How many calories does running burn?

Updated August 26, 2026 · By the Runked team

The table below is Runked's own arithmetic. It applies the standard formula, kcal/min = MET x 3.5 x body weight in kg / 200 (as described by ACE Fitness contributor Pete McCall, who defines 1 MET as about 3.5 mL of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute), to running MET values from the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth, Haskell, Herrmann and colleagues, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2011). Each of the Compendium's speed-labeled running entries is tied to one fixed speed. The columns below use four of them, and each cell multiplies the resulting per-minute figure by 30 minutes.

Figures are kilocalories for a continuous 30-minute run at that pace; for any other duration, multiply the per-minute rate (MET x 3.5 x body weight in kg / 200) by however many minutes the run lasts instead. The Compendium's published code table lists these as measured or estimated group averages for a fixed speed; an individual runner's own running economy, incline, wind and surface all move the true number up or down from there.

Why calorie burn depends on weight and pace

The Compendium of Physical Activities is a standardized reference of MET (metabolic equivalent) values, first published in 1993 and updated in 2000 and again in 2011 as "2011 Compendium of Physical Activities: A Second Update of Codes and MET Values" by Barbara Ainsworth and colleagues in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. One MET is defined as the energy cost of sitting quietly, about 3.5 mL of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute; the Compendium assigns a multiple of that resting rate to thousands of specific activities, including running at a series of fixed speeds, each with its own code: 5 mph (12:00 per mile) is 8.3 METs, 6 mph (10:00 per mile) is 9.8 METs, 7 mph (8:30 per mile) is 11.0 METs and 8 mph (7:30 per mile) is 11.8 METs.

Turning a MET value into calories uses a standard formula. Pete McCall, writing for the American Council on Exercise, gives it as kcal/min = METs x 3.5 x body weight in kg / 200, the 3.5 coming from the definition of a MET and the 200 converting the result to kilocalories per minute. Because body weight multiplies the whole result directly, it moves the total more than pace does across the 5 to 8 mph range in the table above: the underlying per-minute rate scales exactly with body weight, so a 90 kg runner's rate is exactly 1.5 times a 60 kg runner's at any given pace, the same ratio as their body weights; the table's rounded cells land within a fraction of a percent of that 1.5x ratio.

Running the numbers per mile instead of per 30 minutes tells a related but different story. Using the same Compendium MET progression, a 70 kg runner's calories per mile, from this page's own arithmetic, run from roughly 122 kcal at a 12:00 mile pace down to roughly 108 kcal at a 7:30 mile pace, a comparatively small change, because the faster pace also finishes the mile sooner. Separately, Hall, Figueroa, Fernhall and Kanaley's 2004 study, also in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, measured this directly with indirect calorimetry: 24 subjects covered 1600 m (about a mile) on a treadmill, and a subgroup of those subjects also covered the same 1600 m on a track. Running 1600 m at 2.82 m/s (roughly a 9:30 mile) used 481 ± 20.0 kJ on the treadmill, about 115 kcal; walking the same 1600 m at 1.41 m/s (roughly a 19:00 mile) used 340 ± 14 kJ, about 81 kcal. The track subgroup's results were close to the treadmill figures. The study's own comparison was running against walking at these two fixed speeds, and its result lines up with the compendium-based mile figures above.

How to apply this

Find your weight in kilograms, or the nearest pound figure in the left column. Pick whichever pace column is closest to your steady running pace. Read off the 30-minute figure, and scale it for a different duration by multiplying the per-minute rate (MET x 3.5 x body weight in kg / 200) by however many minutes you actually ran. For a single run measured by distance instead of duration, the per-mile range in the section above, roughly 108 to 122 kcal a mile for a 70 kg runner, is closer to what a fixed-distance run costs than the per-minute rate alone.

Compare your own numbers to your own past runs, not to someone else's; running economy varies from one runner to the next, which is exactly why a raw calorie total does not compare cleanly across people. In Runked, the rank starts everyone at Bronze and only moves on your own runs. See how the running rank works.

Common mistakes

• Treating one figure as exact for any individual run. The Compendium's running MET values are speed-specific group averages compiled from published research (Ainsworth and colleagues, 2011); an individual runner's own running economy, incline, wind and surface all shift the real number.
• Underweighting how much body weight changes the total. The formula multiplies MET directly by body weight in kilograms, so the underlying per-minute rate scales exactly with body weight: a 90 kg runner and a 60 kg runner at an identical pace differ by exactly the same 90:60 ratio, 50% more for the heavier runner. The table's rounded cells land within a fraction of a percent of that ratio at each pace.
• Assuming a faster pace burns much more per mile. Per this page's own arithmetic on the Compendium's MET progression, a 70 kg runner's calories per mile move from roughly 122 kcal at a 12:00 pace to roughly 108 kcal at a 7:30 pace, a small change, since less time is spent covering that mile at the faster pace. Hall and colleagues' 2004 study measured a different question, running against walking at a fixed speed each, and found running used meaningfully more energy than walking over the same 1600 m.

Talk to a doctor or registered dietitian if

• You plan to use this table to set a specific daily calorie target or a deficit. A registered dietitian can account for medical history, medications and goals that a group-average table like this one does not.
• You are inactive and also have known cardiovascular, metabolic or kidney disease, or signs or symptoms that could point to one. The American College of Sports Medicine's 2015 update to its exercise preparticipation health screening, Riebe and colleagues in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, builds its model on three factors together: current activity level, the presence of signs, symptoms or known disease, and the exercise intensity being aimed at. The authors state the update was made because the previous guidelines could produce excessive physician referrals, so being new to exercise on its own is not a trigger for medical clearance in that model.

What to do next

If weight loss is the reason for tracking calories in the first place, does running help with weight loss covers what the evidence actually shows about running alone versus diet. That page also puts a per-mile figure on the same question, using ACSM's running oxygen-cost equation in place of Compendium METs, and lands slightly higher: roughly 1.7 to 1.8 kcal per kilogram of body weight per mile, against the 1.54 to 1.74 kcal per kilogram that the 108-to-122 kcal band above works out to for a 70 kg runner. Two group-level methods disagreeing by around ten percent is the size of the uncertainty here. To put these figures against a realistic training week, how many miles should I run a week covers weekly volume by experience level. For race distances specifically, how many miles is a 5K converts common race distances to miles, which the per-mile figures above can then be applied to.

Frequently asked questions