Walking a mile at an ordinary pace cost about 80 to 90 kcal in the young adults who were measured in two lab studies12. Your number depends mostly on your body size and the distance, and less on your speed than you might expect.
This article covers what was measured, how the reference tables work, why "per mile" and "per minute" give different answers, and how much of the total is really extra.
How walking energy is measured
The studies measure energy from breathing. This is called indirect calorimetry: the oxygen you use and the carbon dioxide you breathe out tell how much energy your body is burning, minute by minute1.
Researchers summarise activities with METs. A MET (metabolic equivalent) is the energy cost of an activity as a multiple of sitting still: sitting is 1 MET, and an activity at 4 METs costs four times as much per minute4. One MET is set at 3.5 ml of oxygen per kg of body mass per minute, or about 1 kcal per kg per hour.
The reference list is the *Compendium of Physical Activities*, updated in 2024. It gathers measured energy costs for 1,114 activities in adults aged 19 to 59, drawn from 701 papers4.
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Calorie (kcal) | The unit food labels and trackers use for energy |
| Indirect calorimetry | Measuring energy use from the gases you breathe |
| MET | Energy cost as a multiple of sitting still |
| Gross cost | Everything the body uses during the walk, including resting needs |
| Net cost | Only the extra above what you would use at rest |
In plain terms: the numbers below come from measuring breath, not from a watch or an app.
What the studies measured for a mile
Study 1 (2012). Thirty young adults of average fitness, 15 women and 15 men averaging about 22 years old, walked 1,600 m at 86 m per minute (about 3.2 mph) and on another occasion ran it2. The walk cost 372.5 kJ during exercise, about 89 kcal by our conversion. The run cost 471.0 kJ, about 113 kcal.
Study 2 (2004). Twenty-four adults walked and ran 1,600 m on a treadmill, walking at 1.41 m per second (about 3.2 mph); a subgroup repeated it on a track1. On the treadmill, walking cost 340 kJ (about 81 kcal) and running 481 kJ (about 115 kcal). On the track the numbers were almost the same: 334 kJ walking, 480 kJ running. Running cost more on both surfaces.
Energy for 1,600 m: walking vs running · kcal
Walk Run
The 2004 study also checked common prediction equations against the measurements. The ACSM and Pandolf walking equations came close to the measured energy for walking; some older tables overestimated it1.
In plain terms: in these young adults, a mile of walking at an everyday pace cost roughly 80 to 90 kcal, and running the same mile cost roughly 25% to 45% more.
Faster walking: per minute versus per mile
Walking faster costs more per minute. The Compendium gives these values for walking on firm, level ground4:
Energy cost of walking by pace, per minute · METs
Very brisk walking, 4.0 to 4.4 mph, is 5.5 METs, almost double the 2.8 METs of a slow walk at 2.0 to 2.4 mph. Both studies above walked at about 3.2 mph, inside the Compendium's "moderate pace" band.
Per mile the picture changes, because a faster walker finishes the mile sooner. Dividing each MET value by the middle of its speed band gives the MET-hours per mile. This is our arithmetic on the Compendium's values, not a measured result, and the band midpoints are our choice:
| Pace (Compendium name) | Speed band | METs | MET-hours per mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slow | 2.0–2.4 mph | 2.8 | about 1.27 |
| Moderate | 2.8–3.4 mph | 3.8 | about 1.23 |
| Brisk | 3.5–3.9 mph | 4.8 | about 1.30 |
| Very brisk | 4.0–4.4 mph | 5.5 | about 1.31 |
From slow to very brisk, the cost per mile moves by only about 3%. Speed mostly changes how long the mile takes, not what it costs. That changes at the top end: at 4.5 to 4.9 mph the Compendium gives 7.0 METs4, about 1.5 MET-hours per mile by the same arithmetic.
In plain terms: if you care about the energy of a set distance, speed matters little. If you care about the energy of a set time, speed matters a lot.
Hills matter more than speed
Slope changes the cost far more than pace. A 2017 study measured two groups of 20 healthy adults walking at speeds from 0.4 to 1.6 m per second on slopes from 6 degrees downhill to 9 degrees uphill, and found walking's energy cost can vary more than tenfold with speed, slope and load3. Their equation, built on speed, slope and total mass alone, predicted the measured cost very closely (r² 0.99).
