Walking is often looked down at as a form of serious exercise, particularly for weight loss and increasing overall fitness. The main criticism is usually that it’s not a workout that will render fast results – and that is, of course, what most people seeking weight loss are looking for when planning their gym routines.
And yet, if you ask professional dieticians and health experts, most would definitely put walking on their list of exercises you should engage in if they want to lose weight and stay healthy and vibrant.
Of course, the walking they’re talking about isn’t a slow stroll through a beautiful meadow but a brisk cardio exercise that’ll activate your muscles and get your heart rate up. Therefore, how long do you have to walk to burn 300 calories, and what speed and intensity does this need to be?
On average, to burn 300 calories from walking, you need to walk for around 50 – 60 minutes. This can be done non-stop or broken down into two 25 minute walks or three 15 minute walks. A good speed is a brisk walk around 3.5mph (5.6km) or fast enough to boost your heart rate.
Although it does depend on your weight, height, fitness levels and type of terrain you are walking on. If your walking is done on hills, you will burn 300 calories a lot faster than if you walk on a flat surface. The table below shows you approximately how long you should walk to burn 300 calories for your weight range.
| Weight | Time | Calories |
| 150-160LBS (68-72kg) | 1 hour 10 minutes | 301 |
| 160-170LBS (72-77kg) | 1 hour 2 minutes | 302 |
| 170-180LBS (77-81kg) | 58 minutes | 301 |
| 180-190LBS (81-86kg) | 55 minutes | 300 |
| 190-200LBS (86-90kg) | 52 minutes | 300 |
| 200-210LBS (90-95kg) | 50 minutes | 301 |
| 210-220LBS (95-99kg) | 48 minutes | 304 |
| 220-230LBS (99-104kg) | 45 minutes | 299 |
| 230LBS Plus (104kg Plus) | 42 minutes | 303 |
In 2013, the University of Copenhagen conducted a study about calorie burning that showed exciting results. Namely, people who only burnt 300 calories per gym session overall lost 40% more weight over the course of 13 weeks than those who burnt 600 through high-intensity exercises.
The trouble lay in hunger. The more intense the training, the hungrier the participants became, so they tended to overeat at meals and snack more, impeding their weight loss progress. If anything, this is another confirmation that slow and steady wins the race. A brisk walk of 30-60 minutes per day is as likely to improve your weight loss long-term. Small increments of 15-20 minutes several times a day will show the cumulative results.
Table of Contents
Why Is Walking Good Exercise?
Unlike many other exercises walking is an easy and accessible form of burning calories. You don’t need to buy a gym membership or get special gear. It can be done at any time of the day, in most environments.
Whether on a treadmill in a gym or outside in busy city streets – you can find a way of incorporating it into your daily routine much more manageable than other forms of exercise. Should you walk on a treadmill to lose weight? Read this article to find out.
The only thing that matters is doing it regularly and getting in your daily steps. Walking, while beneficial for many things aside from helping with increasing muscle strength in your legs and promoting joint health walking isn’t a particular speedy way of burning calories. To encourage weight loss alongside health, you need to walk specific mileage at a certain pace to accomplish your goal.
How Far Do I Have to Walk to Burn 300 Calories?
In general, someone who weighs around 140 pounds would need to walk approximately 4 miles at a moderate speed of 3.5 miles per hour to burn 300 calories. In comparison, someone who weighs 275 pounds would burn the same 300 calories walking just for 2 miles at the same speed.
Unfortunately, there’s no unilateral answer to this question. How many calories you burn depends on several factors, most importantly your height and your weight. The more you weigh, the more your energy expenditure per mile. Thus the less you need to walk to burn 300 calories.
The data changes again if you consider the hypothetical “walker’s” height. To be fair, height isn’t as big a determinant as weight, but the more time you spend walking, the more those calories add up.
For example, suppose we assume that the 140-pound person from the hypothetical scenario above is 5,5 ft. tall after doing some rough calculations. In that case, we can estimate that the same person would burn around 20 calories more if they were 5,10 ft. tall instead.
However, height is rarely taken into account when counting burnt calories per mileage walked. Most calculators will only ask for your weight and how far you walked when counting approximate calories burnt.
Furthermore, if you’re using a step counter to keep track of your walk, then your height becomes more crucial, as step counters ask for both weight and height along with the number of steps walked to calculate approximately how many calories you burnt.
How Many Steps to Burn 300 Calories?
There are estimated claims that 1 mile is approximately 2,200 steps (the step-count per mile data varies between 2000 and 2,400 steps in most sources). Therefore, it would take a person around 9000 steps to walk the 4 miles required to burn the 300 calories.
It relies on how many steps your step counter counts for a mile. Some may calculate it strictly depending on your speed and step count – and the size of a person’s step isn’t a universal constant. Implying that the taller someone is, the longer their stride, the fewer steps they need.
For example, we can calculate that 9000 steps are required for someone at the height of 5,5 ft. to burn 300 calories. We can estimate that it would take 7000-8000 steps for someone over 6 ft to burn the same amount of calories. But for the most accurate data, you would need to fit a foot pod (find my favourite foot pod here) to your shoes to calculate your actual step distance.
Is Burning 300 Calories in 30 Minutes Good?
Burning 300 calories from walking in 30 minutes is considered above average walking distance and is great for increasing cardiovascular endurance and losing weight. For someone to achieve 300 calories in 30 minutes, they need to walk at a very brisk pace, around 4.5mph (7.2km), which is just before a jogging pace.
Burning 300 calories in 30 minutes, it’s superb. Usually, when dietitians prescribe brisk walks, they mean keeping your heart rate at about 70% of your MHR. For those of average weight who aren’t used to exercising, 3.5 mph can be more than enough to achieve this – and it would mean an hour of walking.
If you are somewhat fit and up the speed to around 4.5-5 mph, then you could burn those 300 calories in around 30 minutes. Again, the more you weigh, the less speed is required to get your heart rate at 70% of your MHR, and the less time it would take to burn 300 calories with a brisk walk. But no matter how you cut it, 300 calories per 30 minutes is an excellent result for a person of ANY size.
Conclusion
It should take you no more than 1 hour to burn 300 calories from walking at a brisk pace. Your weight and fitness levels will significantly impact how many calories you burn. Therefore, if you get back into walking or are considered overweight, you walk into manageable 20-minute sessions or increase your step count each day to achieve 300 calories burned.