Calories Burned Hiking Calculator
Free hiking calorie calculator with terrain-aware MET values, pack-weight load-carriage adjustment, pace modifier, and elevation gain bonus. Built on the Compendium of Physical Activities and validated against the US Army Pandolf load-carriage equation for accurate ruck and thru-hike estimates.
Your Hike
All values auto-convert. Use whichever your map app shows.
Rolling terrain with frequent 5-15% grades, moderate roots and rocks, typical state-park and foothill trails.
Snacks, water, layers, first aid. Typical 10-20 lb (5-9 kg) daypack for a 6-10 mile out-and-back.
Each 10 lbs (4.5 kg) of pack adds roughly 5% to total kcal burn.
Surface: Trail
Trail (dirt, gravel, roots) uses Pandolf terrain coefficient 1.1. Paved road uses 1.0. Loose sand or snow burn 30%+ more.
Enter your hike profile
Pick terrain, set bodyweight, pack, pace, duration, and elevation to see total calories burned.
Terrain MET Reference Table
| Terrain | MET | Typical Grade | Surface Note | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flat Trail | 5.0 | 0-5% | Dirt, gravel, rail-trail | Nature walks, recovery days |
| Hilly Trail | 6.0 | 5-15% | Roots, moderate rocks | State parks, foothills |
| Mountainous Trail | 7.0 | 15-25% | Stair-step, scree, boulders | 14er approaches, ridge hikes |
| Climbing With Pack | 8.0-9.0 | 25%+ | Sustained alpine ascent | Mountaineering, expedition |
The Complete Guide to Hiking Calorie Burn & the Pandolf Equation
Hiking is one of the most efficient calorie-burning activities accessible to ordinary adults. A moderate four-hour hike on hilly trail with a daypack burns more calories than two intense gym sessions, with a fraction of the joint impact and a fraction of the boredom. But the actual number of calories you torch on a given hike depends on a surprising number of variables: bodyweight, pack weight, terrain difficulty, pace, total elevation gain, surface type, and even the ambient temperature and altitude. Get any of these wrong in your mental math and you can be off by 40% in either direction, which matters whether you are dialing in a fat-loss deficit or rationing food for a multi-day thru-hike. This calculator combines the gold-standard Compendium of Physical Activities MET table with the US Army Pandolf load-carriage equation so you get both a quick, intuitive estimate and a research-grade reference for heavy-pack scenarios.
The Compendium of Physical Activities, maintained by Arizona State University and updated through 2024, assigns MET values to hundreds of activities. Hiking entries split by terrain: 5 MET for cross-country walking on flat trail, 6 MET for hilly terrain without a pack, 7 MET for mountainous trail, and 8-9 MET for climbing with an overnight pack. One MET equals 3.5 mL of oxygen per kg of bodyweight per minute, which translates to roughly 1.05 kcal per kg per hour. So a 77 kg (170 lb) hiker at 6 MET burns about 77 x 6 x 1.05 = 485 kcal/hr on hilly terrain before any pack or elevation adjustment. Our calculator runs this same math automatically and then layers two important corrections on top: a pack-weight multiplier (each 10 lb of pack adds roughly 5% to the base burn) and an elevation gain bonus (0.6 kcal per kg of bodyweight for every 100 ft of vertical gain).
For loads above about 30 lb (14 kg) or grades above 15%, the simple MET model starts to underestimate actual energy expenditure. That is where the Pandolf equation comes in. Developed by Pandolf, Givoni, and Goldman at the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in 1977, it remains the published gold standard for predicting metabolic cost during load carriage. The equation takes bodyweight (W), load mass (L), walking speed (V) in meters per second, grade (G) in percent, and a terrain coefficient (n) ranging from 1.0 for paved roads up to 1.8 for deep snow. It returns metabolic power in Watts, which converts to kcal per hour at roughly 0.86 kcal/hr per Watt. Pandolf captures the non-linear cost of heavy loads — a 50 lb ruck on a 200 lb hiker burns disproportionately more than a 25 lb pack burns twice — and the cost of steep grades, where the cardio cost climbs almost linearly with grade percentage. Our calculator shows you both the simple MET estimate and the Pandolf reference side-by-side so you can sanity-check your number.
How to Use This Calculator
- 1. Pick Your Unit System: Toggle between Imperial (lbs / miles / feet) and Metric (kg / km / meters). All values auto-convert when you switch.
- 2. Enter Bodyweight & Pack: Type your bodyweight, pick a pack preset (no pack, daypack, overnight, expedition, custom), and adjust the exact pack weight. Each 10 lb of pack adds roughly 5% to total burn.
