How Many Calories Does Hiking Burn? The Real Math
Hiking sits in an unusual spot among exercises: it can be as gentle as a stroll or as demanding as a hard run, on the same trail, depending on grade and load. That makes single-number answers ("hiking burns 500 calories an hour") close to useless. The honest answer is a formula, and the formula is simple enough to do in your head.
The formula exercise science actually uses
Energy expenditure is estimated with MET values — Metabolic Equivalents of Task — from the Compendium of Physical Activities. One MET is your resting metabolic rate. The math:
Relevant Compendium values: general hiking is about 5.3 METs, hiking uphill with moderate grades runs 6–7, and backpacking with a loaded pack is rated around 7.8 METs. Climbing steep terrain with a heavy load can exceed 9.
Reference table
| Scenario | MET | 150 lb hiker | 180 lb hiker | 210 lb hiker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy, flat trail | 4.5 | ~305/hr | ~370/hr | ~430/hr |
| Moderate hills, day pack | 6.0 | ~410/hr | ~490/hr | ~570/hr |
| Backpacking, 30 lb load | 7.8 | ~530/hr | ~640/hr | ~745/hr |
| Steep climb, heavy pack | 9.0 | ~615/hr | ~735/hr | ~860/hr |
What moves the number most
Grade dominates. Research on graded walking shows energy cost rises steeply with incline — a 10% grade can nearly double the cost of walking the same speed on flat ground. Descents are not free either: eccentric muscle work on steep downhills still burns meaningfully more than flat walking and does more muscle damage.
Load is nearly linear. Every pound on your back is a pound your legs lift with each step. A rule of thumb from military load-carriage research: expect roughly a 1% increase in energy cost per 1% of body weight carried, rising faster above about 30% of body weight. That is one reason ultralight backpackers obsess over ounces — see hiking with a heavy pack.
Terrain and surface matter. Sand, snow, and rough talus can raise cost 20–60% over a groomed path at the same speed and grade.
Comparing hiking to other exercise
Hour for hour, moderate hiking lands between brisk walking and easy running. The full comparison — and why hiking's joint-load profile differs — is in hiking vs. walking vs. running. If your goal is fat loss specifically, the volume argument for hiking is covered in hiking for weight loss.
To turn all of this into a number for a specific route, use the calculator on our homepage — it combines distance, elevation gain, pace, body weight, and pack load in one estimate. And if you track daily steps as well as trail miles, our sister site CalculateSteps converts any distance into step counts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does hiking burn more calories than walking?
Yes, at comparable durations. Grade and terrain raise hiking to roughly 5–8 METs versus about 3.5–4.3 METs for brisk flat walking, so an hour of moderate hiking typically burns 40–80% more than an hour of brisk walking for the same person.
Do fitness watches measure hiking calories accurately?
They estimate. Wrist devices infer effort from heart rate and motion and commonly miss the cost of load carriage and descents. Treat watch numbers as trends, not measurements — errors of 15–30% are typical in validation studies.
Does hiking downhill burn calories?
Yes. Descending costs roughly half of what climbing does at the same grade, but the eccentric contractions involved cause more muscle soreness, which is why long descents leave your quads wrecked despite feeling 'easier.'