The more you carry on your back, the more calories you burn. The more calories you eat, the more time you have to spend eating. The more bulk you carry, the bigger your backpack has to be, further increasing the weight on your back. The more weight you carry, the slower you go, further increasing the amount of food you have to carry.
The generally accepted practice is a sort of feast-famine plan: eat just enough to keep you going while on the trail, and gorge yourself while in town to help make up for the deficit. Scott "Bink" Williamson, a perennial through-hiker of the PCT and contributor to "Yogi's PCT Handbook" with 13+ hikes of the PCT alone to his name, as well as being a Triple-Crowner, does this. He averages right around three thousand calories per day on trail, and then stuffs himself when he can.
You're going to lose weight on the trail. Period. You just have to be careful not to lose too much weight. Every year people have to give up on completing the trail because they become too far underweight. Many others realize they are heading for that, and have to take a few days to a week off to regain some bulk and stamina.
There are some tricks to help with this problem.
1.If you're of a slender build generally (like me), try to put on some extra fat weight before heading out. Gives you more to burn.
2. Get in as good of hiking shape as you can be before leaving. The better in shape you are, the more efficient your body is, so the less calories you have to burn.
3. Lighten your load as much as reasonably possible. As I mentioned earlier in this, the lighter your load, the less calories you burn and the faster you're able to go.
4. Make most of the food you carry very dense in nutrients and calories. Malnutrition can be as bad as lack of calories, and the more calories per ounce, the less load you need.
The generally accepted practice is a sort of feast-famine plan: eat just enough to keep you going while on the trail, and gorge yourself while in town to help make up for the deficit. Scott "Bink" Williamson, a perennial through-hiker of the PCT and contributor to "Yogi's PCT Handbook" with 13+ hikes of the PCT alone to his name, as well as being a Triple-Crowner, does this. He averages right around three thousand calories per day on trail, and then stuffs himself when he can.
You're going to lose weight on the trail. Period. You just have to be careful not to lose too much weight. Every year people have to give up on completing the trail because they become too far underweight. Many others realize they are heading for that, and have to take a few days to a week off to regain some bulk and stamina.
There are some tricks to help with this problem.
1.If you're of a slender build generally (like me), try to put on some extra fat weight before heading out. Gives you more to burn.
2. Get in as good of hiking shape as you can be before leaving. The better in shape you are, the more efficient your body is, so the less calories you have to burn.
3. Lighten your load as much as reasonably possible. As I mentioned earlier in this, the lighter your load, the less calories you burn and the faster you're able to go.
4. Make most of the food you carry very dense in nutrients and calories. Malnutrition can be as bad as lack of calories, and the more calories per ounce, the less load you need.
