Calories Burned Walking, Running and Cycling
A 70 kg adult walking briskly at 5.6 km/h burns roughly 250 calories an hour. Running at 10 km/h burns about 690. Cycling steadily at 20 km/h burns about 560.
Those figures move with your body weight, because hauling a heavier body costs more, and they move with pace, terrain and wind as well. The one thing they ignore completely is whatever your watch told you, which is almost always higher.
How the numbers are worked out
Exercise physiologists work in MET values. One MET is what you burn sitting still, roughly 1 calorie per kilogram of body weight per hour, so an activity rated at 8 METs burns eight times that.
Multiply METs by your weight in kilograms by the hours you spent. A 9.8 MET run for 45 minutes at 80 kg comes to 9.8 x 80 x 0.75, which is 588 calories. That is the whole method.
Calories burned walking, running and cycling, per hour
- Walking, 5.6 km/h (4.3 METs): 60 kg burns 258, 80 kg burns 344, 100 kg burns 430
- Walking uphill, 5.6 km/h at 5% grade (6.0 METs): 60 kg burns 360, 80 kg burns 480, 100 kg burns 600
- Running, 8 km/h (8.3 METs): 60 kg burns 498, 80 kg burns 664, 100 kg burns 830
- Running, 10 km/h (9.8 METs): 60 kg burns 588, 80 kg burns 784, 100 kg burns 980
- Cycling, 20 km/h (8.0 METs): 60 kg burns 480, 80 kg burns 640, 100 kg burns 800
- Cycling, 25 km/h (10.0 METs): 60 kg burns 600, 80 kg burns 800, 100 kg burns 1,000
- Swimming, moderate freestyle (7.0 METs): 60 kg burns 420, 80 kg burns 560, 100 kg burns 700
Subtract what you would have burned anyway
Every figure above includes the calories you would have spent sitting on the sofa for that same hour. At 80 kg that is about 80 calories, so an hour of walking that reads 344 adds roughly 264 to your day.
Small correction for a run, large one for a long slow walk. Eat your exercise calories back and that gap is the difference between a deficit and a wash.
Why your watch is wrong
A 2017 Stanford study tested seven consumer wrist trackers against indirect calorimetry. Heart rate came out well, with most devices inside 5%. Energy expenditure came out badly: the most accurate device was off by 27%, the least accurate by 93%, and every single one overestimated.
Chest strap monitors beat wrist optical sensors. Power meters on a bike beat both, because they measure the work you do instead of inferring it from your pulse. Treadmill consoles lean optimistic unless you have entered your actual weight.
Read your tracker as a consistent index, not as a true figure. If it says 400 today and 400 next Tuesday, you did about the same amount of work, and that comparison is worth having. Just do not eat back 400 calories on the strength of it.
Where this fits into a deficit
Exercise is a smaller lever than you think. An hour of brisk walking five days a week adds about 1,300 calories, which is one and a half days of a 500 calorie deficit. Your food is where the deficit gets won.
Work out your maintenance first, then decide how much of the gap comes from training and how much from the plate. The calorie calculator gives you a maintenance figure and a target for losing or gaining, and how big a calorie deficit should be covers why 500 a day is the usual answer.
One trap to avoid. Do not add exercise calories on top of an activity multiplier that already counts them, because if you selected moderately active on the strength of four runs a week, those runs are already inside the number. Choosing the right activity multiplier explains where the double counting creeps in.
What raises the total
Non-exercise movement. Standing, walking to the shops, taking the stairs, fidgeting. It varies between individuals by up to 2,000 calories a day and dwarfs most gym sessions, which is why adding 3,000 steps to an ordinary day is worth more than an extra spin class. It is also easier to keep doing. How many calories you need in a day starts from that whole total, not from the gym session. How many calories you need in a day starts from that whole total, not from the gym session. How many calories you need in a day starts from that whole total, not from the gym session. How many calories you need in a day starts from that whole total, not from the gym session.
Scope and correction note, 16 October 2026: the ranges quoted here come from the American Council on Exercise and from published research, and they describe averages, not any individual. Nothing on this page is medical advice. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will correct it and date the correction. See the editorial policy and medical disclaimer.