Am I really suppose to eat all that!?

AlwaysBigSteve
AlwaysBigSteve Posts: 82 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi MFP community. This is my very first new topic post.

I am totally down with eating back most of my exercise calories but I have just now ran into a bit of a dilemma. This past weekend I went hiking and burnt over 3500 calories in just a few hours.

I have my eye set on this big hike that is located not too far from here and if my math is correct (based on my weight, age, HRM) I may burn around 10,000 calories in this all day hike. I weigh a bit over 370 and am a 33yo male. Obviously there is a chance I might not make it for the full 20 miles. All I know is that the more I hike the more I want to hike. Both days this past weekend I only came out of the woods because the sun was going down.

Anyhow the point is I can't reasonably eat over 12,000 (10,000 plus my normal daily) calories, can I? I couldn't imagine eating the equivalent of 5 pizzas on top of my normal intake for a day.

So I know that I will probably get many different opinions but I still want to hear all of them.
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Replies

  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    No.
  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
    I am also a hiker and can't eat all of what I "should" so I don't. here is why: I don't hike every day. I go on a big hike maybe once a month. I always pack high calorie food to eat along the way, like PB&J sandwich, trail mix as a snack, etc. and eat a good meal afterwards. Other than that, I don't worry about it. If you were hiking like that frequently, then you'd have to be concerned. For most of us with regular 9-5 jobs Monday through Friday, it isn't a big deal to leave the deficit on the table.

    I look at it as one day every once in a while with a big deficit hurts me no more than the one day every once in a while where I eat dinner without worrying about calories.
  • deb3129
    deb3129 Posts: 1,294 Member
    No, there is no way you can eat that many calories. Just eat more than normal that day, and accept that there will be a deficit! I am also REALLY into hiking now!! I start out intending to just hike a couple of miles sometimes and get totally carried away! I live in an area surrounded by national forests, so it works out great!
  • weloveourboys
    weloveourboys Posts: 133 Member
    Just use your common sense. You know you can't eat 5 pizzas on top of your "normal" amounts of foods. So obviously, no, you are not "suppose to eat all that."
  • Melo1966
    Melo1966 Posts: 881 Member
    Pack lots of snack foods trail mix, cheese sticks, PBJ sandwich, water bottles, your camera and have fun.:happy:
  • wibutterflymagic
    wibutterflymagic Posts: 788 Member
    I'd have to say no too. This isn't something you're going to be doing all the time. You need to eat back some of those calories while you're hiking so you have the energy to continue your hike. From what I've learned from people that do long athletic events is you need protein during to keep going. And as I'm writing this I see melsinct's post and I agree. You aren't doing this all the time so not eating it all back isn't a big deal. Have your snacks during and a nice big meal after and you'll be good.
  • Shelleyrose71
    Shelleyrose71 Posts: 3
    The point is you are burning 10,000 cals. You need to burn approx 3,500 cals to lose 1lb, so you should lose a little under 3lb on that hike. BUT if you eat normally and have your standard intake you will lose weight.

    The point of it is to use the calories already stored in your body (aka the fat store), NOT to eat what you burn. If you eat what you burn and your daily intake, (the full 12000 cals), you will maintain your weight... The more exercise your do, the more cals you burn, the more weight you lose.

    I would also say eat your normal amount, but take an extra healthy snack with you. When I go for a long hike i take a a banana or a cereal bar or something like that. Also, as you are doing more that 15 miles, I also recommend taking something sugary too. Such as a some Kendal mint cake, or a small chocolate bar. You will be amazed that when eaten when it is actually needed, a sugary snack will give you the energy that you actually need to continue your hike, BUT as your metabolism will be doing over time because of the exercise, you WILL just burn it straight off!

    Does that make sense?
  • Melo1966
    Melo1966 Posts: 881 Member
    Also up your calories the day before and the day after to stay energized and not crash the next day.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    This past weekend I went hiking and burnt over 3500 calories in just a few hours.

    No you didn't
  • besaro
    besaro Posts: 1,858 Member
    This past weekend I went hiking and burnt over 3500 calories in just a few hours.

