How Much Calories Running and Walking Burn?

Running and walking are some of the best cardio exercises for burning calories and losing weight. However, the real question remains unanswered: how much calories does running and walking really burn?

To answer that question we need to first define what a calorie is. A calorie is a unit of energy that estimates how much energy foods provides to the body. When running or walking, your body needs calories in order to sustain the activity and function properly. Therefore, when you eat food, your digestive system and metabolism turn the food into fuel, burning it to produce calories and thus, you get the needed energy (calorie) to fuel the body.

How Much Calories Running and Walking Burn?

According to a common rule of thumb in the world of running and exercise, an average person burns approximately 100 calories per mile (1.6 km) whether while running or walking as long as you're moving the same body weight over the same distance, speed does not play much role. And Newtonian physics agree with this statement. Run 5 miles, or walk 5 mile, your calorie burn remains the same.

But in reality, this statement couldn't be further from the truth and numerous scientific proofs has emerged to disprove it. In "Energy Expenditure of Walking and Running," published on December 2004 in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, a group of Syracuse University researchers have found evidence that proved otherwise and that the 100 calorie per mile equation is a fallacy.

The experiment consisted of measuring the real calorie burn of 12 men and 12 women while running and walking roughly a mile (1600 meters) on a treadmill. At the end of the experiment, the researches stumbled upon unexpected results. What they found is that men burned an average of 124 calories when running, but just 88 calories when they walked. On the other side, the women group burned 105 and 74 calories, respectively. The heavier you are the more calories you burn, and thus had to exert more energy to move the additional weight, hence men burned more calories than women.

The calorie numbers reported above corresponds to the total calorie burn (TCB) instead of net calorie burn (NCB). Net calorie burn is the number you get after subtracting the resting metabolic calories, i.e., the calories your body would have burned during the time of the workout if you had never gotten off the sofa. The NCB for running a mile in 9:30 versus walking in 19:00 is 105 and 52 calories for men, and 91 and 43 for women, respectively. That is, running burns twice as many net calories per mile as walking.

Factors Affecting the Calorie Burn

Here is a list of the factors that can affect how much calories running or walking burn:

• Intensity of the activity, whether it's walking or running. Hence the more intense you run, the more calories you burn off.
• Your body weight. The heavier you weigh, the more calories you burn off.
• Your degree of fitness. Beginner runners will lose more calories in the early stage of the training. And as soon as the body adapts to the training, the calorie burn rate slows down.
• Volume of  the training, i.e. distance and the duration of run or walk.
• And, where you run, flat ground or hill, smooth ground or rough, etc.

Calculating Your Own Calorie Burn

Running is a high impact activity and more intense, therefore, it burns more calories per mile than walking a mile. However, if you can build up your walking speed to 5 mph (12 minutes per mile or 8 kmph) or more, you will burn more calories than running.

Running calorie burn:
Your weight (in pounds) X 0.63 = Your Net Calorie Burn per Mile

Walking calorie burn (applies to speed of 3 to 4 miles per hour):
Your weight (in pounds) X 0.30= Your Net Calorie Burn per Mile.

Nonetheless, running burns more calories than walking. Unless your current physical condition level doesn't allow you to run, walking is a good alternative and will help you lose the weight without running the risk of injury or burn out. But one question still remains: Which burns more calories from fat?