- 3. Choose Terrain: Pick Flat, Hilly, Mountainous, or Climbing with pack. The calculator maps each terrain to its Compendium MET value (5, 6, 7, or 8.5).
- 4. Enter Pace, Duration, Distance & Elevation Gain: Pace in mph or km/h, duration in minutes, total distance, and total vertical gain. Elevation gain is the most under-counted variable — get it from your GPS app, not the trailhead sign.
- 5. Toggle Trail vs Road & Calculate: Trail surface uses Pandolf coefficient 1.1, paved road uses 1.0. Hit Calculate to see total kcal, kcal/hr, kcal/mile, kcal/km, plus the Pandolf reference and a terrain-comparison chart.
Use Cases & Related Calculators
Hiking vs Walking Calorie Comparison
Trying to decide whether your daily neighborhood walk or a weekend hike burns more? Run both numbers and compare. Most hikers are shocked to learn that an hour on hilly trail with a 15 lb daypack burns roughly 1.5x what an hour of flat sidewalk walking burns. Cross-check with our Calories Walking Calculator for a direct apples-to-apples comparison at the same bodyweight and duration.
Hiking vs Cycling Cross-Training
Hikers preparing for big alpine objectives often supplement with cycling on rest days. The cardio crossover is real — both activities sit in the 6-9 MET range — but cycling is more joint-friendly and easier to scale via wattage. Compare hourly burn against our Calories Biking Calculator to balance your weekly training stress.
Weekend Hiking for Fat Loss
Two weekend hikes of 3-4 hours each can produce a 3000-5000 kcal swing — equivalent to about 1 lb of body fat — without any of the boredom of daily HIIT. Stack this with a 300-500 kcal weekday deficit and you will see steady fat loss without burnout. Use this calculator with our Calorie Deficit Calculator to build a sustainable weekly plan.
Backpacking Food Planning
Multi-day backpackers and thru-hikers under-eat catastrophically because they plan food by feel, not math. A 4000 kcal/day burn requires roughly 4000 kcal of trail food after the first day or two — about 2 lb (900 g) of dense backpacking food per day with a 2:1 carb-to-fat ratio. Pair this burn calculator with our Macro Calculator to plan your resupply boxes precisely.
Pro Tips & Trail vs Road Notes
- • Weigh your loaded pack: Most hikers underestimate pack weight by 5-10 lb because they forget water and snacks.
- • Get elevation gain from GPS: AllTrails, Gaia GPS, and CalTopo are accurate; trailhead signs are usually 20-30% low.
- • Use moving time, not total time: Lunch breaks and summit photo sessions inflate total time but burn very few calories.
- • Trail vs road: Paved road uses Pandolf coefficient 1.0, dirt trail 1.1, light brush 1.2, heavy brush 1.5, deep snow or loose sand 1.8. Bump our trail number up 20-50% for brush or snow.
- • Add 10-20% above 8000 ft: Reduced oxygen partial pressure raises the metabolic cost of any given effort.
- • Cross-check with Pandolf for heavy ruck: When your pack is over 30 lb or grade is sustained above 15%, the Pandolf reference is more accurate.
Whether you are training for an alpine objective, planning a thru-hike, building a fat-loss program around weekend day hikes, or just curious how that 14er crushed you — bookmark this calculator, weigh your pack honestly, and trust the math. The Compendium MET values and the Pandolf equation together represent 50 years of research, and they beat a wrist-watch guess by a wide margin.
What Thru-Hikers, Ruckers & Guides Say
“I planned every food drop on my Appalachian Trail thru-hike with this calculator. The pack-weight factor matched what my body actually felt — heavier resupply days produced exactly the extra burn the tool predicted within about 200 kcal. Saved me from packing way too much or way too little.”
“We use this in pre-deployment ruck training briefings. The Pandolf reference panel matches the doctrinal numbers from FM 21-18 within margin, and the simple MET view is easier for new soldiers to understand. The trail-vs-road toggle is a thoughtful touch for mixed-surface roadmarches.”
“Hunting elk above timberline means 50-70 lb packs out and big elevation gain days. Most hiking apps undercount this brutally. This calculator is the only one I have found that adjusts both pack and grade properly. My clients eat right on multi-day pack-outs because of it.”
“Diamond Grade. I cross-check my Garmin against this every Saturday and the Garmin is consistently 25% high on hilly trail. Using this calculator's number for my deficit math finally got my long-stuck weight loss moving again.”
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