Hiking Calorie Calculator
How many calories your hike burns, where they go, and, if you like, how much to eat that day. Every step of the arithmetic is shown under the answer.
- Moving time
- book time
- Average speed
- Average grade
- climbing over distance
- Burn rate
- calories per hour
Where those calories go
| 1.8 ml of oxygen per kg per metre up | |
|---|---|
| 0.1 ml of oxygen per kg per metre forward | |
| what your body burns at rest anyway | |
| Total |
Resting rate from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, times 1.2 for the rest of the day, plus what the hike adds on top.
| Resting rateMifflin-St Jeor, 24 hours at rest | |
|---|---|
| A normal day around itresting rate times 1.2 | |
| What the hike addsits burn minus the resting part | |
| Eat today |
Split into food
| Protein1.4 g per kg of body weight | |
|---|---|
| Fat30% of calories | |
| Carbohydrate | |
| On the trail30 to 60 g of carbohydrate per hour moving |
Estimates for planning, not medical advice. If you are managing your weight, diabetes or another medical condition, plan your food with a registered dietitian.
This calculator estimates how many calories a hike burns from your distance, your climbing, your weight and your pack. It shows where those calories go and, if you want, turns the answer into a food plan for the day. It replaces two older tools on this site, the original hiking calorie calculator and our EER calculator, with one model and every step of the arithmetic on the page.
How This Calculator Works
Calories burned depend on how long you are out there, and how long you are out there depends on the climbing. So the calculator runs published formulas in sequence instead of assuming a speed.
Step One: How Long the Hike Takes
Duration comes from book time, the estimate the Appalachian Mountain Club has printed in its White Mountain Guide for decades: a fixed cost per mile plus 30 minutes for every 1,000 feet300 metres of climbing, adjusted for your pace, the trail surface and your pack weight. It is the same model our Hiking Time Calculator and Hiking Gear Planner run, so the three tools agree about the same hike.
Step Two: What That Costs You
The burn comes from the ACSM walking equation: VO2 = 3.5 + (0.1 × speed) + (1.8 × speed × grade), with speed in metres per minute and grade as a decimal. Multiply by your total weight in kilograms and the minutes you are moving, divide by 200, and you have calories.
The three constants are the useful part, because each is a physiological cost you can reason about:
- 3.5 is what your body uses at rest, in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram per minute. You burn it on the sofa, and you burn it on the trail.
- 0.1 is the oxygen cost of moving one kilogram of you one metre forward on the flat.
- 1.8 is the cost of lifting that kilogram one metre up: eighteen times the horizontal cost. That ratio is why elevation gain, not distance, decides how hungry you get.
One litre of oxygen releases roughly 5 calories, which is where the division by 200 comes from. Your pack counts as extra body weight, the standard simplification.
Step Three: The Rest of Your Day
Tick the food-planning box and the calculator estimates your resting rate with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation: 10 × weight in kg + 6.25 × height in cm - 5 × age, plus 5 for men or minus 161 for women. A systematic review of the common equations found Mifflin-St Jeor the most reliable, landing within 10% of a measured resting rate more often than any other. The calculator multiplies it by 1.2 for an ordinary day around the hike, then adds only the hike's net cost: its burn minus the resting calories already counted. Adding the full burn to a full day would count your resting metabolism twice for the hours on the trail.
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Where Your Calories Go
Take the worked example further down. Lifting 83 kg up 4,429 feet1,350 metres costs 1,008 calories. Carrying it 8.1 miles13 km forward costs 540. And 422 are what you would have burned lying in bed for the same 4 hours and 50 minutes. The climb alone is worth 1.9 times the walking, which is why the calculator asks for your total climbing, and why the result table shows the three parts separately.
How Much to Eat on a Hiking Day
The food plan splits the day's calories using ranges from sports-nutrition research rather than a fixed diet ratio:
- Protein: 1.4 g per kg of body weight, inside the 1.2 to 2.0 g per kg the American College of Sports Medicine's position stand on nutrition and athletic performance gives for active people. Multi-day hikers can move toward the top of that range.
- Fat: 30% of calories, inside the 20 to 35% the Institute of Medicine sets for adults. Fat is the densest fuel you can carry: 9 calories per gram, against 4 for carbohydrate and protein.
