[pct-l] Weight loss on a thru hike?

[Melanie Clarke]

Dear PCT,

Hiking is an excellent weight management system.

I have always had a very robust appetite and like to eat large food
portions.  I eat large portions of very healthy lean, whole grain food with
no sugar and only fruit for dessert but I still tend to gain about 10 lbs
during the winter (It's the large food portion sizes!).  Hiking all day
tends to depress my appetite and I can only carry so much food.  I carry a
carefully planned, well balanced diet complete with all the protein,
calcium, vitamins and nutrition I need with about 2700 kcals.  I do not even
need a vitamin pill as I am nutritionally complete.  On a 10-12 day hike,
doing about 20 miles and maybe 5,000 ft. of climbing in a day I will lose
about 5-8 lbs.  I'm 5'8" weigh around 150lbs.  At the end of the winter I
can get as high as 155lbs and during the summer I usually get down to
145lbs, of course then I rinse and repeat the process year after year.  When
I retire at 55 years (safety and security jobs are great!) I want to do the
entire PCT and see how low I can go with my weight.

Melanie

On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes <
diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:

>
> On Sep 14, 2010, at 8:13 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> >>> I'm curious about amounts of weight people have lost on a thru
> >>> hike and also stories of persons who may have started a hike
> >>> overweight and were actually successful in completing a thru.? <<
>
> I lost weight but gained it back each of my two halves. About 20lbs
> or so each time.
>
> I met a guy in Tehachapi last year who had lost 50lbs since Campo. I
> don't know if he finished.
>
> Lion King loses a lot of weight every time he hikes. He just
> completed the American Discovery Trail.
>
>
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