Calories burned running, from your weight, distance and effort.
Estimate only, not medical advice.
Take a 150 lb runner doing a steady 5K. The calculator multiplies body weight by distance by an effort factor: 150 × 3.1 × 0.72, which lands close to 335 calories for the run. Change the effort to easy or hard and the total moves down or up with it.
Running's energy cost is unusual among cardio activities because it's driven mostly by how far you go, not how fast. Covering a mile at an easy jog or a hard tempo effort costs roughly the same amount of fuel per mile, since you're moving the same body weight the same distance either way; pace changes how long that takes, not how much it costs. That's why this calculator leans on weight and distance as the two main inputs, with effort level as a smaller adjustment on top.
| Body weight | Easy jog | Steady run | Hard run |
|---|---|---|---|
| 130 lb | 82 cal/mi | 94 cal/mi | 110 cal/mi |
| 150 lb | 94 cal/mi | 108 cal/mi | 128 cal/mi |
| 180 lb | 113 cal/mi | 130 cal/mi | 153 cal/mi |
| 200 lb | 126 cal/mi | 144 cal/mi | 170 cal/mi |
Table values use the same 0.63 / 0.72 / 0.85 per-pound-per-mile factors the calculator applies above.
It's a simpler shortcut that works well for running specifically, since running's energy cost per mile is fairly stable per pound across a wide pace range. The MET method on the calories burned calculator is more general and covers activities where that shortcut holds less well, like cycling or swimming.
A little, not a lot. Total distance is the biggest factor in running's energy cost; pace mostly changes how long it takes to cover that distance, not how much fuel it costs per mile. The effort setting here adds a modest adjustment for harder efforts.
Either works, since it's the same relationship in different units. Switch the unit selector to kg/km if that's how you track your runs; the math scales automatically.
Watches that use a heart rate strap or a running-specific algorithm often land close to this range, since most running calorie estimates lean on the same body-weight relationship. Expect some difference, not an exact match.