How much weight did you lose on the trail?

[Hoop Time]

Female hiker we met yesterday in Duncannon told my wife she was a size 12 when she started and now is a size 6. She joked she might write a "You don't have to stop eating to lose weight" diet book.

[Yahtzee]

Springer 187
Hot Springs 167
Duncannon 167
Killington, Vt 167
Katahdin 147
2 months after the trail 207

[superman]

I don't remember the exact numbers since I seldom get on a scale anyways. When Pat from Maine and I finished the AT we were both very lean. Then we'd go out to dinner and pound down the food like we were still hiking. The weight was creeping up. The funny thing was when we were driving south on the Maine Turnpike and Pat had been ranting about weight for almost an hour, then we came to the rest area and we both yelled "Cinnabuns" as I pulled in for a pile of calories. We finally got it under control but it was hard to lose that thru hiker appetite. We do a low carb/low sugar diet and that works for us.

[ChinMusic]

From reading all this it seems it is EASY to lose a ton of weight on the trail (if you have something to lose)......just keep walkin'. The trick seems to be stopping the hiker-hunger after finishing. I'm wondering of an appetite suppressant might be in order after a thru......

[garlic08]

I've never had more than 5 pounds extra weight in my life, so I don't loose weight when hiking. I just have to eat continuously. On the AT, I started with a few extra pounds, lost them by Virginia, gained them back again by New England, lost them again by Maine.

[stranger]

I gain weight on every hike I do over about 350 miles, kinda strange. I'm relatively thin and usually fairly trail fit other than a few months of the year, so I guess it's due to gaining more muscle.

I find when I start my training schedule each year I drop a few pounds initially then level off, and get off the trail slightly heavier, about 2-4lbs.

[Bearpaw]

I had just gotten out of the Marine Corps, 207 pounds, about 16% body fat. Finished 5 1/2 months later at 168 pounds, maybe 10% body fat after several trips to a Chinese AYCE buffet.

One of my Marine buddies asked me who stole my neck.

[ChinMusic]

I had just gotten out of the Marine Corps, 207 pounds, about 16% body fat. Finished 5 1/2 months later at 168 pounds, maybe 10% body fat after several trips to a Chinese AYCE buffet.

One of my Marine buddies asked me who stole my neck.

Sad to think of all that upper-body mass turning into CO2, H2O, and urea after all that work.

[Different Socks]

Lost an average of 35 pounds on both the AT and PCT. Course all the time leading up to the hike, I consumed mass quantities.

[Different Socks]

Female hiker we met yesterday in Duncannon told my wife she was a size 12 when she started and now is a size 6. She joked she might write a "You don't have to stop eating to lose weight" diet book.

Ive always had this idea to market a new diet where you can eat all you want and not gain a single pound!!

[Different Socks]

See, I have weight to lose (female, about 170), and I was planning on losing 20 pounds before I leave for my thru in late February, and then hoping to lose at least twenty more on the trail, but I don't want to cut back on protein on the trail and get weak and end up going home. So I was figuring a very protein dense meal plan of about 3,000 calories per day. (At least to start out) Would that work?

On average, an AT thru-hiker will burn upwards of 6000 cals a day, but can only manage to eat an average of 4000 per day. That's one reason we all crave meat, dairy, produce and beer when we come into town!

[shoe]

I've always wondered were they get the # of calories that a hiker burns.
I wear a heart rate monitor when I backpack and over the course of 8 hours of hiking I have never hit 6000 calories.I hiked for 10.5 hours 1 day and only hit 5200 calories.
And I am considerably overweight...like 80 pounds.

I can't imagine some of these skinny hikers I see burning that many calories.

[Bronk]

I weighed about 220 at Springer and had lost 35 pounds by the time I reached Hot Springs. When I got off the trail at Waynesville I weighed 167. The last few weeks of my hike I had to drastically alter my food plan because I simply didn't have any excess fat left to burn. Eat a lot of meat and protein...forget about how much food weighs, take what your body needs...listen to your body, it will tell you what it needs.

Within 6 months after I got off the trail I had gained back about 25 pounds back...I stayed pretty steady at that level until the last year or two, so I was able to keep almost half the lost weight off for around 5 years.

Problem is that after a few months of burning that amount of calories, your body is programmed to think it needs that many all the time...so just because you stop hiking doesn't mean the hunger will go away...your body will still think it needs to go back for a 7th plate at the AYCE buffet. The longer you continue this behavior the more of your lost weight you will gain back...you might even end up weighing more than you did to begin with when all is said and done.

[Plodderman]

Lost 25 pounds

[jersey joe]

I went from 175 to 135(40lbs lost). I put almost all of it back on within two months.

[ChinMusic]

I've always wondered were they get the # of calories that a hiker burns.
I wear a heart rate monitor when I backpack and over the course of 8 hours of hiking I have never hit 6000 calories.I hiked for 10.5 hours 1 day and only hit 5200 calories.
And I am considerably overweight...like 80 pounds.

I can't imagine some of these skinny hikers I see burning that many calories.

A am a gadget guy and too wear a heart rate monitor most of the time while backpacking/walking. It is nothing for me to hit 5000 cal burn on a day, in fact 5000 is a comfortable day. I have a burn rate of around 500cal/hr just walking (3.5 mph, 225 lbs = 525cal/hr) on a flat bike trail without a pack. I have a burn rate of around 700cal/hr while backpacking. The most I have registered is 7700 and I had almost nothing left.

Add to that the bodies normal BMR and ranges of 6000 to 9000 are def doable and I would say normal for individuals over 200 pounds. I would think a strong hiker over 200 pounds could easily go over 10000 calories on a long day.

[chicote]

6'1" Started at Springer at 198 –*got to Ms. Janets and lost 25 pounds. By the time I hit Vermont I was 155. About 145 on top of Katahdin. I couldn't or didn't get enough protein. I was eating so much food by the end that in the 100 mile wilderness my pack weighed around 40 pounds it started out weighing 30 pounds. One the other hand my wife who's 5 feet 103 pounds ended up losing 3 pounds.

[The Solemates]

217 starting at springer, less than 8% body fat (i was an amateur bodybuilder)

195 by PA

187 in NH/southern ME

195 at Katahdin

213 2-4 months later at home, less than 8% body fat, when i picked up lifting again

215 5 years later, stopped lifting, 14% body fat

[Ladytrekker]

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...?artid=1946964

Article on the difference of men and women and long distance backpacking on the trail

[Filadelfia Greenberg]

Hiking Davenport gap to Rockfish I dropped from about 220lbs to 180 lbs in 54 days. Hiking from Rockfish to Katahdin and then from Davenport to Springer I dropped from about 189-174.

So yeah, you'll lose weight.