While it is not the main goal of the exercise, the farmer’s walk will help you burn more calories. Find out roughly how many you can expect to burn.
The average person can expect to burn around 126 – 216+ calories per 15 minutes of farmer’s walks with about 100 pounds (45.4 kg).
In reality, your results will likely vary a lot. There are many details like exactly how much weight you use, how fast you walk, your body composition, etc. that influence the number of calories burned with farmer’s walks.
That aside, this article will also give estimations for different body weights, how different farmer’s walk weights compare, how to burn more calories with the farmer’s walk, and more.
Biggest influences on calories burned in a farmer’s walk
It makes things more complicated but the number of calories you burn with the farmer’s walk is hard to predict accurately.
At the same time, you can make your estimations somewhat better by taking some of the most important influences into account.
These things can also make it easier for you to implement changes that make you burn more calories in your farmer’s walks. A few examples are:
- Weight: To move around and do exercises like farmer’s walks, your body burns energy aka calories. Heavier bodies tend to need more energy to move.
- How much weight you hold: Similar to how a heavy body burns more calories, holding more weight in the farmer’s walk exercise tends to burn more energy per minute.
- Body composition: Besides total body weight, what tissues this weight is made of influences things too. An amount of muscle mass will burn more calories in a farmer’s walk than the same weight in body fat.
- Farmer’s walk walking speed: How fast you move in the farmer’s walk will influence your energy usage too. Faster movements tend to burn more calories.
Hidden calorie burning from the farmer’s walk
The details above are not the only ones that make estimating how many calories you burn by doing a farmer’s walk harder.
Something else to keep in mind is that your calorie-burning results from a farmer’s walk workout are not necessarily limited to during the session.
More specifically, doing the farmer’s walk with enough weight can make your muscles a bit bigger.
This extra healthy mass will increase how many calories you burn. Not just in your farmer’s walks but also the rest of your day.
Additionally, exercising intensely can cause something called afterburn. This is where you burn extra calories for some amount of time after you stop working out.
The estimations for how many calories farmer’s walks burn typically don’t take the details into account. These effects can vary a lot because of many reasons.
Estimations calories burned with a farmer’s walk
The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention has a simple cheat sheet that notes you can burn more than 7 calories per minute of carrying objects weighing 50 lbs (22.7 kg) (1).
Luckily, you can also get more precise estimations about the number of calories burned during farmer’s walks for different body weights and object weights.
To do this you can use MET values which are numbers that indicate how intense certain activities are.
You can insert these numbers for farmer’s walks and other exercises in the formula below to get very rough calorie-burning estimations.
Formula: METs x 3.5 x (your body weight in kilograms) / 200 = calories burned per minute
I did not find any sources that mention the farmer’s walk exercise specifically. However, there is a MET estimation for walking while carrying 100 pounds (45.4 kg) or more (2).
The first table below includes the estimations for the calories burned with this farmer’s walk MET for different people and amounts of time.
After that, you can find a chart comparing the METs for carrying a few different amounts of weights.
It is worth briefly mentioning again that these are very rough estimations. The MET formula used to calculate these does not include many relevant details.
Calories burned during a farmer’s walk
Since you typically don’t do a certain number of steps in your farmer’s walk, looking at the number of calories burned per minute tends to be helpful.
The estimations for the intensities of walking with heavy weights only go up to “100 pounds or more” (45.4 kg).
Most people will be able to do the farmer’s walk with more than this but it can be a helpful starting point.
| Time Weight Person | 30 Seconds | 1 Minute | 15 Minutes | 30 Minutes | 60 Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 125 Pounds (56 kg) | 4 calories | 8 calories | 126 calories | 251 calories | 502 calories |
| 155 Pounds (70 kg) | 5 calories | 10 calories | 156 calories | 311 calories | 623 calories |
| 185 Pounds (84 kg) | 6 calories | 12 calories | 186 calories | 372 calories | 743 calories |
| 215 Pounds (97 kg) | 7 calories | 14 calories | 216 calories | 432 calories | 863 calories |
Calories burned with different farmer’s walk weights
One of the benefits of farmer’s walks is that you can adjust the weight for your personal strength level and preferences. Additionally, you can walk at different speeds.
These things influence how much energy your body needs to use and in turn, make the calorie-burning estimations more complicated.
In the table below you can find estimations of calories burned by doing the farmer’s walk with a few different weights for 15 minutes.
| Farmer’s Walk Weight Weight Person | 50 to 74 lbs (22.7 to 33.6 kg) | 75 to 99 lbs (34 to 44.9 kg) | 100 lbs or more (45.4 kg or more) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 Pounds (56 kg) | 96 calories | 111 calories | 126 calories |
| 155 Pounds (70 kg) | 119 calories | 137 calories | 156 calories |
| 185 Pounds (84 kg) | 142 calories | 164 calories | 186 calories |
| 215 Pounds (97 kg) | 165 calories | 190 calories | 216 calories |
How to burn more calories with the farmer’s walk
As you can see from the calorie-burning estimations for different weights, you can modify your farmer’s walks in ways to make them more effective in this area.
Increasing the weight you use is one of these ways. If you get to the point of building muscle mass, this will add some extra calorie-burning results to your farmer’s walk workouts too.
Secondly, you can walk faster during your farmer’s walk.
This will not only make you burn more calories per minute but also increases your chances of getting an afterburn effect or making this effect bigger.
Lastly, a method people often forget is that you can build some extra muscle mass with other exercises. This will make the farmer’s walk and just walking in general use up more energy.
Is the farmer’s walk good for weight loss?
You may wonder if the calories you burn with farmer’s walks are enough to cause weight loss and what kinds of results you can expect in this area.
The first thing to note is that your habits in areas like the things you eat will influence whether you lose weight with the farmer’s walk.
That aside, by temporarily assuming that all the calories you burn with farmer’s walks come from body fat, you can get a few interesting numbers.
A 155-pound (70 kg) person will burn an extra 468 calories or about 0.13 pounds (0.06 kg) of body fat while doing three 15-minute farmer’s walks with 100 pounds (45.36 kg) a week.
If this same person does these three farmer’s walk sessions for four weeks, they will burn around 1872 calories or about 0.54 pounds (0.23 kg) during the workouts.
In reality, farmer’s walks will likely offer a bit more calorie-burning (and hopefully weight loss) due to the more long-term effects.
Is the farmer’s walk good for burning calories?
It is fair to say that the farmer’s walk can be a great exercise for burning a lot of calories per minute. Especially if you implement the modifications that make them more effective.
At the same time, it is worth mentioning that there are also alternatives to farmer’s walks like running that are more effective in this area.
That being said, how much you enjoy these alternatives matters too. Farmer’s walks can still be a great choice if you find it a fun way to try and lose weight.
Lastly, whether or not you choose farmer’s walks or other workouts, details like your diet will play a big role in where all these calories come from.