    No you didn't

    this
  • DontStopB_Leakin
    DontStopB_Leakin Posts: 3,863 Member
    Wait, wait, wait....









    ............It's hard to eat 12,000 calories?
  • drmerc
    drmerc Posts: 2,603 Member
    if you need to eat 12,000 calories I recommend going to a all you can eat buffet to save your wallet
  • _Elemenopee_
    _Elemenopee_ Posts: 2,665 Member
    This past weekend I went hiking and burnt over 3500 calories in just a few hours.

    No you didn't

    Oh snap!
  • MikeyD1280
    MikeyD1280 Posts: 5,257
    This past weekend I went hiking and burnt over 3500 calories in just a few hours.

    No you didn't

    I have to agree.. you need a new HRM...
  • robin52077
    robin52077 Posts: 4,383 Member
    This past weekend I went hiking and burnt over 3500 calories in just a few hours.

    No you didn't

    this

    these
  • cyndispot
    cyndispot Posts: 135
    ............It's hard to eat 12,000 calories?



    This is exactly what I was thinking! give me the icecream and toppings!
  • bpotts44
    bpotts44 Posts: 1,066 Member
    I wouldn't eat that much. At 370 lbs you have virtually no risk of affecting your metabolism especially if you only periodically create this large a deficient. Also, I don't think the burn is going to be that high as many of the estimators give too big a caloric burn.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    This past weekend I went hiking and burnt over 3500 calories in just a few hours.

    No you didn't

    Time out.

    I think it depends on how many "a few" is. 2? 3? 4?

    And he's 370 pounds, so if he hiked vigorously for 3-4 hours...on hellacious terrain...with a full pack.

    Okay, yeah, you're probably right...he probably didn't top 3500 calories...but 2500 doesn't seem unreasonable.


    I'm going with most of the advice up there^^^. Eat *some* more to fuel the work if you're hungry, but don't force yourself to eat to some magic number.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    Since you have quite a bit to lose, I don't think it will hurt to have a big deficit when you do the big hike, assuming it's an occasional thing and not a regular occurrence. IN my running experience with distance races, I rarely am able to eat all the calories back that day from a race or a long training run. I would eat a bit extra the night before, eat until satiated that day, and over the next few days if you are extra-hungry eat until satiated- sometimes it can take 2 or 3 days for the hunger to catch up with you. You'll probably still have a pretty big deficit for the week, but I wouldn't stress about it too much. Larger people can handle bigger deficits.
  • leejayem
    leejayem Posts: 120 Member
    Are you are you burnt 3500 calories in a few hours? If I run for an hour I burn about 600 calories & only about 300 if I walk for the same amount of time. Based on that I would have to walk for over ten hours to burn over 3000 calories - you're super blessed if you can burn that much in just a few hours, but more power to you I guess.:drinker:
  • Lift_hard_eat_big
    Lift_hard_eat_big Posts: 2,278 Member
    Eat 4 large pizzas
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    Hi MFP community. This is my very first new topic post.

    I am totally down with eating back most of my exercise calories but I have just now ran into a bit of a dilemma. This past weekend I went hiking and burnt over 3500 calories in just a few hours.

    I have my eye set on this big hike that is located not too far from here and if my math is correct (based on my weight, age, HRM) I may burn around 10,000 calories in this all day hike. I weigh a bit over 370 and am a 33yo male. Obviously there is a chance I might not make it for the full 20 miles. All I know is that the more I hike the more I want to hike. Both days this past weekend I only came out of the woods because the sun was going down.

    Anyhow the point is I can't reasonably eat over 12,000 (10,000 plus my normal daily) calories, can I? I couldn't imagine eating the equivalent of 5 pizzas on top of my normal intake for a day.

    So I know that I will probably get many different opinions but I still want to hear all of them.

    Your body is the end game, not the calculator. If you gain weight, eat less. If you need to lose and are not, eat less. If you are under 12% body fat and risk starvation mode (fat people don't go into starvation mode) then don't eat too low. Other than that it's trial and error until you find what works for YOU. Everyone is different. There is no one size fits all.

    You just need to find the correct calories for YOU to be healthy and sustainable and still lose weight. It might require some experimentation and tremendous patience. You can always notch up and down by 100 until you find what is sustainable and still allows you to lose weight.

