Walking Calorie Calculator

Calculate how many calories you can burn while using a walking pad. This adds to your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure).

Popular Comparisons

Why Walking Desk?

Focus

Unlike bikes & steppers (manual devices), treadmills (electric devices) move you (just keep up). This satisfy the mind jitters. Its extremely valuable for ADHD.

Energy

Moving keeps blood and endorphins pumping. It keeps you alert and on task all day. Oxygen and endorphins help not just with energy, but focus. You'll need less caffeine.

Health

Calories and heart-rate. At my best, I've clocked 320 active zone minutes (Fitbit) in a day. That's 5.3 hrs of gym time. This eliminates the gym, saving time and money. At my worst, I clock the minimum-recommend 10k steps. Further, your posture is ideal while walking, better than sitting and standing.

Buying Guide

Get extended warranty

Some treadmills offer one through their website, Amazon offers Asurion. Motors don't last forever, the motor will die. When, not if - and sooner with the budget treadmills. With the warranty, there's nothing to worry about. I've gone through three for the price of one.

Budget

The budget mills can be more loud, and deal less effectively with heat. To deal with this, reduce the amount of at-one-time walking (eg 30-45 min on, 2-5 min break). Generally expect 1-2 years out of these mills; compared to the non-budgets which could last 10 years. Personally I take the trade-off - I don't know where I'll be in 2 years. And with Amazon's extended warranty, I've been refunded for every malfunction.

Non-budget

LifeSpan, Unsit, Walkolution, etc. These can bear more weight than the budget picks, and can run continuously for much longer (6-9hrs for LifeSpan, no limit for Walkolution). They're quieter, and much more durable. When you do have problems, they come with long warranties and you'll typically have a service rep come fix it. They're much larger and heavier than budget mills, so they'll be more a permanent fixture than a wheel-away.

Using the table above

TL;DR: sort by Score, enter a Price max.

Score is a weighted sum of each rows' attributes. "Weighted" because some attributes are more important than others. Eg, App support has weight=1, where Sturdy has weight=10. You can see how each cell ranks in the bottom corner of that cell, eg 10

Anywhere there's a dotted underline, click it for details. I try to make these count.

Treadmill Care

Lubrication

Adjusting the belt

Walk 30-45 min, break 1-5 min

More Essentials

Treadmill Mat

Urevo Mat. Adds a layer of shock absorption for your knees, and prevents shock damage to hard floor. Over time the rubber stoppers will at worst damage the floor, at best smear rubber that's hard to remove. Adds a protection layer against high-pile carpet, so you're not pulling debris into the hardware.

Standing Desk

Flexispot. My budget pick. I've abused this cheapie for 3 years without a hitch, so I don't see the point in the $1,000 Herman Millers championed on /r/StandingDesks. But if you want to splurge, browse that sub. I've seen FlexiSpot gaining traction there recently; in particular the E7 series. You'll definitely want an electric desk which can sit or stand, because after walking or standing all day, you'll need a break.

Shoes: Brooks or Hoka

Men, Women. There are shoes more tailored towards prolonged walking or standing rather than running. I research what nurses champion, since it's the closest lifestyle to a walking desk. They're quite bullish on two: Brooks Ghost Max 2, and Hoka Clifton / Bondi

Ergonomic keyboard & mouse

Article. People often develop RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury, a cousin of Carpal Tunnel) when seated with a standard mouse, due to the arm motion. That type of wrist motion is bad for you. When you walk, you move your arms more than usual, which amplifies RSI risk significantly. It could take 6 months, it could take a 5 years, but many I've talked to with walking desks have experienced an RSI uptick. Ergo peripherals solve this. Read that article for recommendations (different budgets & styles), but hot-take budget-picks are (Mouse: Slimblade Pro, Keyboard: Keychron Q11)