RE: [pct-l] ADZPCTKOP and Weight loss

["Robinson, Brian A" <brian.robinson@compaq.com>]

There's lots of anicdotal evidence about weight loss on the PCT.  It's a
cliche to describe a thru-hiker as a "young skinny guy with a beard."  That
covers about 1/2 of us.

My observation is that all guys quickly end up near the weight they were
when they were young and skinny.  For most of us that was high school.  It
takes about 2-6+ weeks depending on how much extra weight was there to begin
with.  Until then, the famous "PCT appetite" doesn't really kick in.  The
weight loss seems completely unavoidable.  I've not seen one guy who could
maintain an appreciable amount of body fat while averaging 20 or more miles
per day.

A few young guys who start out very skinny actually gain weight as they add
leg muscle.

Women are another story.  They seldom lose much weight at all.  My guess is
their hormones cause them to hold onto the fat. It makes sense as a
mechanism for ensuring women have enough body fat to survive child birth.
It's apparently the same mechanism at work that makes dieting notoriously
difficult for women.

My father and I also found that we lost a lot of muscle mass if we didn't
get a lot of protein in our diets.  It was scary to see how emaciated we
got.  Knobby knees bigger than your lower thighs is not pretty.

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: Rusty "MyTie" Johnston [mailto:pctresearch@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 1999 3:59 PM
To: PCT mailing
Subject: [pct-l] ADZPCTKOP and Weight loss

Weight loss, that's what I want to hear about. If anybody else observed
siginificant weight loss/gain (or not) while doing the PCT, I would like to
hear about it. This is basically what my research will be all about -
weight loss and diet - hopefully leading to ways to optimize this weight
loss (ie fat to muscle) and avoidance of any deleterious effects. Any
anicdotal input?
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