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What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike
- justinator 10y agoI've done quite a few very strenuous, multi-week races on bike, including riding the Colorado Trail in 7 days [0], and riding to, then summiting all the Colorado 14ers in 34 [1] - as well as participating in the Tour Divide [2] twice. I would call my fitness before these races as "peak", but I wouldn't call myself anything but near, "onset of over training syndrome" afterwards. The only thing I experienced similar to the author's was a slight bit of fat loss. Every other part of my body was wrecked, which took months to recover from. One thing that stuck out with me is that they only hiked for 8 hours/day. That seems like a light day! compared to these races, where 5 hours of sleep is spoiling oneself. I guess the moral of the story before doing a, "thru hike for fitness" is to not to overdo it. It also seems like the author was in pretty alright shape to start out, with a fairly low pulse and overall bodyweight. [0] http://www.climbingdreams.net/ctr/ http://www.climbingdreams.net/ctr/ [1] http://longranger.justinsimoni.com/tour14er/ http://longranger.justinsimoni.com/tour14er/ [2] http://tourdivide.org/ http://tourdivide.org/
- nicolashahn 10y agoI'm willing to bet money that the single determining factor that led you to different results was the amount of sleep. 5 hours is not even enough for a sedentary person, much less someone riding a bike all day. The more you work out the more sleep you need. I'm guessing the author got at least 8 hours a night, or however much was enough to fully recover.
- brendan_a_b 10y agoI'm reading a book on breaking the two hour marathon and one pro (I cant remember her name at the moment) sleeps 16 hours a day when her training peaks
- jrowley 10y agoWhat's the book? Sounds interesting!
- rodhan 10y agoI'm guessing it's "Two Hours: The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon", by Ed Caesar (http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review-two-hours-the-quest-to-run-the-impossible-marathon-by-ed-caesar-1.2295977 http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review-two-hours-the...)
- gjjrfcbugxbhf 10y agoPaula Radcliffe
- dorfsmay 10y agoThis is really interesting, statistically people sleeping 7 hours have the highest life expectancy. I personally need 8 to 9, but I'm sharper if I only sleep ~ 6 hours (and eventually crash and have to recuperate).
- morgante 10y agoIndeed. One of my favorite things about thru-hiking is that you get a ton of sleep: it's not unusual go to bed shortly after sunset and wake up at sunrise.
- Bartweiss 10y agoI usually feel like crap hiking if I'm not in bed for 10+ hours. Mostly that's not hard - you're tired, and just sleep all night. It was a pain in the ass in Alaska, though; I think I'd have real trouble with long hikes there in the summer.
- morgante 10y agoI actually found kayaking and hiking in Alaska amazing (I was only there for 2 weeks). We'd be going for 12-16 hours a day but the constant sunlight made me feel super energized and happy.
- bootload 10y ago"One thing that stuck out with me is that they only hiked for 8 hours/day. That seems like a light day! compared to these races," Really. Carrying a 20kg pack for eight hours over rough terrain is less strenuous than bike riding? Do this for over 500 miles? Ever done this before? Hike on foot with 20kg packs on consecutive days? Make camp, make food, rest, break camp. Everything on your back. This is a lot more strenuous than you think. Hands down racing on a bike is much easier ^physically^ than hiking on foot carrying weight over broken terrain over long distances.
- dasil003 10y agoOver the same distance sure, but have you ever raced mountain bikes? The broken terrain thing applies as well. And the increased efficiency just translates into more speed and distance. You might think descending 10k feet on a bicycle is cake compared to hiking, but packing that elevation drop into a tiny fraction of the time leads is actually a fairly intense upper body workout.
- bootload 10y ago"have you ever raced mountain bikes?" No. I think the OP was referring to road racing. One question, "do you carry the bikes uphill?"
- dasil003 10y agoWhen you hike do you ever jump down a 20-foot cliff? It's asinine to get into this dick measuring contest, you shouldn't claim your sport is more hard-core than a sport you don't know. This mentality is why Lance Armstrong got his ass handed to him the first time he tried mountain bike racing because he thought it would be easy. And yes, there are race format where you carry bikes uphill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclo-cross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclo-cross.
