Smart people question.

[manlymatt83]

... if I'm hiking 3 miles per day, with weight on my back, every day.

I used to weigh 260, then dropped to about 180 for about 3 years, until I went through a rough time in life, and I find myself back up to about 230 now. Looking to get back down to below 200. Most of that weight is fat around my belly. I know hiking kicks that fat's ass, especially if it's up and down hills/mountains.

So how long? A few weeks to see pound droppage? A few months?

 

[Pantlegz]

healthy weight loss is about 1-1.5lbs/wk that said if you haven't worked out in a while it seems to go way faster the first few weeks then slows to somewhere between 1 and 2 lbs a week depending on how active you are and of course your diet.

I'm working on a similar goal, going from 250 to 220 I'm about 2 months in and at about 230 but I'm only running and doing body weight exercises. Not sure how that would relate to hiking.

 

[SP33Demon]

Just calculate your BMR, set that as your calorie threshold and stick to it with what you eat. Anything after that is gravy in losing fat, especially cardio intense things like hiking, it just creates a larger calorie deficit.

 

[Deeko]

What's your diet look like? Hiking is not a huge caloric loss.

 

[Kipper]

Originally posted by: Deeko
What's your diet look like? Hiking is not a huge caloric loss.

You're kidding, right?

 

[manlymatt83]

Originally posted by: Deeko
What's your diet look like? Hiking is not a huge caloric loss.

Are you serious? 20 pounds on my bag hiking straight up a mountain with sweat pouring down my back is not a huge caloric loss? That kicks my butt more than running 3 miles, that's for sure, and they say running is great.

 

[manlymatt83]

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
Just calculate your BMR, set that as your calorie threshold and stick to it with what you eat. Anything after that is gravy in losing fat, especially cardio intense things like hiking, it just creates a larger calorie deficit.

BMR? Dunno what that is but I'll google.

 

[The Sauce]

Recent study showed that increasing exercise does not necessarily lead to weight loss. Check CNN, they were discussing it a few days ago. the diet is the thing if you want to drop #s.

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: manlymatt83

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
Just calculate your BMR, set that as your calorie threshold and stick to it with what you eat. Anything after that is gravy in losing fat, especially cardio intense things like hiking, it just creates a larger calorie deficit.

BMR? Dunno what that is but I'll google.

Oh, sorry. Here's a link.

Or just calculate your weight X 10, but they should be similar numbers.

 

[StageLeft]

You didn't say how much you're eating. You could easily increase weight doing that. Eating is the most important thing.

 

[Pantlegz]

Originally posted by: The Sauce
Recent study showed that increasing exercise does not necessarily lead to weight loss. Check CNN, they were discussing it a few days ago. the diet is the thing if you want to drop #s.

Well yea, if you eat 10000 calories a day and walk a mile you're not going to lose any weight. I thought it was common knowledge that the point of exercise was to burn more calories than you're eating, which causes weight loss.

 

[PricklyPete]

Originally posted by: manlymatt83
... if I'm hiking 3 miles per day, with weight on my back, every day.

I used to weigh 260, then dropped to about 180 for about 3 years, until I went through a rough time in life, and I find myself back up to about 230 now. Looking to get back down to below 200. Most of that weight is fat around my belly. I know hiking kicks that fat's ass, especially if it's up and down hills/mountains.

So how long? A few weeks to see pound droppage? A few months?

It totally depends on your caloric intake and if this activity affects your intake. If you can cut back 200-300 calories intake while doing this exercise...I think you could get down to 200 range in a few months.

There is no miracle.

On a related note...I went back packing in the Sierra Nevada's (Sequoia National Park) 2 weeks ago for 4 days. We hiked 13-15 miles a day at a very fast pace...crossing the western divide twice. I definitely ate more than normal...but not enough to keep up with the amount of additional exercise. The rest of the week I was out in California I spent running and surfing. After that week I went from around 183 to about 177 (I'm 6'5")...but I wouldn't count that as a normal week...and those 13-15 miles are a lot more than the 3 miles your talking about (not to mention that at least one of the days we climbed over 4K feet).

