Free steps tool
Steps to Calories Calculator
Turn a step count into the calories you burned walking. It works out how far you went and how long it took at the pace you choose, then applies the Compendium's MET value for that pace.
Worked example
For a 30-year-old man who weighs 75 kg and is 178 cm tall, 10,000 steps at 3 mph (moderate, 3.8 METs) cover 7.39 km (4.59 miles) in about 92 minutes and burn about 436 kcal, or 321 kcal above resting.
Calculate calories from steps
The result below starts from the example's numbers. Change any field and it updates as you type.
Track this target every day
Use the number above as your daily goal in CalorTracker, then log meals by photo, voice or text and see where your day stands against it. Free to start, no card needed to explore.
Results are estimates from published formulas, not medical advice. Your own body can sit above or below them.
Where the formulas come from, and how we check them: how we calculate.
How the calories are worked out
Three steps, each shown in the result. First, distance: steps times your step length, the same estimate as the steps to distance calculator. Second, time: that distance divided by the walking speed you pick. Third, calories: MET value × body weight in kg × hours.
The MET value is read from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities for the band the speed falls in, the same codes the walking page of the calories burned calculator uses: for example 3 mph (4.8 km/h), moderate is 3.8 METs (code 17190). The result is gross, so it includes the energy your body spends at rest; the tile marked above resting takes 1 MET off first.
Why you choose the pace
A step count alone does not say how fast you walked. Rather than assume a number of steps per minute, the calculator lets you choose the pace and works out the cadence it implies from your step length. Check that against what you know: a study of 76 adults on a treadmill (Tudor-Locke and colleagues, 2019) proposed about 100 steps a minute as the cadence of moderate-intensity walking, which is 3 METs.
What makes the answer an estimate
The step length is estimated from height unless you type your own. MET values are averages for adults on level, firm ground, so hills, a load, soft ground, a very different build or fitness can move your real figure. Your watch uses its own model and will not match exactly. The calculator says what it did at every step so you can change the part you disagree with.
For walking by minutes instead of steps, with the same Compendium values, see calories burned walking.
Calories in 10,000 steps, by weight and pace
Gross kilocalories for 10,000 steps with a 75 cm step, which is 7.5 km. The pace changes the figure only modestly up to about 4 mph, because a higher MET value and a shorter time pull in opposite directions, and the gross figure counts the energy of resting during a slow walk too; the fastest pace is the highest. Your own step length moves every figure in proportion.
| Body weight | 2 mph (3.2 km/h) | 2.5 mph (4.0 km/h) | 3 mph (4.8 km/h) | 3.5 mph (5.6 km/h) | 4 mph (6.4 km/h) | 4.5 mph (7.2 km/h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 kg (110 lb) | 326 | 280 | 295 | 320 | 320 | 362 |
| 60 kg (132 lb) | 391 | 336 | 354 | 383 | 384 | 435 |
| 70 kg (154 lb) | 457 | 391 | 413 | 447 | 449 | 507 |
| 80 kg (176 lb) | 522 | 447 | 472 | 511 | 513 | 580 |
| 90 kg (198 lb) | 587 | 503 | 531 | 575 | 577 | 652 |
| 100 kg (220 lb) | 652 | 559 | 590 | 639 | 641 | 725 |