Hike/walk calorie difference

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IcyOtter1
IcyOtter1 Posts: 10 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I use MapMyWalk to record walks and track calories. One of the walks I do is at a wildlife conservation area near my home. The walk has fairly even terrain but lots of rigorous uphill climbs. The walk is slightly over 5 km and takes around an hour. If I set the app to “walk“ it registers 331 calories. If I set the app to “hike“ it registers 565 cal. Why would there be such a discrepancy? Which one is likely to be accurate? Thanks!

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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    IcyOtter1 wrote: »
    I use MapMyWalk to record walks and track calories. One of the walks I do is at a wildlife conservation area near my home. The walk has fairly even terrain but lots of rigorous uphill climbs. The walk is slightly over 5 km and takes around an hour. If I set the app to “walk“ it registers 331 calories. If I set the app to “hike“ it registers 565 cal. Why would there be such a discrepancy? Which one is likely to be accurate? Thanks!

    Neither are likely to be correct. This is all estimation...be conservative.
  • rhtexasgal
    rhtexasgal Posts: 572 Member
    edited October 2018
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    Well, you sort of answered your own question - lots of "rigorous uphill climbs" ... you burn more calories with the uphill climbing due to the extra exertion than you would a walk over even terrain. Maybe one day try to determine how much of your 5 km is the hiking and how much is the walking ... or play it safe and stick to the "walk" calories ...
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,147 Member
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    MapmyWalk is good for tracking miles not calories. Try this site: https://www.calculatorpro.com/calculator/calories-burned-walking-calculator/
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    edited October 2018
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    Walking uphill, even a big hill, is different than hiking. I suggest using the lower estimate or just use the formula "miles x 1/3 bodyweight = calories walking". So for a 150 lb person it would be 50 calories per mile. For a 300 lb person it would be 100 calories per mile. You could bump it up a tad for the hills if you want to, but personally I would take the bonus burn .
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,180 Member
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    I think of "hike" as something where you're wearing a backpack and where half the journey is up a mountain, perhaps on terrain so steep that you're hanging onto trees with your hands to get yourself up and you're having to step over logs etc. etc.

    And I would stick with the walk calories. If you're losing weight too fast, you can adjust it.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Don't use MapMyWalk for calorie estimates would be my advice, they always seem dreadfully high.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    Gisel2015 wrote: »
    MapmyWalk is good for tracking miles not calories. Try this site: https://www.calculatorpro.com/calculator/calories-burned-walking-calculator/

    That site gave me 564 calories walking 4 miles on level terrain.....absurdly high.

    OP 5km is 3.1 miles. It's highly unlikely that you'd burn even 300 cal (100 cal mile) unless the whole walk unless it was all uphill at a steep incline. I'd stick with the .30 x weight in lbs x distance in miles to get an approximation of the net (ie additional) calories expended as a result of the activity.

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