How much weight did you lose on the trail?

[atreat]

I am over weight and was wondering how much weight some of you may have lost on your through hike.

[C-shell]

I attempted a thru hike in 2015. made it 2000 miles. Took 5 1/2 months. Lost 20 pounds.

[Sandy of PA]

About 1 lb. per 100 miles, many more inches than pounds. I don't thru hike but I do hike 400 miles plus each spring.

[TheCheek]

Took 5.5 months, went from 185 to 158. Most lost in the first 2 months.

[Spirit Walker]

I only lost about 5 lbs on each of my hikes. I gained it back as soon as I finished hiking.

[franky]

I am over weight and was wondering how much weight some of you may have lost on your through hike.

Welcome to the club.

It's a wonderful thing to hike and climb all day and eat whatever you want and still lose weight. But when you get to the end, what are you going to do? Gain it all back again? Eff that!

You need to learn how to change your eating habits.

About a year ago I got into intermittent fasting combined with a high fat, low carb diet. My brother in law had battled with obesity for all his adult life and went from 325 down to 200 in one year through diet alone. And his doc took him off the diabetes and cholesterol and BP meds. So I asked him and he turned me on to Dr. Fung.

I lost about 20% of my bodyweight and kept it off for the most part. For diet, I avoid bread and pasta and rice and potatoes and sugar. It's all very doable. Check out Jason Fung's blog. He is a great resource. PM me if you need some links.

[Old Hiker]

59-60 y/o male here. Didn't see requesting only females, so I decided to jump in.

7 months, 4 days to complete my thru: 55 pounds lost overall. Most in the first 4 months, most needed to be lost.

Summit on 03 Oct - have gained 10+ back to date.

[Puddlefish]

Also male, but this is what I noticed from my two months on the trail. One younger woman gained weight, she started skinny and got muscular. She gained about 10 pounds of healthy weight in a month and a half. One larger and older women I hiked with a bit, lost no weight at all, but she was sure climbing mountains faster after a few weeks.

Worry less about weight and more about a healthy fitness level, strength, lung capacity. All these things will improve on the trail. If you have extra weight going in, focus more on nutritious calories rather than large amounts of empty calories. I myself started overweight, and ate everything in site. After a few weeks, my thighs got huge and muscular... after losing significant pounds, my thighs shrunk back to normal proportions. The body pretty much adapts to what it needs to adapt to.

Hike the trail to enjoy nature, get yourself healthy and to just generally have fun. If you're doing it solely to lose weight, you might not have much fun, and might not lose weight and keep it off. Start slow, have fun, and enjoy the experience, the pounds will take care of themselves eventually. Don't hurt yourself by overdoing it, or the pounds will pile back on really fast when you get off the trail to recover.

Good luck!

[Sandy of PA]

Males are totally different than females when it comes to weight loss on the trail. Our bodies hang on to fat in the interest of child bearing so the weight does NOT just fall off like the guys.

[illabelle]

A graph of my weight over time looks just like the trail profile maps: up, down, up, down, every hill followed by a valley, every steep ascent followed by an equally quick descent. Seems like every pound I lose is regained, then lost again, then regained. Oh well, just keep walking...

[penny b]

i hoping i can lose some weight when i do my thru hike ....I am starting about the same weight if i left right now but hoping to go in about 2-3 yrs ! was you trying to lose or just the hiking shed them pounds ?

[pilgrimskywheel]

I lost 157 lbs. on-trail! Her name was Heather.

[Engine]

Male who's concerned about his wife here. My wife, Caboose, is all of 5'2" and 108 pounds dripping wet. She's been diagnosed with an overactive thyroid and if she gets down below 105 pounds her ribs start to show. She also becomes fatigued much more quickly when her weight gets too low, and she becomes ill easier. I'm hoping we can get enough food into her while we are in town to keep weight on during our thru-hike next year, but it's a very real concern for me...

I know this is the opposite issue the OP was inquiring about and I'm not trying to hijack the thread, just wondering if anyone has had to overcome this problem and what worked for them.