Calories burned for a larger lady?

[sdh59]

Hey guys! This is my first post, but I did my research before posting! I see a lot on here that the "average" person burns 5000-7000 calories a day hiking. By average I'm going to assume ~165 lbs of whatever gender you please.

Now, I'm a larger lady and I've been looking at every online calculator posted at they pretty much all say that hiking 8 hours a day at whatever pace they set (not really sure why they go by time rather than miles at x miles an hour) would have me burning 8000-9000 calories on top of my ~2200 BMR. Is that accurate? I find it really hard to believe that I could burn 10000 calories a day, even at the beginning, but that's what pretty much all of the internet is throwing back at me. Are these calculators to be taken with a grain of salt? Is there something that I'm missing?

Thoughts?

[Hot Flash]

Too many factors to make a guess. Factors like what's your current physical condition, what terrain are you hiking through, how heavy is your pack, what's the weather like, what's your metabolism like, et cetera. There's no way to tell what your nutritional needs are going to be like until you actually get out on the trail and see what happens.

I can't speak to the size issue at all, since I'm a thin woman, but even at my size I go through significantly fewer calories than the online calculators say I should.

[leaftye]

The calculators are probably missing something.

At a starting weight of 220 pounds, I lost 30 pounds in two months while on a consistent trail diet that provided about 4500 calories per day, indicating a deficit over 1500 calories per day. It would be a lot more when muscle loss and town food are factored in.

[HikerMom58]

Too many factors to make a guess. Factors like what's your current physical condition, what terrain are you hiking through, how heavy is your pack, what's the weather like, what's your metabolism like, et cetera. There's no way to tell what your nutritional needs are going to be like until you actually get out on the trail and see what happens.

I can't speak to the size issue at all, since I'm a thin woman, but even at my size I go through significantly fewer calories than the online calculators say I should.

+1............................

to WB........ sdh59

[sdh59]

Thanks guys!

Hot Flash - I'm in fairly good physical condition. Like I said, I'm larger but I'm really active. I've been hiking all my life. I would be (hopefully) doing a thru-hike of the AT in 2014.

leaftye - That's interesting. So you burnt about 6000 a day? That seems on par with what most calculators estimate (unless I'm missing something?).

Thanks HikerMomKD!

[leaftye]

leaftye - That's interesting. So you burnt about 6000 a day? That seems on par with what most calculators estimate (unless I'm missing something?).

At least that much. I spent a lot of time in town, and I ate very heartily while I was there while doing much less physical activity. Unfortunately it's too difficult to count calories in town.

[sdh59]

That makes sense. So you're saying the calculators might be underestimating? Dang. Here I thought they might be overestimating!

[leaftye]

It's hard to say. The only thing that's true most of the time is that you can eat as much as possible while thru hiking and still lose weight.

[sdh59]

The only thing that's true most of the time is that you can eat as much as possible while thru hiking and still lose weight.

On that note, is it possible to eat healthily on the trails? Usually healthily = low calorie unless in excess, and I've seen on here that lipton pasta, cheeseburgers, pizza, and snickers are the hiker's staples. Is it entirely impossible to eat healthier foods like one pot pasta that isn't lipton (think dehydrated) or hearty soups/stews? Is that unrealistic simply due to how many calories need consumed?

[Malto]

It is going to depend on your daily mileage, pack weight etc. On my thru hike I averaged just over 30 miles a day and burned about 7000 calories. My full weight including pack was about 195 lbs. No way you will be burning 8000-9000 calories unless you are doing 20+ mile days AND weight over 300 lbs.

I assume the reason you are asking is to determine how much food to take. If I were in your situation I would eat about 200 high carbs calories per hour (every hour hiked) with moderate main meals. This will allow you to use your fats reserves efficiently without sacrificing energy level. You will operating at a higher deficit than most hikers but it sounds like you can afford to do that. You can adjust as needed later in the hike.

This is exactly the strategy I use on short duration hikes of a few days. It allows me to burn off about a lb of fat per day and I have plenty of energy to allow high mile days. This assumes that you are not diabetic or have any other conditions that would prohibit you from undertaking this. Good luck.

[sdh59]

My full weight including pack was about 195 lbs. No way you will be burning 8000-9000 calories unless you are doing 20+ mile days AND weight over 300 lbs.