- Carbohydrate: the rest. The calculator checks it against the position stand's range for the day (6 to 10 g per kg when you are moving for an hour or more, 5 to 7 g per kg for less) and tells you if you land outside it.
- On the trail: 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate per hour on the move for hikes up to two and a half hours, the position stand's range for that length of exercise. For longer days it goes up to 90 g an hour, so the calculator plans 60 to 90 g.
For the worked example, a 35-year-old man at 5 ft 10 in178 cm and 165 lb75 kg should eat about 3,620 calories that day: 105 g of protein, 121 g of fat and 528 g of carbohydrate, with 290 to 440 g of it eaten on the trail.
Our guide to multi-day hiking nutrition, built with sports dietitian Nancy Clark, works the same way: a baseline for the day plus what the hiking adds. Its table puts a moderate day hike at 200 to 300 calories an hour on top of that baseline, and a backpacking day at 300 to 400. The calculator lands in the same place: about 270 an hour for its default hike (6 miles9.7 km with 1,500 feet460 metres of climbing, a 160 lb73 kg hiker and a 15 lb7 kg pack) and about 328 for the much steeper worked example.
The guide also covers what this calculator deliberately leaves out. For high-altitude treks it plans 400 to 450 calories an hour, and 400 to 500 for winter and expedition days, for 5,000 to 8,000 calories or more a day. If your trip is one of those, plan from its ranges. Its altitude template, two thirds of those calories from carbohydrate, works out to about 65 to 75 g an hour, inside the 60 to 90 g the calculator gives for long days. For single days, our day hiking lunch ideas turn the numbers into a menu.
Why This Replaced Two Older Tools
This page used to carry a calorie calculator that assumed a walking speed of 3.1 mph5 km/h whatever the terrain, which put the worked example at 2.6 hours and 1,626 calories. Our own time calculator says 4 hours and 50 minutes for that hike. The site also had a separate EER calculator that asked you to pick a hiking intensity and then added percentage surcharges for pack, weather and altitude. On the same hike, the intensity pick alone moved its answer from 1,458 to 3,070 calories.
Both are replaced by this page. Duration now comes from your route, intensity from the grade you actually climb, and your pack from its real weight. There is no surcharge for cold or altitude, because there is no single evidence-based percentage we could apply honestly. For high-altitude, winter and expedition trips, plan from the ranges in our multi-day nutrition guide instead. The extra weight of winter gear still counts, through your pack weight.
What This Estimate Cannot Do
- The walking equation was validated for about 50 to 100 m per minute, roughly 1.9 to 3.7 mph.3 to 6 km/h. Steep hikes drop below that, and the calculator says so on screen when yours does. The climbing share still holds, because 1.8 ml of oxygen per kg per vertical metre is a fixed cost rather than a curve fitted to a speed range. The flat-ground share is the extrapolated part.
- It uses your average grade. A route that climbs hard and then descends for miles has the same average as a steady ramp, and will not feel like it.
- Resting-rate equations predict averages. Even the most reliable one can be off by more than 10% for an individual, and older adults and some ethnic groups were underrepresented in the studies behind it.
- It is a planning tool, not a medical one. If you are managing your weight, diabetes or another condition, plan your food with a registered dietitian.
How Many Calories Does Hiking Burn?
A hike of 8.1 miles13 km with 4,429 feet1,350 metres of climbing, walked by a 165 lb75 kg hiker carrying an 18 lb8 kg pack, burns about 1,970 calories. Here is that number taken apart.
Step 1: Convert Everything to Standard Units
Distance: 13 km = 13,000 m = 8.08 miles
Elevation gain: 1,350 m = 4,429 ft
Total weight: 75 kg hiker + 8 kg pack = 83 kg
Step 2: Work Out the Moving Time
Book time = (8.08 miles × 19.5 min) + (4,429 ft ÷ 1,000 × 30 min) = 157.5 + 132.9 = 290.4 minutes, or 4 hours and 50 minutes
An 18 lb8 kg pack sits in the normal band, the trail is maintained and the pace steady, so no multipliers apply.
