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  1. #41
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    You won't know until you try but the pain in your feet and back is relatively normal. You'll always feel very tight and achy in the mornings but once you start hiking and get warmed up the pain goes away for the most part.

    When it comes to fitness, I'd say just get on the trail and start hiking. You'll soon lose any excess weight as your body tries to keep up with your calorie consumption. Just take it easy for the first couple of weeks.

  2. #42
    Registered User FiftyNine's Avatar
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    I am planning a flip flop hike starting in April. I am very over weight and trying to lose about 50 lbs before I start. I'm hiking now about 20 miles a week some of that with a backpack with about 30 lbs. I also try to get other exercise in. I was sidelined with a heel spur that slowed me down for a few months. I kept hiking when I thought it was going to be ok but after 4 or five miles the pain would return and then found it hard to put any weight on it for a week or so.. so I took two months and just let it heal. Had the doctor make me an orthotic and now I'm back to hiking again. So many of my ache and pains,will be solved with losing weight. I'm not going to let my weight stop me.
    My goal in the next six months is to 1. Lose weight. 2. Work on leg strength and stamina.
    My goal on the hike is not to focus on losing weight but to focus on the experience. I plan on taking it slow at the beginning working my way up.


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  3. #43
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    Skylark, is you're biking 10mi/day x 5 days/week, you're in much better shape than me. You're probably getting sore from muscles/joints that are not in shape from biking; keep up the biking for aerobic fitness. Start walking daily, starting with short distances until you're sure that feet/back/joints will feel OK, then increase distance. If your feet bother you walking, look into the fit of your shoes; if foot soreness continues see a podiatrist. Start on core exercises and stretches for your back. A good strengthening and stretching program would help everyone.
    The main thing is to start out SLOWLY at the beginning.

  4. #44
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    What PennyPincher said. Your diet needs to consist of 70 percent greens and a combination of raw and cooked vegetables. Don't eat more than four to six ounces of meat per day. Not per meal, per day. That is all you need to get the benefit of animal protein. Track your calories with the Fitbit or MyFitnessPal app. You will be surprised at how much you're lying to yourself about what you eat. If you tell everyone you had oatmeal for breakfast they are going to think you consumed about 300 calories. But add two pieces of buttered toast, some brown sugar, and a glass of milk to wash it down with, and you're at 1100 calories. Shop at grocery stores that discount veggies on the last day of their "freshness" stamp. Find out what cruciferous vegetables are and eat a good variety of them. Also eat veggies with bright vibrant colors like reds, purples, yellows. If you get snacky, eat raw fruit. Eat as much of it as you want, as each one is a perfect balance of fats, carbs, and protein and it is real hard to gain wait from fruit snacking if you follow my advice on the 70 percent. Heck, just get Joel Fuhrman's "Eat to Live" read it and put it into practice to the extent you're able. I dropped 40 pounds in less than six months a couple years ago eating the way he described. And I was always full.

    Quote Originally Posted by PennyPincher View Post
    you need to lose the weight. And of course going to 3 days straight of hiking for multiple hours is going to hurt. you "progressed" too fast. General rule of thumb for progressing an exercise routine is to only increase the "load" by 10% total per week or in any one workout.

    Example: you work out 5 days a week running 6 miles each day. total load 30 miles per week. you shouldn't add more than 3 miles total to your weekly mileage. And you can usually violate one of the guidelines (per workout increase or total increase for week) but not both. So you generally would not want to add 1 mile to each of 3 runs in just one week. But if you chose to add 1 mile to one run you only violated the 10% rule on one workout and are still within the total week's 10% rule.




  5. #45
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    Too old? Around this time last year I met a 95 year old atop a small summit on the Tully Trail in western MA. We chatted for a while. He's walked the whole AT (in sections.) He runs up Greylock ever year in some kind of race. Still. I've known a number of folks in their 90s but no hikers among them. Except this guy.
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  6. #46
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    Tons of great advice in here, having lost a chunk of weight and kept it off for a year I thought I'd thow out my observations.