- justinator 10y agoAll these mountain bike races are self-supported, so they're actually very similar in the amount of gear carrying by someone doing a thru-hike with UL equipment, as you're carrying everything you'll need from start to finish, including your sleep system. Much of the course for say - the Colorado Trail is difficult enough you're not riding the bike: you're pushing it. This sort of thing [0] I've actually considered trying to hike the Colorado Trail unsupported - carrying everything I'll need from the start (except water) with NO resupplies until the end. My target time would be around 9 days. If you're trying to gauge how strenuous the types of effort I put forth when I go and do the things I do. Anyways, 8 hours seems like an easy day on the trail for sure. 8 hours hike + 8 hours sleep leaves you 8 hours for $Other_Things. Might as well hike some more! [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyznXGXiSDk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyznXGXiSDk
- chrismartin 10y agoThe conditions of a race are very different from a thru-hike done for enjoyment. I got the best sleep of my life on the PCT. 8-9 solid hours each night (sometimes I would wake up to eat), and an hour nap after lunch every day.
- griffinmmahon 10y agoYour comment has me fondly remembering a backpacking trip in Wyoming. We'd go to sleep around 8 or 9 since it would get dark before then and wake up at about 7, and the sleep was indeed the best of my life, like coming out of a coma.
- reneherse 10y agoThat sounds like backpacking paradise, of which I am delighted to hear of as a contradiction to my experience. I hiked the New England section of the AT in high school, but our small party included a guy who snored louder than anyone I've ever met before or since. A wet, sucking, horrific noise that to the mind of my light-sleeping sixteen y/o self was surely identical to the sound of a giant lamprey or hagfish, slurping the innards of its living, long suffering prey, still undead after twenty-odd very very long nights...
- 24gttghh 10y agoTry some earplugs next time?
- deepGem 10y agoMan, how did you survive on 5 hours of sleep ? I rode my bike for 200 km in 11 hours and post that, slept like a log for 9 hours. I mean, I was knocked out. Couldn't open my eyes despite alarms.
- xorcist 10y agoI can't understand it either, I'm absolutely exhausted from _one_ day of biking. But check out things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_Am_Bike_Race https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_Am_Bike_Race and the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcontinental_Race https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcontinental_Race for the really extreme stuff. There's a great documentary about Transcontinental race from 2015 at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/transcontinental https://vimeo.com/ondemand/transcontinental which is well worth watching. Seems to be behind a (cheap) paywall now but it's well worth it as an intro to how it's done. It's absolutely mesmerizing to watch for regular crazy people (as opposed to the crazy crazy people who partake) and there is some great behind the scenes footage on youtube. These races are great to watch in real time because you can follow every GPS tracker and since each rider chooses their own directions it can get really exciting.
- gaius 10y agoThe US Army's Ranger School is 8 weeks on 2 hours of sleep a night, apart from one night you are allowed 5 hours because there's a parachute jump the next day...
- ryanmarsh 10y agoDon't forget the malnutrition and that it takes a year to recover from.
- gaius 10y agoI'm just a civvy and obviously don't know anything, but I've always found what I've heard/read about Ranger School puzzling. Does it really produce something that cannot be produced any other way? Why does no other military have something like it?
- ObeyTheGuts 10y agoWhen i walk all day i sleep 12 hours, in morning i feel like i want to continue this way instead of noooooo no more walking! Sleep deprivation is just ridiculous, water sleep and food should be plenty in any of long strenous things or else its just self destruction madness
- rsync 10y ago"When i walk all day i sleep 12 hours" I wish there was some perma-link from: - HN comment threads about insomnia (lightbulb colors, screen brightness, silly apps) - HN comment threads about light to moderate exercise It's amazing how simple the answers to these problems are and how close at hand those answers are ...
- Bartweiss 10y agoI agree that people often miss the easy answers on sleep. It's important, though, that light/dark and exercise are not interchangeable sleep aids. Very, very broadly: Light issues are about melatonin, which is production-inhibited and rapidly destroyed in the presence of blue light. Increasing melatonin levels is the point of Flux and blue glasses and all the rest. Exercise issues are about adenosine, which is produced over time and gradually with physical activity, and consumed during sleep. (It's also what caffeine inhibits.) These aren't entirely interchangeable, so there's more to be gained from addressing whichever one is the largest personal issue. (Anecdotally, I have a suspicion that the feeling zombie-tired insomnia is about a bad mismatch from sedentary tiredness.) I do think that people preferentially worry about light issues without trying exercise, though.
