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I tried some online calculators and they state that I burn an average of 100 calories per hour sitting at a desk.

I tried some online calculators and they state that I burn roughly 100 calories for each mile I traverse when traveling at speeds between 3mph to 6mph. I couldn't find a pedometer that would let me calculate calories burned traveling at 1mph or slower. But if I extrapolate the information gained from the 100 calories per mile, then traveling at 1mph would mean I burn 100 calories in 1 hour.

But that doesn't make sense to me intuitively, because it suggests studying all day in my room burns the same calories as if I were to take the day to slowly walk from one end of my city to the other end of my city?

How do you calculate calories burned traveling at speeds less than 1mph?

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    They are separate entities. The 100 calories studying is pretty much baseline metabolism as stated in the answer. Walking from one end of the city would be that 100 calories/hour plus the activity cost.
    – JohnP ♦
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 14:25

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When you walk, you still burn the calories that you do while sitting (100 calories according to your calculator) to stay alive. In addition to this, you'll burn calories for moving your body.

How many calories you'll burn is hard to tell, I can't find any good resources giving an estimate. I've seen studies suggesting you burn between 50 and 100 calories for walking 2,5mph, depending on your bodyweight (about 50cal for someone who's 100lbs in weight, up to 100+ cal for people above 200lbs).

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The fact of the matter is that the majority of calories burned is from keeping your body alive. It is called resting metabolic rate which means that, doing nothing, you as an individual will burn about 100 calories an hour.

Walking at 1 mph for probably 99% of the planet would not be taxing enough to burn any extra calories as your heart rate probably wouldn’t do much. Heck, I’m not a great swimmer but I swim at almost precisely 2 MPH. So you’d have to walk half as fast as I swim. It would probably require more effort to restrain yourself from walking that slow than it would be to actually walk that slow.

For those folks who would have a hard time keeping that pace, their calorie burn would be somewhat dependent on their heart rate and (probably) reduced metabolism.

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  • Thanks, it makes me wonder if I should even bother trying to walk at 1mph at all given there's no health benefits relative to sitting in front of my computer
    – learningtech
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 12:52
  • Ofcourse are health benefits to walking 1mph compared to sitting. You're going to burn more calories by default, even if it's marginal. Your bodyweight and the distance you walk are the biggest factors in how much you're going to burn, rather than your pace.
    – MJB
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 13:23
  • @mjb but according to the calculations, 8 hours of sitting is the same as covering 8 miles over the course of 8 hours ( walking at 1mph)
    – learningtech
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 14:08
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    When you walk, you still burn the calories that you do while sitting (100 calories according to your calculator) to stay alive. In addition to this, you'll burn calories for moving your body.
    – MJB
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 14:17
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As a very rough guide i tend to work on circa 100 cal per mile. Obviously this is +/- some given the persons weight but its only a comparatively small amount. Speed makes little difference to the burn, its simply a case of how many you can do in a given time.

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