How Many Miles to Walk to Lose a Pound
A pound of fat is about 3,500 calories. See how many walking miles that is for your weight and pace — and why your weight matters more than your speed.
Miles to Lose a Pound
Range: 30–300 kg · a heavier body needs fewer miles
MET 3.5 · pace barely changes miles per pound; weight is the bigger lever.
Range: 15–100 years. Adjusts the framing for under-19s.
Enter your height in centimeters (e.g., 170 cm)
Range: 100–250 cm. Only used for the healthy-weight check.
*This calculator is for informational purposes only. Please consult a healthcare professional before making any health decisions. See our medical disclaimer for more information.
Quick Answer
How Many Miles Does It Take to Walk Off a Pound?
For most adults it is roughly 35–50 miles of walking — about 41 miles for a 70 kg person. A pound of fat holds around 3,500 calories, and a walking mile burns roughly 70–100 of them depending on your weight, so heavier walkers reach a pound in fewer miles and lighter walkers in more. Enter your weight and pace above for your own figure, and how it spreads across a week.
The 3,500-Calorie Pound, in Miles
This page turns a familiar number into a distance. A pound of body fat stores about 3,500 calories, a textbook figure long used in nutrition science. To say that in miles you only need to know how many calories one walking mile burns for you, then divide. Because a heavier body spends more energy moving the same mile, those calories per mile climb with weight — which is why a 100 kg walker burns off a pound in close to 29 miles while a 60 kg walker needs nearer 48. It is exact arithmetic for the weight you enter, not a fixed law of nature, so treat it as a useful yardstick rather than a guarantee.
Roughly How Many Miles That Is
The table below shows the walking miles to burn one pound at an average pace across a range of body weights. The clear pattern is that weight, not speed, drives the number: stepping up the pace barely moves the miles because the extra energy per minute is offset by covering the distance sooner. Where pace really helps is the clock — a brisk walk covers those miles in less time, not fewer of them.
Walking Miles per Pound by Body Weight
| Body weight | Miles to burn one pound |
|---|---|
| 60 kg / 132 lbs | ~48 miles |
| 70 kg / 154 lbs | ~41 miles |
| 80 kg / 176 lbs | ~36 miles |
| 90 kg / 198 lbs | ~32 miles |
| 100 kg / 220 lbs | ~29 miles |
Gross calories, average 3 mph pace, flat ground. Your own result varies with pace and surface.
Spreading the Miles Across a Week
Forty-odd miles sounds daunting in one line, but as a habit it is gentler than it looks: spread over a week that is around six miles a day, roughly an hour and a half of walking, for our 70 kg example. Two honest caveats, though. The figure uses gross calories, a slice of which is the baseline metabolism you would spend at rest anyway, so the true extra burn is a little smaller. And it assumes you do not eat more to compensate — which is the usual reason walking alone disappoints. Pairing the miles with a small calorie deficit reaches the pound far sooner. To project a regular walking habit use the Walking Weight Loss Calculator; to track milestones use the Weight Loss Percentage Calculator; and to plan a target use the Goal Weight Calculator. A calorie deficit is only appropriate if you are above a healthy weight. These are general estimates, not medical advice.
MET values are from the Ainsworth Compendium of Physical Activities (2011), walking codes 17010–17070. Calories use 1 MET = 1.05 kcal/kg/hr; the pound-of-fat figure is the standard 3,500 kcal equivalence. Figures assume flat, level-surface walking. A 2024 revision — the Adult Compendium of Physical Activities (PMID 38242596) — has since updated some MET values; these figures use the established 2011 measured values for consistency across the site.
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