- pixelbreaker 10y agoI raced Tour Divide in 2015 too (21 days), slept an average of about 5 hours a night, until New Mexico, which I rode the entirety of on 5 hours sleep. I was utterly destroyed by the end of it. I went from 78kgs in Banff, to 69kgs in Antelope Wells. My resting heart rate was already low (around 45) by the end it was more like 35. Agreed with other comments on here, the thru-hike is a totally different situation, and 8 hours a day hiking is half the time I was on a bike probably. I'd love to do it again! He's the strava activity https://www.strava.com/activities/341380125 https://www.strava.com/activities/341380125
- stuckagain 10y agoSecrets to fitness revealed! 1: Stand up 2: Go outside 3: Walk around a lot
- handedness 10y agoThings do tend to be needlessly complicated, don't they? But the data provided in the article is a nice contribution.
- Johnny555 10y agoI think the complication comes in trying to balance exercise with everything else you want to do. Not everyone has the interest or the means to go on a 30 day hike.
- handedness 10y agoCompletely agree. But while I usually find overly-distilled things unhelpful, for the vast majority of people it really does come down to consuming fewer, better calories, and moving more (i.e, burning more). But I agree that the overthinking comes when people are trying to fit 27 hours of daily activities into 24, and also when people are pursuing results without burning more and/or consuming fewer calories.
- rch 10y agoYou need to lift heavy things as well.
- baddox 10y ago4: Be restricted in your calories by having to carry everything on your back.
- bootload 10y ago5. Uphill. 6. Repeat.
- chrismartin 10y ago
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- kyleblarson 10y agoThis guy took a selfie every mile of the PCT. It's pretty cool to see his transformation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyo8OIp7aHM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyo8OIp7aHM
- hkmurakami 10y agoI brushed over this post the first time but I just watched the first and last segments of the video now. I am mind blown. He is a completely different person in appearance! (2600 miles btw)
- Rapzid 10y agoThe subtleties of it are very interesting. It took ~1300 miles for significant loses to appear(IMHO) but you can see how it took a while for his skin to catch up. For a while his face is a bit droopy giving him a very haggard look. Nothing another 1k miles didn't tighten up lol.
- emmanuel_1234 10y agoThe longer he walks, the more he looks like Chuck Norris.
- magic_beans 10y agoI can't BELIEVE how different he looked after the hike. Rugged handsomeness increased 10-fold.
- rconti 10y agoHow come his beard isn't growing? It's freaking me out! I did 50mi backpacking over 7k feet with a 40lb pack in 5 days, and lost 10lbs. Which is impressive considering even at my hardest training I have a hard time losing more than 1lb/week normally.
- joeframbach 10y agoAfter doing 2000-mile treks on the AT and PCT, I can say that hikers generally get their "trail legs" after roughly 500 miles or one month. Damascus VA and Tehachapi CA are big spots for zeroes and recalibration, and then you're off to the races. This post is excellent in showing the changes in those first 500 miles, but doesn't go on to show much about what happens after. That peak performance is maintained very well.
- Mz 10y agoDo you have any data or articles or anything?
- eigenvector 10y agoI agree with your assessment generally, but there are some caveats. When you start to get into around the 10th week and beyond, there's a wall you can hit if you aren't eating well enough. This is not really an issue on American or European long-distance trails where any sort of nutrition one desires can be arranged in your resupplies (and you can eat ravenously on town days) but if you do multi-month trips in the 3rd world, you'll find trail legs don't last forever when all you're eating is rice and some kind of legume for every meal. At a certain point the lack of high-quality nutrition starts to make you progressively weaker.
- amrtn 10y agoThat was exactly the case on my 18 month bike trip in Alaska, South America, SE Asia & China. We found it very difficult to pack or even find enough quality proteins (and at the time we didn't know they where that important tbh). In the end I lost 20 kgs and went from 85 to 65 for a 178 cm 30 y.o. guy. That was 5 years ago and I managed to mantain that weight by taking care of what I eat. I think that trip changed something in my metabolism and helped to know myself better.
- andr3w321 10y agoYa but how many toenails does he have left? Every time I've hiked > 15 miles at a time they start turning purple
- jlarocco 10y agoSounds like you're doing it wrong...
- prawn 10y agoIs this with toenails trimmed and shoes with enough room in the toe box? For a couple of years, I hiked in shoes I thought of as really comfortable. On long walks (especially 35m+ in a day), I'd get blisters around my heel and sore toes. I just figured that was what happened when hiking a lot. Changed shoes (same brand, but larger and better cushioning) and haven't had those problems since.