Yeahhhh. I'm 320 so with my pack I'm about 350. Like I said, larger lady. I don't have any health issues like high blood pressure or blood sugar or cholesterol so pretty much anything goes food wise. Only issue I have medically is PCOS which doesn't really affect the food situation. I would like to keep it healthier, though. I'm not much a fan of candy and heavy meals.

[leaftye]

On that note, is it possible to eat healthily on the trails?

It's possible. It can take a lot of creativity and time browsing the grocery aisles though, at least for me. Look into freezer bag cooking and doing mail drops as an alternative.

[sdh59]

It can take a lot of creativity and time browsing the grocery aisles though, at least for me. Look into freezer bag cooking and doing mail drops as an alternative.

I was planning on dehydrating my own food all of this year and then having my parents maildrop me what I've made (except for staples I can get on the trail like peanut butter).

[PD230SOI]

Hi,

i use a heart rate monitor that also counts calories as part of a formula that is part science and part guesswork.

that being said, while running it is not unusual for it to tell me I am burning close to 1,000 calories an hour, but that's a hard run.

i have since measured that against a strict diet and measured weight loss and think that my heart rate monitor is fairly accurate.

so bottom line 6,000 to 10,000 a day, including basil metabolic rate, is possible for me, but a lot of variables are in play..... Such as age, current fitness, Vo2, lots of stuff. If you are really interested, buy a decent heart rate monitor and test it out..

but I'm a bit of research guy so for me that sort of thing is fun.

[leaftye]

Be sure to test your meal plan. You'll hate yourself if you prepare all that food and then find it unpalatable on the trail. The quantities make a huge difference. My example is trail mix. I like trail mix of all kinds, and eat a lot of it, but can't eat enough of most kinds on long backpacking trips. To eat enough, I have to switch to a fruitier mix that is less calorie dense. Calorie density is very important to me, but calorie dense food doesn't do me any good if I don't eat it.

Check out Dicentra's site.
http://www.onepanwonders.com

She's a member here, but hasn't been active in a while. She also has a book on Amazon and is planning a second book.

[sdh59]

Hi,
i use a heart rate monitor that also counts calories as part of a formula that is part science and part guesswork.
If you are really interested, buy a decent heart rate monitor and test it out.

Which type do you use? I was looking into getting either a fitbit or a BodyBugg!

[fredmugs]

Yeahhhh. I'm 320 so with my pack I'm about 350. Like I said, larger lady. I don't have any health issues like high blood pressure or blood sugar or cholesterol so pretty much anything goes food wise. Only issue I have medically is PCOS which doesn't really affect the food situation. I would like to keep it healthier, though. I'm not much a fan of candy and heavy meals.

If you're 320 your basic metabolic rate is way over 2200. I way around 210 right now and mine is 2300. Your BMR is the number of calories you burn just being alive. So....if you burn (for example) 100 calories an hour being alive and you burn 600 calories hiking for an hour then you burned 500 extra calories. Not 600 + 100.

Personally I think the calories burned while numbers are grossly exaggerated.

[sdh59]

Thanks for the link leaftye! I was definitely planning to try it in small batches first, make it, and figure out if any of them are horrible. It would be absolutely awful to put that much work into it and not be able to eat on the trails!

I can't eat a lot of really calorically dense trail mixes either. Mine are mostly dried fruit with homemade granola and a few m&m's and almonds thrown in for variety

[sdh59]

fredmugs - I've calculated my BMR online a lot, and it always comes out to about 2200. I'm not sure where you got your information from? Perhaps a link so I can see what mine is on the same site?

Thanks for the d'oh moment on the exercise + BMR. I'm a dolt! haha

[Malto]

Yeahhhh. I'm 320 so with my pack I'm about 350. Like I said, larger lady. I don't have any health issues like high blood pressure or blood sugar or cholesterol so pretty much anything goes food wise. Only issue I have medically is PCOS which doesn't really affect the food situation. I would like to keep it healthier, though. I'm not much a fan of candy and heavy meals.

Got it..... While this issue is hotly debated, my rule of thumb is calories burned =total weight x miles hiked so even at your weight AND 20 mile days you still are more in the 6-7000 range. Also, 20 mile days are unlikely.... Using a more realistic 12 mile days puts you in the 4000-4500 calories per day range. (350 x 12)