Can Hiking Make You Fat?

[T-Dubs]

I agree with you obesity but notice with increased obesity still the number one killer but death rates are decreasing is heart disease

Decrease in mortality risk with the overweight as well? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/op...blem.html?_r=0

I just came across this article and haven't followed up on the author but I thought I'd throw it out there for discourse.

[Danielle K]

Did anyone come back from the hike, make an honest effort to exercise plenty and eat well, and still gain weight?

[Malto]

Did anyone come back from the hike, make an honest effort to exercise plenty and eat well, and still gain weight?

Yes, after return I had to recover for a few weeks then immediately started training for a long trail run at the grand canyon. I was hiking or running 30-45 mile days about once a week and working out almost daily. The quality of food was the best in my life. Still, I gained the weight back that I needed(13 lbs) plus another seven. And the sobering thing was that I knew exactly what would happen when I returned.

[Pedaling Fool]

Did anyone come back from the hike, make an honest effort to exercise plenty and eat well, and still gain weight?

I made an effort, because my hike was all about changing what I saw myself becoming; I even started running a couple months after my hike (Dec. '06) as part of my new fitness regimen. I still gained weight, most of which was muscle, because I returned to the gym. However, I also gained back some fat, which is, I believe, inevitable in most cases, but also not really a bad thing. It's just really difficult to keep all fat off back home compared to on the trail, but like I said, I think having some fat is actually healthy, as opposed to too little fat. I do think it's wrong to go with the conventional idea of "The less body fat, the more healthy" is just totally wrong and unhealthy.


However, I do believe that the overwhelming majority of people that completely lose it and get overly fat, much like the story in the OP, is because they don't work at it. A thru-hike is a very good way of developing a base cardio system and if you work at it after your hike you can really improve you cardio through anaerobic exercise.

Bottom line, people that complain about weight gain after a thru-hike, really squandered a great thing they did for themselves, by letting themselves go. But on a plus side, that thru-hike is still in them, they can find it again, it'll just take some work. But that's the problem, work, everyone wants that magical pill....

[Pedaling Fool]

This I believe is the real culprit behind obesity and related diseases, not processed foods or sugar, rather our constant access to food and to some degree our sedentary lifestyles. Key word: "Thrifty Gene". And it explains why we can hike so efficiently on so little food, not the suggested quantity of 2lbs of food per day Granted you must retrain your body to do this.

http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pub...ty/obesity.htm


"NIDDK research conducted on the Pima Indians for the past 30 years has helped scientists prove that obesity is a major risk factor in the development of diabetes. One-half of adult Pima Indians have diabetes and 95% of those with diabetes are overweight.

These studies, carried out with the help of the Pima Indians, have shown that before gaining weight, overweight people have a slower metabolic rate compared to people of the same weight. This slower metabolic rate, combined with a high fat diet and a genetic tendency to retain fat may cause the epidemic overweight seen in the Pima Indians, scientists believe.


Scientists use the "thrifty gene" theory proposed in 1962 by geneticist James Neel to help explain why many Pima Indians are overweight. Neel's theory is based on the fact that for thousands of years populations who relied on farming, hunting and fishing for food, such as the Pima Indians, experienced alternating periods of feast and famine. Neel said that to adapt to these extreme changes in caloric needs, these people developed a thrifty gene that allowed them to store fat during times of plenty so that they would not starve during times of famine.


This gene was helpful as long as there were periods of famine. But once these populations adopted the typical Western lifestyle, with less physical activity, a high fat diet, and access to a constant supply of calories, this gene began to work against them, continuing to store calories in preparation for famine. Scientists think that the thrifty gene that once protected people from starvation might also contribute to their retaining unhealthy amounts of fat.

Dr. Eric Ravussin, a visiting scientist at the Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch at NIDDK, has studied obesity in the Pima Indians since 1984. He believes the thrifty gene theory applies to the Pimas.

The Pima Indians maintained much of their traditional way of life and economy until the late 19th century, when their water supply was diverted by American farmers settling upstream, according to Ravussin. At that time, their 2,000-year-old tradition of irrigation and agriculture was disrupted, causing poverty, malnutrition and even starvation. The Pima community had to fall back on the lard, sugar and white flour the U.S. government gave them to survive, says Ravussin.

