Everything I've been reading indicates how important nutrition is, and how you should eat as much as possible because of burning so many calories. However, the majority of this information seems to be aimed at people of "normal" weight, who end up extremely thin at the end of the trail.
What about nutrition for those who are not merely overweight, but even obese? If I don't get into grad school for next year I may decide to hike the AT starting February/March 2016, and I've been thinking of getting a dehydrator and maybe even one of those vacuum sealing machines to dry fruits and vegetables, and meats for protein, to have a more balanced diet than just carbs and lots of fatty foods.
If I end up hiking (which I may do eventually even if I go to grad school next year) I'd want to maximize weight loss while still having energy and not suffering from malnutrition. Eating 2 pounds or more of food every day doesn't seem very realistic to me. While I was walking the Camino de Santiago last summer for two months (started pretty much in the middle of France) I lost my appetite and didn't feel like eating a whole lot, to the point that sometimes even good food was unappetizing, and I usuall didn't want lunch.
Is it really necessary to eat like a pig while on the trail? And what about packing foods to get all the nutrition, not just carbs and fat for energy, and protein to keep up muscle mass?