 

[Deeko]

Exercise CAN lead to a caloric deficit, which leads to weight loss, however, the simple act of exercising does not put you in a caloric deficit. If you're a person that's been consistently gaining, exercise might put you in less of a caloric excess - or maybe a caloric balance - but just because you're exercising doesn't mean you are expending more calories than you consume. Especially because all that extra activity will make you hungrier, and if you aren't paying attention, you might eat more, negating the calories burned exercising.

As to the people seemingly angry that I claimed hiking isn't a huge caloric burn - well, depending on your diet, it may not be impactful, like it or not. Lets say you are currently eating 3500 calories burning 2500 calories throughout your average day. An hour of backpacking, depending on the terrain and other factors, may burn what...400-700 calories? That's not bad compared to other activities, but even if you do that EVERY DAY you still aren't in a caloric deficit, and you still aren't going to lose weight unless you do something about your diet.

Point is - exercise alone is not going to make you lose weight, and your question of "how long will it take to lose some poundage" is a question with no answer until you analyze your diet. End of story.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: The Sauce
Recent study showed that increasing exercise does not necessarily lead to weight loss. Check CNN, they were discussing it a few days ago. the diet is the thing if you want to drop #s.

Didn't that study basically say people were eating 10 muffins after riding the walking on a treadmill for 20 minutes and thus getting fatter?

 

[PricklyPete]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: The Sauce
Recent study showed that increasing exercise does not necessarily lead to weight loss. Check CNN, they were discussing it a few days ago. the diet is the thing if you want to drop #s.

Didn't that study basically say people were eating 10 muffins after riding the walking on a treadmill for 20 minutes and thus getting fatter?

That was my understanding of the study. It was not trying to say that exercise couldn't lead to weight loss...it was just describing how a common occurrence was for people to increase their caloric intake while exercising and actually consuming even more than they were burning during the exercise.

I've seen this happen with first time marathoners who are looking to lose weight. They start off running a few miles at a time and suddenly think they are in serious training mode and start upping there caloric intake because they "deserve" it. Suddenly they are gaining weight while training...then they get discouraged and quite...5 lbs heavier than they were before.

 

[Itchrelief]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: The Sauce
Recent study showed that increasing exercise does not necessarily lead to weight loss. Check CNN, they were discussing it a few days ago. the diet is the thing if you want to drop #s.

Didn't that study basically say people were eating 10 muffins after riding the walking on a treadmill for 20 minutes and thus getting fatter?

The main thing about exercise for me is it helps reinforce my restraint when wanting to binge. I look at a Twinkie and start to see a 1 mile jog instead of a tasty snack. When you're fat, a one mile jog is not a fun thing.

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: Itchrelief

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: The Sauce
Recent study showed that increasing exercise does not necessarily lead to weight loss. Check CNN, they were discussing it a few days ago. the diet is the thing if you want to drop #s.

Didn't that study basically say people were eating 10 muffins after riding the walking on a treadmill for 20 minutes and thus getting fatter?

The main thing about exercise for me is it helps reinforce my restraint when wanting to binge. I look at a Twinkie and start to see a 1 mile jog instead of a tasty snack. When you're fat, a one mile jog is not a fun thing.

That's pretty funny because I do the same thing. I see 10 almonds and think about the 10 grueling minutes of jump-roping I'm going to have to do to burn it off.

 

[The Sauce]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: The Sauce
Recent study showed that increasing exercise does not necessarily lead to weight loss. Check CNN, they were discussing it a few days ago. the diet is the thing if you want to drop #s.

Didn't that study basically say people were eating 10 muffins after riding the walking on a treadmill for 20 minutes and thus getting fatter?

If I remember correctly, they randomized test subjects into three groups - one group was no exercise, one group was 30 minutes/day and one group was 1 hour/day. No other controls on those groups - they were allowed to do whatever else they pleased. The max-exercise group weighed the most at the end of the study. The assumption was that they were rewarding themselves for the exercise by eating more (shocker.)

The point is that no one can calculate how quickly you will lose weight just based on your exercise level. It is much more dependent on diet.