However, World War II brought great social and economic change for American Indians. Those who entered military service joined Caucasian units. Many other American Indians migrated from reservations to cities for factory employment and their estimated cash income more than doubled from 1940 to 1944.

When the war and the economic boom ended, most Native Americans returned to the reservations, but contact with the larger society had profoundly affected the Pimas' way of life. Ravussin says it is no surprise that the increase in unhealthy weight among the Pima Indians occurred in those born post-World War II.


During this century people world-wide experienced more prosperity and leisure time, and less physical work. Since the 1920s, all Americans have consumed more fat and sugar and less starch and fiber. The greatest changes have occurred in consumption of fat. In the 1890s, the traditional Pima Indian diet consisted of only about 15 percent fat and was high in starch and fiber, but currently almost 40 percent of the calories in the Pima diet is derived from fat. As the typical American diet became more available on the reservation after the war, people became more overweight.

"The only way to correct obesity is to eat less fat and exercise regularly," Ravussin says.

Recently, Ravussin visited a Pima community living as their ancestors did in a remote area of the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico. These Mexican Pimas are genetically the same as the Pima Indians of Arizona. Out of 35 Mexican Pimas studied, only three had diabetes and the population as a whole was not overweight, according to Ravussin.

"We've learned from this study of the Mexican Pimas that if the Pima Indians of Arizona could return to some of their traditions, including a high degree of physical activity and a diet with less fat and more starch, we might be able to reduce the rate, and surely the severity, of unhealthy weight in most of the population," Ravussin says.

"However, this is not as easy as it sounds because of factors such as genetic influences that are difficult to change. Our research focuses on determining the most effective way to bring about permanent weight loss in light of these factors," Ravussin adds."

- Lorraine H. Marchand

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[juma]

hmmmm...I sectioned hiked for many years and still do once in awhile. I went from 180 down to 150 and stayed there no matter how much pasta and beer. I don't know what could be wrong with the rest of you.

[Chuckie V]

"The only way to correct obesity is to eat less fat and exercise regularly," Ravussin says.

I'm surprised this guy says that's the only way to "correct" obesity. It makes it hard to honor anything else he wrote. Indeed, it's important to beware those scientists who see everything in absolutes; i.e., in black and white. That's not how the human body works. "Correcting" obesity is a multi-faceted problem and there's even more to it than the old 'calories in/calories out' equation, those that's the single most important factor...to utilize more calories than you ingest, over a lengthy period of time, if weight loss is the goal. This, regardless of what type of calories (be they fat or carbohydrate calories); plenty of people become obese eating primarily sugars, though they're far more likely to develop diabetes en route.

As the study essentially alludes to, starving yourself on a hike is not an ideal way to lose weight, as the body then "hangs on" to its own reserves, teaching itself to do this better and better over time; we evolved not knowing when our next meal came and thus became efficient at storing fat. Nowadays we're not forced into famine of course (at least not here in North America), but yet our capacity to store calories remains, well, hugely evident. We can certainly starve ourselves to lose weight, but all we're really doing is helping to train our "storage system" for when we do eat again, as we assuredly will. This is why the diet industry is a multi-BILLION dollar industry...because they capitalize on those unwilling to learn or change their lifestyle. Everyone wants a quick, easy way to slim down, and yet it took us time to get fat. My bolded sentence above is the only proven way to lose weight. Hike a bunch, increase our lazy-ass metabolism and eat only what we can carry. It works!

There's one more reason to hike the Appalachian Trail!

[MuddyWaters]

The only thing that makes you fat is eating more calories than you need.

[Statue]

I think we're on the verge of proving that calorie in vs calorie out isn't so black and white and that the quality of the calorie matters. The food pyramid the FDA put out in the 80s is an absolute joke and is partially responsible for the obesity epidemic we have today. They pyramid was based on the idea that eating high fat foods led to higher cholesterol levels thus adding more starch to our diet and now we have come to know that fat has no correlation with cholesterol. Refined carbs and HFCS has wrecked havoc on our bodies.

