According to a walking calorie calculator I used-
Weight 172lbs Distance walked 1 mile
Pace Duration Calories
Slow (2.5mph) 24 minutes 98
Normal (3mph) 20 minutes 96
Fast (3.5mph) 17 minutes 100
Very Fast (4mph) 15 minutes 102
Even though you burn more calories per minute the quicker you walk, walking slower takes a longer amount of time to travel the same distance so it equals roughly the same amount of calories burned?
Edit: thanks for your responses! I was aware running burns more calories per mile than walking the same distance due placing greater demands on the body/being far less efficient, I was specifically interested in walking speeds alone over the same distances?
Personal anecdote; I’ve managed to lose a significant amount of weight over the past 6 months walking 5 miles daily at a very brisk pace (4-4.5 mph average), today due to fatigue I took it easy, walked a lot slower at 3-3.5mph, felt less fatiguing but obviously took longer amount of time, a good trade off if it means I can walk at a more leisurely pace some days and burn roughly the same amount of calories over the same distance. 🙂
In: Physics
Total energy required to move a fix mass across fixed distance is the same. its simple physics.
However, your body does not use pure energy to move, it converts chemical energy into kinetic motion, this means a difference in efficiency.
The faster you are, the less efficient the system is to trade for more “instantaneous” energy. Raising heart rate, higher body temp, tenser muscles, all these kinetic motion burns energy, and at the end, you might be moving across the same distance, but you are spending more than double the energy.
Basically the process of losing weight is to make the body extremely inefficient, there by wasting a lot of energy.
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