A 2025 study put a popular incline routine to the test: 30 minutes at 3 mph on a 12% slope5. In the 14 young, recreationally active adults analysed, the session cost about 308 kcal on average, or about 10.2 kcal per minute. Self-paced treadmill running until they had used the same energy took about 24 minutes, at about 13.1 kcal per minute.
Bigger bodies use more
Because a MET is defined per kg of body mass, the energy of a walk rises with body size4. By the MET arithmetic, a mile at a moderate pace works out to about 1.2 to 1.3 kcal per kg of body mass, gross. That is a rate, not a result for any individual: the Compendium's authors say its values are a starting point and "do not reflect precise individual" energy use, because resting metabolism differs between people4.
How much of it is extra?
The measured totals above are gross: they include the energy your body would have used anyway while sitting. Sitting is 1 MET, so for a moderate walk at 3.8 METs, about a quarter of the total would have been spent anyway. By the same arithmetic, the net cost of a moderate mile is closer to 0.9 kcal per kg than 1.2. The two lab studies reported gross energy, so their 80 to 90 kcal includes that resting share.
The after-effect is small. In the 2012 study, energy use returned to resting 10 minutes after the walk and 15 minutes after the run2.
Gross versus net is one reason an exercise readout can look bigger than a walk's true extra cost (see why exercise burns fewer calories than the tracker says). Everyday walking outside workouts counts as NEAT, the energy of non-exercise movement (see what is NEAT).
In plain terms: count the walk's extra cost, not its total, when you think about what it adds to your day. For how daily movement feeds into a nutrition target, see what is TDEE.
What the studies found
| Study | Who was studied | Key result | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hall et al., *Med Sci Sports Exerc*1 | 24 adults; 1,600 m walk and run, treadmill and track | Walk 340 kJ (about 81 kcal), run 481 kJ (about 115 kcal) | 2004 |
| Wilkin et al., *J Strength Cond Res*2 | 30 young adults of average fitness; 1,600 m walk and run | Walk 372.5 kJ (about 89 kcal), run 471.0 kJ (about 113 kcal) | 2012 |
| Ludlow & Weyand, *J Appl Physiol*3 | Two groups of 20 healthy adults across speeds, slopes and loads | Walking cost varies more than tenfold; speed, slope and mass predict it (r² 0.99) | 2017 |
| Herrmann et al., *J Sport Health Sci*4 | 2024 Adult Compendium: 701 papers, adults 19 to 59 | Slow walk 2.8 METs, moderate 3.8, brisk 4.8, very brisk 5.5 | 2024 |
| Wong et al., *Int J Exerc Sci*5 | 14 recreationally active young adults; 30 min incline walk vs flat run | Incline walk about 308 kcal, about 10.2 kcal per minute | 2025 |
Limits worth knowing
- Young, healthy, average-sized groups. Both mile studies were in young adults; older adults and people with larger bodies were not tested.
- Group averages. Individuals varied: the 2012 walk's standard deviation was about 78 kJ (about 19 kcal)2.
- Abstracts only for the two mile studies and the 2017 slope study. We used only numbers in the abstracts.
- Gross, not net. The mile studies reported total energy during exercise; the net figures here are our arithmetic.
- Reference values, not measurements of you. The Compendium is a starting point for adults 19 to 59 on firm, level ground4.
- Small incline study. Fourteen people completed the 2025 study, described by its authors as exploratory5.
Latest research
The newest study we opened is the 2025 incline-walking study5. It shows how much slope adds: 30 minutes at 3 mph on a 12% slope used about 10 kcal a minute in young active adults, far above flat walking at a similar pace. It was small and exploratory. For flat walking, the 2024 Compendium update remains the main reference4.
The short version
- A mile of walking at an ordinary pace cost about 80 to 90 kcal in two lab studies of young adults.
- Body size and distance drive the number; speed matters little per mile but a lot per minute.
- Hills and loads raise the cost far more than pace does.
- The totals include resting energy; the extra cost of the walk is about a quarter lower at a moderate pace.
Educational overview only — not medical advice.