- RUG3Y 10y agoToo much room in the toe box can be a problem too, your feet slide around and your toes slam the front of your boots repeatedly. This is actually worse (to me) than having shoes that are too tight.
- prawn 10y agoDon't you cover for this doing up the laces properly? That should at least help. Obviously terrain will influence how much of a problem smashed toes are.
- RUG3Y 10y agoSteep terrain will destroy you if your shoes are a little too big. Think going down a steep mountainside with a heavy pack on your back - all of that weight wants to roll down hill. Even if you lace up tightly, your feet are going to move around.
- RUG3Y 10y agoSteep terrain will destroy you if your shoes are a little too big. Think going down a steep mountainside with a heavy pack on your back - all of that weight wants to roll down hill. Even if you lace up tightly, your feet are going to move around.
- cpncrunch 10y agoSo the question is: at what point does this kind of long-term exercise turn from beneficial to burnout/overtraining? https://www.outsideonline.com/1986361/running-empty https://www.outsideonline.com/1986361/running-empty And can you reliably predict it beforehand? Having suffered from burnout/CFS, I would be very careful about doing something like this, and I'd be on the lookout for early warning signs such as elevated heart-rate, anxiety/depression, excessive fatigue/pain, oversleeping/insomnia, etc.
- ktRolster 10y agoI would suggest it becomes burnout when you don't get enough nutrition or sleep to recover reliably.
- cpncrunch 10y agoI had normal sleep and nutrition, and so did most people I know who burned out. However, insomnia can be a symptom of burnout (I had severe insomnia, but it a symptom rather than a cause). I do know of one person for whom sleep deprivation seemed to be a contributing factor, along with other stresses associated with military service. In general burnout seems to be caused by chronic physical/mental stress.
- reddytowns 10y agoRelated to that, are there detrimental long term effects for too much exercise? Can you wear out your joints so much you'll be using a walker at 60? Damage your internal organs by pushing yourself too far?
- jamii 10y agoThe old-school method is to get a grip dynamometer and keep a daily log. If your grip strength suddenly takes a dive you need to take some recovery time. Lot's of other indicators seem to work too, eg resting heart rate, but grip strength is really easy to measure reliably. https://www.trainingbeta.com/why-do-i-suck-at-climbing-some-days-part-2-readiness-monitoring/ https://www.trainingbeta.com/why-do-i-suck-at-climbing-some-...
- somethingsimple 10y agoHow does one get started doing this kind of thing? Ever since moving to the US, and specifically to the PNW, I've been wanting to hike, but I don't know where to start. People here seem to grow up used to it, but I don't know what equipment I need, what food to bring, how to get to the trails (do I drive? what if there's no parking?), etc.
- busterarm 10y agoSeconded, but in NY here.
- Dowwie 10y agoBig state, but I assume NYC?
- busterarm 10y agoYeah, city.
- Dowwie 10y agoHere are two recommendations for places within proximity to you: The Palisades Interstate Park is just across the GW Bridge in New Jersey. It has hiking trails all throughout the park but I would recommend the northern section and the "giant steps" trail leading to the "peanut cascade". New York's Hudson Highlands is just across the Hudson River from Bear Mountain. There's a nice scramble trail at Breakneck Ridge.
- busterarm 10y agoThanks. I roped a buddy into doing the Old Croton Trail this spring as well.
- morgante 10y agoIf you're in NYC, there are several hiking clubs which are very friendly to beginners which you could join.
- sandgraham 10y agoI wish he had tracked his wife's possible changes as well.
- Dowwie 10y agoI came across three emaciated, bearded men on the continental divide trail in glacier national park. When I asked one of them where he was from he looked at his buddies and they all replied excitedly, in unison, "Mexico!". It was at that moment that I came to realize that these men were one day away from completing the entire thru-hike. I vividly recall one of their dinners: Dried ramen noodle, straight from the bag. They slept in their bags exposed, beneath a basic light tarp.
- M_Grey 10y agoYour comment made me think of Bill Bryson's accounts of how people change on the trail in 'A Walk In The Woods'. Good book if anyone is considering a thru-hike, and it's just a fun read anyway.
- dmtroyer 10y agoAgreed but don't waste your time with the film
- stevenhubertron 10y agoSeconded. Novel is great movie is Meh. Bryson is such a great author.
