Calories burned while hiking - a calculator

[Zé]

While I've always been interested in measuring this in the "field", I have yet to take out the proper equipment (a good heart rate monitor). Still, I feel one can get a decent estimate and feel for calories burned on a certain hike with indoor studies, and so I did someinterpretation of a research paper and consequently made a '1st generation' caloric expenditure hiking calculator.

Now there is still a lot of work to improve the estimates, but generally they will be decent. At least to give a sense of relative magnitude of different hikes in terms of energy demands
Sorry if you're not interested, but I figure some people will be

[KathyW]

That's a nice tool, but what about speed? Will how fast you go affect the amount of calories?

[Dave G]

That's a nice tool, but what about speed? Will how fast you go affect the amount of calories?

I'm sure Ze can expound upon this Kathy, but I recall that when figuring calorie expenditure while running, the distance was the determiner, not speed. A person running 6 min miles would be burning more per hour than a 10 min pace runner, but they would be covering the same distance in less time so it was roughly the same net calorie burn over a given distance.

[AlanK]

That's a nice tool, but what about speed? Will how fast you go affect the amount of calories?

I'm sure Ze can expound upon this Kathy, but I recall that when figuring calorie expenditure while running, the distance was the determiner, not speed. A person running 6 min miles would be burning more per hour than a 10 min pace runner, but they would be covering the same distance in less time so it was roughly the same net calorie burn over a given distance.

Yes, it takes about the same number of calories to run a mile in 8 minutes as it does to run a mile in 5 minutes.

[Zé]

most of the variance in calories burned will be on the absolute amount of distance / gain, not the speed.

however, there is a speed component. this is more complicated analysis for the future.

running a mile may take up to ~ 20% more energy than walking a mile, due to mechanics.

also, there is different mechanical efficiency at different walking and running speeds. I think this is what Kathy is talking about. walking 1 mile at 2, 3, or 4 mph may take different amounts of energy, with 3 mph being the most efficient. this is due to body mechanics, and it is true that taller people tend to have higher 'optimal' speeds in this sense.

but the effect is 'relatively' minor compared to others such as distance, gain, and bodyweight. it would be cool to incorporate later.

[KathyW]

Thanks everyone - now I understand why speed would not make a big difference. It just didn't sink in at first that time would compensate for speed.