[pct-l] The Twin Heresies of Demetri Coupounas

[bodhisattvavow at hotmail.com (Matt Bradley)]

But certainly by starting the trail above his ideal weight Coup invites loss
of body mass.  I imagine that almost any long distance hiker who begins a
trail with some extra fat is going to lose weight.  This would hold true for
even the most conventional of diets due to the drastic increase in energy
expenditure.  So, even though Coup lost 34.5 lbs  this wouldn't necessarily
be the case for someone who is at an ideal weight.
    It seems like there could be a compromise that allowed a hiker to carry
raw foods over long distances without resupply and still maintain weight.  I
would be interested to hear from anyone who has done a thru-hike on a raw
food diet.  It seems strange that Coup claims to have been giving away food
because he wasn't hungry while he was simultaneously losing weight rapidly
from a caloric deficit.  This tells me that the diet he was carrying was
probably not diverse enough and so his body rejected it.  Although that is
only a theory, I certainly don't claim to know what is going on in the body
of someone I've never met.
    If nothing else, the "no resupply" strategy was certainly an interesting
and educational experiment.
Peace and Love,
Matt