At the end of a thru hike it would be interesting to give a hiker the diet of High fat low carb. Only thing they can eat is meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, butter, and cream. No refined carbs and no sugar except for what comes from these foods. I'd also put them on a weight lifting routine.

I have a buddy that is moderately active who has done the high fat low carb for three years. His body fat starting out was 14% and since eating this way it's down to about 9%.

In a typical day he'll eat 8 strips of bacon, 2 avocados, 12 oz of beef, 16 oz of chicken, 6 cups of vegetables, 2 eggs, 1.5 oz of butter, and about an oz of high fat cream. Guy is ripped and works out maybe 45 minutes 5 days a week.

[colorado_rob]

Refined carbs and HFCS has wrecked havoc on our bodies.
.

HCFS actually HELPS avoid obesity because you can use much less of it to get the same sweetness, but alas, popular myth reigns and post like this one tends to perpetuate this ridiculous Myth. Do some research on HCFS. Plenty of links, here's one of dozens that say the same thing, essentially, that Fructose is Fructose. And if you're going to eat sugar, Fructose is perhaps the best choice.

http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skept...-myth-science/

[Pedaling Fool]

I'm surprised this guy says that's the only way to "correct" obesity. It makes it hard to honor anything else he wrote. Indeed, it's important to beware those scientists who see everything in absolutes**; i.e., in black and white. That's not how the human body works. "Correcting" obesity is a multi-faceted problem and there's even more to it than the old 'calories in/calories out' equation, those that's the single most important factor...to utilize more calories than you ingest, over a lengthy period of time, if weight loss is the goal. This, regardless of what type of calories (be they fat or carbohydrate calories); plenty of people become obese eating primarily sugars, though they're far more likely to develop diabetes en route.

As the study essentially alludes to, starving yourself on a hike is not an ideal way to lose weight, as the body then "hangs on" to its own reserves, teaching itself to do this better and better over time; we evolved not knowing when our next meal came and thus became efficient at storing fat. Nowadays we're not forced into famine of course (at least not here in North America), but yet our capacity to store calories remains, well, hugely evident. We can certainly starve ourselves to lose weight, but all we're really doing is helping to train our "storage system" for when we do eat again, as we assuredly will. This is why the diet industry is a multi-BILLION dollar industry...because they capitalize on those unwilling to learn or change their lifestyle. Everyone wants a quick, easy way to slim down, and yet it took us time to get fat. My bolded sentence above is the only proven way to lose weight. Hike a bunch, increase our lazy-ass metabolism and eat only what we can carry. It works!

There's one more reason to hike the Appalachian Trail!

I'm very aware of that fact** and when I read this piece I didn't read it as a complete guide to weight loss or diet. In that light, I didn't see that it "alludes" to starving yourself, rather than just eat less, which in today's world there is a lot of room to eat less and be far from starving. I also have a little problem with the remark about eating less fat, not sure of his point there, but such is the issue with nearly everything one reads -- there's always some discrepancy.

My main interest was in how efficient our bodies are, not only as evidenced by this research, but also in my own experience during my hike, where I was amazed at how efficient my body became on such small food quantity. That's why I say, the conventional wisdom of 2lbs of food a day is total BS ( I wonder where that originated from), nor is there a requirement to eat 5,000 calories per day.

[Pedaling Fool]

HCFS actually HELPS avoid obesity because you can use much less of it to get the same sweetness, but alas, popular myth reigns and post like this one tends to perpetuate this ridiculous Myth. Do some research on HCFS. Plenty of links, here's one of dozens that say the same thing, essentially, that Fructose is Fructose. And if you're going to eat sugar, Fructose is perhaps the best choice.

http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/high-fructose-corn-syrup-myth-science/

Completely agree. Also, there's too much BS out there about the evils of processed foods.

[hauptman]

Yes it can make fat. All those pesky MacDonalds conveniently located at every trailhead. The buxom trail angels at each shelter bearing crispy cream donuts and their trail maids with flagons of ale. Aahhh, the luxuries of hiking through my imagination-land.

[JAK]

I ate my twin in the womb.