    #1 - Most Americans eat about twice the volume (calories) that they should
    #2 - Most Americans eat twice the meat and half the veggies they should
    #3 - American processed food is crammed full of sugar (this includes most diet foods)
    #4 - Avoid high sodium stuff (also often hidden in supposedly healthy foods)
    #5 - Do NOT salt your food, there are herb salt alternatives out there.
    #6 - Fat in food is not always bad, there are healty fats, sugar is a far bigger problem

    half your overall intake
    double your viggie
    half your meat
    eliminate the sugar as much as possible
    learn what foods are nutrient bombs and add them to your lunch.

    I can't say it will work for everyone but my guess is it will work for 90% of people. Yes it will require discomfort to get used to it but like the AT is all mental. The rewards you get in return are 10 fold what little discomfort you experience. I am 50 years old and I have returned to my college weight and as a consequence have not gotten back into backpacking, something I have missed for 25 years.

  7. #47

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    The wife and I adopted a low sugar/carb,high veggie/fruit diet back in 2009.I am down 55 pounds and she is down about 45.Go watch Dr Robert Lustig's "Sugar the Bitter Truth" on YouTube.Pay particular attention to what he says about "sugar substitutes".Lean protein and non starchy vegetables are your friends.

  8. #48
    Registered User Wiki's Avatar
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    I'll stick my 2 cents in here and echo what other folks have been saying, watching your consumption is defitiley a path to success. I started eating paleo just for dinner about 2 months ago with my girlfriend and we have both lost around 10 pounds so far without changing any other facet of our lifestyle/diet (including beer/distilled spirit consumption).

    So we replaced just one meal a day with a dietary change that forced us to consume more vegetables and less processed crap and it worked great, I'm sure this approach wouldn't work for everyone, but I've had success with it.
    2018 NOBO Hopeful
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    Blog: www.going-big.com

  9. #49
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    When I think I might be too old, I pull out a random episode of 'Windows to the Wild' and watch it.

    In this one, Willem Lange reminisces about a thru-hike that he completed in 1955 - while standing on the summit of Katahdin, having just climbed it again at age 81. God grant that we should all age a tenth as gracefully!
    I always know where I am. I'm right here.

  10. #50
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    I returned to the AT for the fist time in 25 years last week, I'm 50 years old and most of the hikers refered to me as "young feller". There are some old as dirt people out there doing it. This encourages me greatly that my life isn't almost over, that there are many more adventures to be had.

  11. #51
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    If you're interested in thru-hiking ignore most of the advise given above. Pack your pack with the worst food you will eat and start hiking. You’ll find that a thru-hiker can't carry enough food to avoid weigh loss. Limiting your miles is a section hikers path, don't take it. You’ll probably want to avoid all high vegetable and other content diets, but it doesn't matter as you'll learn that on the trail. So just load up and start hiking. By the end of your thru-hike you'll be lean and a hiking machine. What you'll wish to do is be conscious of the post hike diet as there you're likely to regain your weight. I lost my prehike weight of 190 to my end of hike weight of around 135. I then regained my weight up to 185 over the past 4 years. The only reason to lose weight before a hike is to get you in better shape, but don't delay the hike to do so. Remember during the hike your losing weight because your simply not carrying enough food, so just ignore all the weight restricted diets.

  12. #52
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wise Old Owl View Post
    I take Jello and add 2x the amount of gelatin. Keep in mind the lubrication may take as much as 6 months to find the building blocks to lubricate the joints, but is better than 600mg of Naproxen kicking in you in the stomach IMO.

    I like it when a long hike ends at a restaurant with Yuenging on tap... it invigorates me. Just 1or 2 16oz will shut off the pain, feed the muscles, and make a long day a fond memory.

    Hope that helps.....
    I am intrigued by two things you posted:
    1) Please, advise about the jello.... While I don't have pain that requires Naproxen, my husband does. Plus, I did notice that after this last section hike (200 miles from Amicohola Falls SP to Clingman's Dome in two weeks) my knees hurt for the first time after A.T. hiking - actually hurt for a few weeks whenever I went up/down stairs.
    2) Yuenging on tap.No questions on this one - just total agreement! (Wish we had it here in MI)
    Last edited by shelb; 10-26-2016 at 23:14.

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