- sk5t 10y agoCorrect. The movie is beyond atrocious. One particular soundstage set is actually insulting.
- SwellJoe 10y agoI'll be the lone dissenting voice with regard to the film. I liked it. It wasn't nearly as funny as the book; it was barely funny, at all, in fact. But, it still contained some of the gentle charm of the book. At the end of it, I said to my girlfriend, "I guess I just really like movies about hiking, even when they're kinda boring." (I also really liked Wild, and liked that book, too...in that case, I think the film held up better against the book, as the book just wasn't in the same league as A Walk In The Woods, so the film had less to live up to).
- nodamage 10y agoAnother good option if you're not interested in hiking is bicycle touring. A few years ago I spent a summer cycling across France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and it was an absolutely incredible experience. After cycling for roughly 6 hours per day over six weeks, I lost a ton of weight, despite eating anything and everything I wanted. (Which was more food than I would normally eat at home, considering you're burning thousands of calories per day in exercise alone.) Definitely would recommend to anyone interested in combining long, sustained periods of exercise with traveling.
- the_cat_kittles 10y agoi biked the oregon coast with some friends. it was so fun, despite being a literal pain in the ass. also highly recommend! i was quite strong after just a week. the highlight of the summer for sure.
- nodamage 10y ago> despite being a literal pain in the ass A good saddle helps with that. :) My preference is the Brooks B-17.
- stevenhubertron 10y agoSuch a heavy saddle but once you wear it in its the most comfortable ride out there.
- ska 10y agoIf you are touring with gear, that weight gain is a rounding error :)
- tonyedgecombe 10y agoI'm pretty sure I didn't wear mine in, rather it wore me in.
- alexlrobertson 10y ago
- nradov 10y agoGood article, but just to nitpick a 0.3% hemoglobin A1c change over only 2 tests doesn't necessarily mean anything. Normal people can vary by that much from week to week due to a variety of factors. We would have to see multiple tests over a longer period of time to tell whether there was a real reduction.
- agentgt 10y agoAlso his testosterone levels were shockingly high but I know from personal experience those can fluctuate dramatically for many men. Additional tests would have been nice. IMO strength training will boost my test far more than cardio but I have never carried a 20lbs pack for 500 miles.
- rubicon33 10y agoYea, I was going to point out the testosterone test as well. Taking 2 data points is hardly enough. To really understand your testosterone levels you need to take multiple data points, over a period of weeks / months.
- paulcole 10y agoYeah, Type I here and I've always heard that .5% is within the margin of error.
- et-al 10y agoAgree. The hormonal differences could have be attributed to the stress of preparing for this big event versus not working and being out in nature for a month. Or even things like the time of day, or sleep the night or two before. Would've been helpful to have more numbers over a longer period of time.
- wang_li 10y agoA1c in a month? It's usually not particularly helpful to remeasure A1c in less than 30 days because blood cells don't turn over that quickly. Whatever changes happened to his blood glucose could only have affected about 1/3rd of the blood cells. If there was real change to his glucose tolerance or uptake, it would take another two months to really know what the effect was.
- yupyupp 10y agoA long thru hike is something I've always wanted to do. I was planning on hiking the AT or PNT after I finished university. But, now that I'm a few weeks away from graduating/starting my job, its not something that's financially possible for me. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to find time for something like this later in life?
- jspotanski 10y agoI know an individual from Microsoft who's managers were kind enough to allow him a 6 month absence to hike the PCT. He thru hiked it this Summer and is now back on our team, as productive as ever. I'm sure this situation isn't exclusive to Microsoft. If you're valued as an employee and want to do something like this, make your wishes known to your management and see if they're willing to work with you. If you never ask, the answer is always no.
- 13of40 10y agoWell, there's Microsoft, and then there's my wife... But seriously, I've been thinking about walking from Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass for a couple of years now, so maybe this summer is the time.
- kdbg 10y agoIts not exclusive to MS, like you said if you're valued as an employee, ask. I work for a pretty small security company doing assessments (penetration testing, vulnerability research and stuff). I loved the job and really didn't want to lose it but was willing to. The first year I asked, I basically just said, I love working here but I'm going to go hike this trail for 6 months and hopefully they'd work with me. Then I asked for it again the next year, again willing to leave but didn't have to. Finally, I took some time with my boss and had a discussion around continuing that work pattern into the future and how I can make it easier for them (notice periods, time of year to take off and such) I completely agree with your last statement, if you never ask, the answer is always no. One of my coworkers when I returned the first time actually asked me how I asked because he wanted to do the PCT.