Step 3: Derive Speed and Grade
Speed = 13,000 m ÷ 290.4 min = 44.8 m/min
Grade = 1,350 ÷ 13,000 = 10.38%
That speed is below the validated band, exactly the situation a steep hike creates, which is why the calculator flags it instead of quietly rounding it away.
Step 4: Run the Walking Equation
VO2 = 3.5 + (0.1 × 44.8) + (1.8 × 44.8 × 0.1038) = 16.34 ml/kg/min
Step 5: Convert Oxygen to Calories
Calories = 16.34 × 83 kg × 290.4 min ÷ 200 = 1,970 calories
Every figure above is rounded for legibility, so working it by hand lands a calorie or two away; the calculator carries the full decimals.
How to Use the Hiking Calorie Calculator
- Enter the distance from your guidebook or mapping app, not the straight line.
- Enter the total climbing. It is cumulative, so a route with three climbs counts all three.
- Enter your weight and your pack weight separately. The pack is lifted up every metre at the same 1.8 cost as the rest of you.
- Set your pace and the trail surface. Both change your moving time, which changes the answer.
- Tick the food-planning box if you want the day's total and the split into food. The resting-rate equation needs your age, height and which of its two versions to use.
- Read the breakdown, not just the headline. It shows climbing, distance and resting calories separately.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many calories does a short hike burn?
For a 150 lb68 kg hiker with a 10 lb4.5 kg pack, 3 miles4.8 km burns about 242 calories on the flat, 359 with 500 feet150 metres of climbing and 475 with 1,000 feet.300 metres. Same distance, and the climbing nearly doubles the answer.
How many calories does an hour of uphill hiking burn?
At a steady pace, a 160 lb73 kg hiker with a light pack burns about 410 calories an hour on a 10% grade and 450 on a 20% grade. The rate barely moves, because a steeper slope slows you down almost exactly as much as it costs you extra. Effort is what moves it: at a fast pace on a 15% grade, the same hiker climbs about 1,530 feet470 metres in the hour and burns about 520.
How many calories do I need on a hiking day?
Your normal day plus the hike's net cost. For the worked example that is about 3,620 calories for a 35-year-old man at 5 ft 10 in178 cm and 165 lb,75 kg, and about 2,874 for a 35-year-old woman at 5 ft 5 in165 cm and 137 lb62 kg carrying a 13 lb6 kg pack. Tick the food-planning box for your own numbers.
Is this the same as an EER calculator?
EER, estimated energy requirement, is the Institute of Medicine's term for the calories a person needs to maintain their weight, predicted from sex, age, height, weight and activity. This calculator does the same job for a hiking day, with the activity measured from your actual route instead of picked from a list. It replaces the separate EER calculator this site used to have.
How many carbs should I eat while hiking?
About 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate per hour on the move for hikes up to two and a half hours, and 60 to 90 g on longer days. For a hike like the worked example, 4 hours and 50 minutes long, that is 290 to 440 g. At altitude, our multi-day guide with Nancy Clark plans about 65 to 75 g an hour.
How We Built This Calculator
One engine, written once, runs the calculator on this page and produces every number in this article, so the text cannot drift away from the tool. Its duration model is shared with our Hiking Time Calculator and Hiking Gear Planner. Before publishing, the page was checked in a real browser at desktop and phone widths and in both unit systems.
Last reviewed September 2026. If a number here does not match what your watch or your appetite tells you on the trail, tell us, and see our editorial standards for how we handle corrections.
Sources
- Bushman BA. Metabolic Calculations in Action: Part 2. ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal 24(4):5-8, 2020. The walking equation and 5 calories per litre of oxygen.
- Compendium of Physical Activities, on what the 0.1 and 1.8 constants represent and the speed range the equation covers.
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 51(2):241-247, 1990.
- Frankenfield D, Roth-Yousey L, Compher C. Comparison of predictive equations for resting metabolic rate in healthy nonobese and obese adults: a systematic review. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 105(5), 2005.
- Thomas DT, Erdman KA, Burke LM. American College of Sports Medicine Joint Position Statement: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 48(3):543-568, 2016.
- Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. National Academies Press, 2005.
- Appalachian Mountain Club, White Mountain Guide, for book time. Our flat-ground pace is faster than the club's published 2 mph,3.2 km/h, matching our Hiking Time Calculator.
