[pct-l] Burning Calories

[rrathmann at groupconvergence.com (Rob Rathmann)]

Fellow Wanderers-

In the midst of planning my '04 thru-hike (and training for the Atlanta
marathon), I started thinking about how many calories a hiker burns during
an average day of hiking.  The magnitude of the numbers BLEW ME AWAY.  The
equations depend on something called the Mcoefficient(calories / minute /
kg)- you can find a good list of M coefficients for different activities at
http://www.fitnesslogs.com/calories3.htm  Here are 2 examples:

Hiking, cross country for 8 hours: 4572.21 Calories
Walking, upstairs for 8 hours: 6081.04 Calories

THAT IS BURNING BETWEEN 4572.21-6081.04 Calories DURING AN 8 HOUR HIKE!!!

Even if you carry as much food as possible and gorge yourself at every trail
town, you must develop a rather large caloric deficit after 4 months.  Has
anyone measured their body mass index before and after a thru-hike?

Equations used:
Calories_burned= Mcoefficient * Mass * Minutes
I used 2 different Mcoefficients: .1 (Hiking, cross country), and .133
(Walking, upstairs).
I used a mass of 175 lbs + 35 lb pack, converted to kilograms (1 pounds =
0.45359237 kilograms).
I used 8 hours (480) minutes for the time hiking.


Carcinomad '04