figuring calories burned.

lostangelntx

I'm walking the bridgewalk in Corpus Christi this Sunday. The walk is 3.42 miles up the Harbor bridge, down the other side, around to the return bridge, up it and back down. How would I figure calories burned on this walk? The bridge is around 17ft high.

lostangelntx

Correction. the total miles walked will be 3.42 miles.

thecraftinista

I wear a heart rate monitor for all activities that I participate in so I get a pretty accurate idea of how many calories I am burning.

bwogilvie

A reasonable estimate for walking is weight (in pounds) divided by 2 times the number of miles. So if you weigh 150 pounds, that would be (150/2) * 3.42, or 256.5 calories. The 17 foot elevation gain doesn't make much difference; a 150-pound person would require 2550 foot-pounds of work to climb that, which is 3.46 kilojoules or 0.83 calories; assuming that you're about 23% efficient in converting food energy to climbing energy (most human activity is 20-25% efficient), that would add an extra 3.6 calories, for 260.1 total.

Hitesc

Yeh get a heart rate monitor, we won't know how much you burn. Every person is different, depends on your current weight, your lean body mass, the elevation of the walk, your fitness and etc

bwogilvie

Obviously, if you weigh more or less than the 150 pounds I chose as an example, the calorie expenditure would be proportionally more or less. A 300-pound person would burn about 520 calories; a 100-pound person, about 173.

lostangelntx

Thank y'all so much!!