- 10y ago
- crazygringo 10y agoHiking is great, but it seems like you can get the same effects a lot more efficiently -- eat less calories and no carbs (to reduce body fat and train your body to burn fat), and do heavy lifting at the gym (to raise testosterone). It doesn't require an 8-hr-a-day program :)
- M_Grey 10y agoSome people have this weird idea bout taking a walk through nature. :|
- nsm 10y agoThe whole point of being in nature is to be inefficient :) You feel very relaxed and at peace since the mind isn't hoovering around about having to do 10 things a day, or respond to emails, or plan for every day so you can be "productive". Wake up, eat, walk, eat, walk more, eat while walking, eat more, sleep. That is literally what life is on a through-hike.
- theparanoid 10y agoI used to exercise hours per day, do 50-60 mile thru hikes, etc. And my best fitness was achieved simply from changing my diet, reducing my weight, and 30min of body weight training (pullups, pushups, ...) per day.
- morgante 10y agoBy far the best shape I've ever been in was after hiking the 270-mile Long Trail in high school. It's the only time on my life—before or after—that I've ever been not overweight. The amazing thing about thru-hiking is that you can start in any shape and come out healthier. For a while last year I toyed with the idea of hiking the Appalachian Trail. I even did a few practice hikes of a week or two, but ultimately realized that even if I completed the trail I'd gain all the weight I loss right back, the same way I did after the LT (by continuing a high-carb diet). Now I'm on keto and cutting carbs was by far the best health choice I've made in my life. It's still a dream of mine to hike the AT though (probably not for a long time though, as my startup wouldn't survive absence).
- reneherse 10y agoBest of luck in making a permanent change in your lifestyle. I've been maintaining a low carb diet/lifestyle (paleo inspired) for over ten years, so it is indeed possible, with enough habit building.
- morgante 10y agoIt's definitely the best diet I've ever tried. After the first week I stopped craving carbs at all. Plus I feel full all the time.
- danieldk 10y agoWhy not do something that is easy to maintain on a daily/weekly basis? I cycle to work every day (approx. 11 km, so 22 km per day). In the summer I usually take a route where I have to climb quite a bit twice a week. Going by train/car takes approximately the same time. I am fit and have a good weight. When I was still studying, I climbed indoor twice a week, which made me extremely fit. But after a couple of years I got bored. I am on a regular Dutch/Germany diet.
- morgante 10y agoKeto has so far been quite easy to maintain. It's just a simple habit change. I already walk to work every day.
- avenoir 10y agoI did El Camino de Santiago 3 years ago weighing at 220 pounds. 600 miles and 35 days later i was 160 pounds and had new perspective on life. As someone who always struggled with extra weight I've been able to keep the weight off ever since. Never felt better physically and mentally. By the way, I've met a lot of folks who started with the Camino as their first thru-hike and went on to do AT and Continental Divide. I highly recommend it as a trial thru hike. It's not very difficult, but not easy either. But it'll definitely whip your legs into shape and get your prepared for something bigger and better.
- mrfusion 10y ago60 lbs in 35 days is really dramatic! Is that even possible? Are results like that typical?
- mahyarm 10y agoThat is 12lbs/wk! 2lbs/wk (-1000 cal/day) is considered a harder weight loss diet to maintain! That means he had a 6000 calorie deficit per day. Backpacking all day can give you a 4000-6000cal burn per day[1], so if he kept up something like a 2000cal/day diet and not conk out, then I could see that. [1] https://www.outdoors.org/articles/amc-outdoors/how-many-calories-do-you-burn-backpacking/ https://www.outdoors.org/articles/amc-outdoors/how-many-calo...
- solnyshok 10y agosomething happens to metabolic rate too. you keep burning more calories even resting and sleeping. After camino, I lost another 7kg in 10 days doing mostly nothing, sleeping a lot.
- avenoir 10y agoI was a sack of bones when I came back. I shocked nearly everyone and used to get this same question a lot. I don't think it's typical. I did starve myself for a little bit because I had huge trouble adjusting to food, which i typically do when i travel for some reason, and had a lot of digestion issues. I was mostly on fruits and veggies for the first 2 weeks which was rather hellish. Walking 8-10 hours a day and these first 2 weeks I'm sure contributed a lot to this.