    If you have emotional eating issues than you are not going to be able to handle such a deep deficit and if you eat to low it will backfire. A better strategy is to eat at a shallower deficit, and sometimes give yourself a break from the deficit and eat at maintenance. This is not going backwards, but eating to low and then binging because you can't sustain it is going backwards. It's better to stay forwards even if it is slower. The tortoise wins this race in the end.

    Too many changes at once can be hard on some people. I've always eaten healthy so it easy for me to simply eat less. Eating at a calorie deficit is hard on people; even a small deficit puts your body in a state of flux with hormones and such. Everyone is different. Some people can handle a deeper calorie deficit than others, this is not right or wrong, it just is. Stress in your life affects your hunger hormones; lack of sleep, fatigue, job stress, family stress, financial stress, etc. Add in emotional eating issues and it gets even more complicated. Most people can only handle so much change/stress at once, they try to do too much and fail. Sometimes it might be a better strategy to eat at maintenance and make some small changes first, it really depends on how much stress you are taking in at the moment.

    But keep in mind...

    Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

    Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

    The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.
  • jeleclekat
    jeleclekat Posts: 124 Member
    yes he could have... 270 minutes of hiking with hills and less than 10 backpack = 3852 calories If it was just cross counrty hiking in five hr it would burn 3617.

    Why are you so doubtful????
  • chubbygirl253
    chubbygirl253 Posts: 1,309 Member
    I routinely burn 3000-4000 calories in my workouts. On a rest day my calorie limit is 1700. On a day I workout I don't really have a "limit," I just eat what I need to replenish my body from such a huge burn. Yesterday I ate 2500, but burned over 4000.
  • drmerc
    drmerc Posts: 2,603 Member
    I routinely burn 3000-4000 calories in my workouts. On a rest day my calorie limit is 1700. On a day I workout I don't really have a "limit," I just eat what I need to replenish my body from such a huge burn. Yesterday I ate 2500, but burned over 4000.

    I should start doing your workouts
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    I routinely burn 3000-4000 calories in my workouts.

    No you don't
  • Katbody10
    Katbody10 Posts: 369 Member
    Michael Phelps .. the Olympic Athlete swimmer had to eat 14,000 calories a day during his hey day .. so .. yes .. it's quite possible to eat that much. However .. he's a pro athlete and trained and knew what would pack on the calories, etc.. so as not to lose weight while training and competing.

    Now .. I'm taking a stab here .. that you are trying to lose weight! :drinker: Many people prefer to NOT eat back their exercise calories .. and some eat back no more than half of those calories in order to lose weight a little faster :smile:

    You will NOT have to eat back those calories .. but here's a suggestion on calorie punching foods that will do the trick if need be..

    1 lb of Pecans have nearly 3,000 calories !! Talk about a great snack food if you're hiking and need to nibble along the way..

    Nuts/seeds will do great for snacking if you need to feel full and try to catch up on calories :-) you may also opt for almonds or walnuts .. peanuts, cashews .. you can google the calories/nutritional value online and go to a health food/grocery store and buy the nuts in bulk by the pound or half pound, which ever serves you best :-)
  • 120weeks
    120weeks Posts: 242 Member
    I don't eat back calories because I have them built in but I have wondered this.....what is the max cal/minute burn possible? I realize some has to do with actual body weight. I don't have a HRM and don't care to start checking my burns but I am a "little" curious what I might be burning doing a strenous activity.

    Any links? Any threads for those of us wanting to learn more about this?

    Thanks!
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    Michael Phelps .. the Olympic Athlete swimmer had to eat 14,000 calories a day during his hey day

    No he didn't
  • Katbody10
    Katbody10 Posts: 369 Member
    Michael Phelps .. the Olympic Athlete swimmer had to eat 14,000 calories a day during his hey day

    No he didn't

    Oh .. my bad .. he needed to eat 12,000 calories a day ..

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2177613/Michael-Phelps-12-000-calories-day-dont-doing-harm.html
    article title: Michael Phelps reveals details of his 12,000 calories a day diet... and he doesn't look bad on it either girls!

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