1 is based on minutes spent climbing. The entire hike was 84 minutes so assuming 1/2 of that is getting to the top, that is 42 minutes. But it looks as though 30% of the climb to Eagle Rock was actually downhill, just by eyeballing the elevation gain map, so there’s actually 29 minutes of climbing. I’d say this is a moderate climb so my MET = 4.7 for this delta PAL. Plug and chug:
Top of PAL Equation: (4.7 – 1) * (1.15/0.9) * (29/1440) = 3.7 * 1.2777 * 0.02013 = 0.0952
Bottom of Pal Equation = 1642/[0.0175 * 1440 * 70.3] = 0.9269
Top of PAL divided by bottom of PAL = 0.103
delta PAL 2 is based on the non-climbing minutes of the hike. The hike was 84 minutes and there were 29 climbing minutes, and thus there were 55 non-climbing minutes, equivalent to flat, low intensity walking. I consider moderate descents the same as flat walking for day hikers and thus we’ll use our MET of 3 for this particular PAL calculation.
However we are also going to factor in the typical 45 minutes of daily routine walking one does around the house, or at work, so to our 55 non-climbing minutes we will add 45, for a total of 100 walking minutes.
Top of PAL Equation: (3-1) * (1.15/0.9) * (100/1440) = 2 * 1.2777 * 0.06944 = 0.1775
Bottom of PAL Eqution = same as last time = 0.9269
Top of PAL divided by bottom of PAL = 0.0976/0.9269 = 0.105
To get the final PAL number you just add 1.1 to the 0.191 and 0.103 numbers to get 1.4
Step 4 – Find PA and Calculate Daily Calories Burned
The final PAL of 1.4 correlates with a PA of 1.14 for women, and thus we have all the numbers needed to calculate the daily energy needed to perform this hike.
TEE = 387 – 7.31(36) + 1.14 * [(10.9 * 70.3) + (660.7 * 1.73)] = 387 – 263 + 1.14 * (766 + 1143) = 2,300kcal
Step 5 – Subtract Calories from Sedentary Baseline
Using the ‘sedentary’ PA of 1 with this TEE equation gives us a baseline calorie count of 2,033 and thus the hike needs about 267kcal of energy.
On paper this 267kcal number seems a bit low, but anecdotally I have similar height and weight characteristics as this theoretical hiker, and though I’m male and thus need a little more energy, I can usually get by on this hike with just a 250kcal Cliff Bar, taken in at the top of Eagle Rock.
Conclusions
Depending on your hiking intensity and hours spent on your hike, you can significantly raise your energy requirements for the day. In part one of this series I’ve explored one method of calculating this extra requirement but there are more equations out there to test, so I’ll add to this series as time allows. For more up-to-date articles on day hiking nutrition, or hiking nutrition in general, please visit my Hiking Nutrition Page. New articles drop there as soon as I publish them.
Take care and happy hiking!