The calories expended when walking uphill on a treadmill will vary based on the weight of the person exercising, the percent incline on the treadmill, the speed of the belt, and the length of time spent walking.
Body Weight
In general, the more you weigh, the more calories you will expend for a given activity. For a 150-lb. person, walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes at a speed of 3 mph and a 5 percent incline will burn 193 calories. However, a person weighing 200 lbs. who completes the same bout of exercise will burn 258 calories. Moving more body mass requires additional caloric output.
Treadmill Incline
The percent grade of the treadmill can drastically alter the total amount of calories expended during your workout. In the example above, increasing the incline to 10 percent would account for a total of 266 calories burned. That is more than a 35 percent increase. Likewise, the 200-lb. person would expend 357 calories at the elevated incline.
Treadmill Speed
At any incline, increasing treadmill speed will improve total caloric output. Continuing to use the example, the 150-lb person could bring the total of calories burned to 245 by raising the treadmill speed to 4 mph. The person weighing 200-lbs. would burn a total of 328 calories with the same increase in speed.
Total Time Elapsed
Finally, and it should come as no surprise, the longer you walk uphill the more calories you will work off. Caloric expenditure increases in direct proportion to time elapsed on the treadmill. Therefore, if the 150-lb. person were to double the workout time, the total calorie expenditure would double from 193 to 386. The same is true for the 200-lb. person whose expenditure would double from 258 to 516.
References
- "Exercise Physiology: Nutrition, Energy & Human Performance"; McArdle, et al.; 2009
- American Council on Exercise; Physical Activity Calorie Calculator
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