How to Convert Steps to Calories Burned

If you wear a pedometer, you have probably wondered exactly how many calories you are burning with each step you take. You may even want to know exactly how much weight you can expect to lose. The number of calories burned varies from person to person, but a reasonable estimate can be deduced by following these steps.

Instructions

    • 1

      Walk for half an hour. Write down the number of steps you have walked. Each 2,000 steps that you walk is roughly equivalent to one mile. Use a calculator to divide the number of steps that you walked by 2,000. This is your mileage per half hour.

      Example: You walked 3,000 steps. So 3,000/2,000=1.5 miles per half hour.

    • 2

      Multiply the miles per half hour by two. This is how many miles you walk per hour.

      Example: 1.5 x 2 = 3 miles per hour.

    • 3

      Go to a calorie calculator such as the one in the resource section. Enter your weight and choose 30 minutes as the time you exercised. Scroll through the activity menu and choose walking. Choose the speed that you calculated in Step 2. If your speed is 3.2, for example, choose Walking, 3.0, for a close approximation of calories burned.

    • 4

      Divide the number of calories burned by the number of steps you took during the half-hour you walked.

      Example: 118 (calories burned for 150-pound person walking at 3 mph)/3,000 (steps walked) = .039 calories per step.

    • 5

      Multiply the calories you burn per step by the number of steps you take during each walk to get a good estimate of how many calories you burned during that time.