[Hosaphone]

I also gained back some fat, which is, I believe, inevitable in most cases, but also not really a bad thing. It's just really difficult to keep all fat off back home compared to on the trail, but like I said, I think having some fat is actually healthy, as opposed to too little fat. I do think it's wrong to go with the conventional idea of "The less body fat, the more healthy" is just totally wrong and unhealthy.

At least one study has been done that showed having a little bit of meat on your bones is a good thing. People of slightly higher than "normal" weight were actually less likely to die prematurely than other weight groups. Not really that surprising when you think about it.

[Son Driven]

The line share of us are the result of what we eat, along with what we do. 14 months ago I was a 257 pound couch potato, diabetic, gout, required a CPAP machine to sleep, and depressed. Then I had a come to Jesus meeting with myself, got rid of the TV all together. Only ate premium foods, fruits, vegetables, whole grains & lean meats. Without a TV and the improved diet, my energy level went way up, started going on longer & longer walks & bike rides, got under 200 pound within 6 months. No diabetes, gout, CPAP machine or depression. I am sure if I went back to eating chips, and drinking soda for hours at a time while watching TV the pounds would return, along with the depression.

I am so looking forward to hitting the trail. Put over 10 pounds back on, it is hard to get the long walks & biking in when the temps are sub zero. I believe the AT will knock me down to about 180. Depending on what I eat and what I do will determine how much gets added back after I get off the trail. When I am through I need to figure out a better place to spend next winter. I do not like gyms, or being indoors. Maybe I will spend the winters on southern trails, and summers on northern trails.

[Almost There]

Bottom line: Take responsibility for your own actions. If you eat krap=you will soon feel and look like krap...both on the inside and the outside. Conversely, if you take care of yourself, eat whole foods, try to stay away from refined foods, and exercise...you will have more energy, and get out to do more things. Our bodies are remarkable machines if we fuel them properly.

[Freedom Walker]

Just a thought. Over the past few years I gain 5- 10 lbs every winter. Maybe because not as active, or Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts and sweets as well. But as Spring comes along with summer I easily drop the extra pounds. A thru hiker once told me that he gained a lot of weight after his hike because everything looked and tasted sooo good! So maybe finishing in the fall combined with Holiday eating and winter seems like a recipe for serious weight gain.

[JAK]

I don't know much about 12 steps programs, but are they ever used for food additiction?
Could it work?

[MuddyWaters]

People just dont realize how little food they need, and how many calories they consume with calorie dense refined foods and sugared crap.

You cannot eat until you are sated with that stuff, you will consume far in excess of what you need.
Problem is, it makes you crave more of it.

Focus on REAL foods, meats and vegetables and fruits, and minimize the man-made food crap, and excessive carbs like bread, corn, rice, pasta, potatoes and you will not have any problems. It is just too easy to overeat with high carbohydrate diets, you crave more when you start eating them.

And, like I tell my kids, dont drink calories.
Drink water. Its what your body was made to drink.
If you drink calories, you have to eat less food fo make up for it.

Like everything in life, you can have anything. You cant have everything.
If you want that hot fudge sundae from Sonic, get it.
Eat a smaller dinner later to compensate.


Step on a scale once or twice a week and monitor your weight. Make little adjustments before it gets out of control. Dont eat everything in sight and then lament you gained 20 lbs in a month. It is easy to do eating the calorie dense foods.

Ive never had a problem managing my weight, so I dont buy excuses people come up with.
When I was younger and lifted weights heavy, my peak wt was 210 at 14% bodyfat.
Today, I weigh 156 at 6% bodyfat
About a difference of 20 lb fat, and about 35 lbs muscle.
I have gone up , and down , about 20-40 lbs numerous times in my life
When I gained weight, it was because I wanted maximum strength, i liked being strong and big, even if a bit ....chunky.
Fat makes you stronger. Intramuscular fat improves muscle leverage, and you cannot get maximum strength without consuming excess calories.
When I lost it, it was because i wanted to run better, hike better, play better, or just look better and feel better
As get older and cannot maintain that muscle anymore, I want to look better, feel better,and go easy on my damaged old joints.