- BadassFractal 10y agoNow if only we could replicate this somehow in the 21st century knowledge worker world without actually dedicating 8 hours a day to walking in nature. Any tips?
- zoul 10y agoWalking a few weeks in the nature is precisely the point.
- BadassFractal 10y agoHumanity will have to figure something out here. Our bodies are evolved for hunting / gathering, yet over a few thousand years we've evolved to sitting in an office chair all day. Until our bodies have adapted to what, we need to come up with a way to simulate the environment we are actually optimized for.
- amelius 10y agoPerhaps install a treadmill, with a desktop setup attached to it? [1] Or, better yet, [2]. [1] http://thehumansolutionblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/treadmill-desk-lifespan-treadmill.jpg http://thehumansolutionblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/t... [2] http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/09/Human-Hamster-Wheel-3.jpg http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/201...
- ashark 10y ago7 weeks minimum vacation by law, so everyone has the time to stay healthy and sane (could do a 4wk-long hike/year and you still have 3wks left for regular vacations and other stuff, plus holidays off). Quickest and surest route from here to there.
- rodionos 10y ago> but on the Colorado Trail, we stuck to nuts, jerky, dried fruit, > and only one carb-heavy meal a day, like a mac-and-cheese dinner. That killed it for me. I would demand a better meal plan while on the trail. After all, one of reasons for Napoleon's victories in Europe was excellent food supplies to its troops, regardless how remote and quick the sorties were. Lots of 'foodtech' innovation happened around that time (Pasteur et al).
- nrki 10y agoWhat else you can eat that is calorie-dense, simple to prepare, and keeps well?
- parito 10y agoI am suspicious he was not at 5 % body fat after the hike. 5 % is extremely low, like really really low, and he used impedance scales as he said in his post. I use them every day and the fluctuations can be massive due to the water content in the body. And obviously long hikes do mess up hidration a lot. He should try weighing himself / checking fat % for 5-6 days after the hike on different times of day. I am not saying his hike sucked - I am envious, I wanna do it ! :)
- hodder 10y agoWe can say with relative certainty that the body fat measurements are incorrect and can be discarded. When you see glaring errors such as the assumption that the author was 5% body fat at the end of his hike,it makes you question the other metrics as well. To the authors credit he points out that bioelectrical impedance is flawed. Cool hike though!
- dec0dedab0de 10y agoAs long as he used the same equipment before and after, does it matter? The Point is the change, not the exact numbers.
- kbutler 10y agoHydration levels can cause it to fluctuate dramatically. Most are also calibrated for an "average" level of fitness, and state that if you are an athlete, the numbers may be inaccurate. So if he went from typical fitness to "athlete" fitness, or typical hydration to shortly-after-long-hike hydration, the error range for the second may be much wider than the first. That said, he undoubtedly lost fat. The BF% measurement change is likely not an accurate measurement of how much he lost.
- hodder 10y agoIn this case it does matter. Hydration levels cause massive fluctuation in bioelectrical impedance testing. Also, at bodyfat levels below 15%, the numbers tend to be meaningless, even the trend in the numbers. For instance, I have a Fitbit Aria which I use to track weight. It also spits out a bodyfat number. This morning I measured 5.4%. yesterday, I measured 12.1%. Skin caliper testing, DEXA scans, or submersion chambers are the only real way to test at lower BF levels. An eyeball is better than the scale at this point. One look at someone will tell you that they are not even close to 5%. You will see significant vascularity and seperation between the muscles at that level. Only bodybuilders really tend to get there. The typical guy on a mens fitness cover wouldn't likely be under 7%.
- dekhn 10y agoI have fond memories of being blown past by thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail. They all had massive quads and calves, with tiny knees. I don't really like the folks who hike, but don't actually camp and carry their food. Seems unsportspersonlike.
- kdbg 10y agoOne of my fondest memories on the CDT was blowing by the weekend hikers in the Wind River Range and Yellowstone (only times I encountered a lot of other people)
- davycro 10y agoCortisol levels fluctuate with diet and time of day. I don't think I could draw conclusions from the change in cortisol levels and testosterone levels.
- olleromam91 10y agoI have a really hard time believing the guy in the first photos has a standing heart rate of 48...that's well below (better than) average for a middle aged man.