How much to eat on a hiking holiday?

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steinsopp
steinsopp Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My BMR is around 1800, and I normally eat 1800-2000 calories/day to lose weight. My boyfriend and I are going on a hiking holiday soon, where we're basically hiking from hotel to hotel across Gran Canaria. This means 6+ hours of hiking per day for 8 days (carrying a pack), with the ascent averaging 800-1300 m.. plus we'll probably do a couple more hours walking around once we've arrived at our destination. Then we're surfing/kayaking for the next few days, planning on spending ~6 hours on the water each day. I was wondering how much I should be eating?

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  • beattie1
    beattie1 Posts: 1,012 Member
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    Eat whatever you want! I'm sure you'll lose weight even if you eat like a horse - maybe watch the booze & not go overboard there. All day walking and watersports = big BIG burns.
  • steinsopp
    steinsopp Posts: 14 Member
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    Is there a minimum I should be eating? When I put in the hiking here, it suggests that I'll be burning 4000-6000 calories extra.. that seems like a huge number. Or should I just eat what I want and not worry about counting at all? When I've done a single day of hiking/scrambling like this at home, I normally eat 2500-3000 calories total, which would leave me with a 3500+ calorie deficit, if those numbers are correct. Would that be a problem, doing that 8 days in a row?
  • ellepribro
    ellepribro Posts: 226 Member
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    Firstly, that sounds like an awesome holiday! I am very jealous!
    Secondly, I would just listen to my body. You will be exerting a lot of energy over those 8 days. Make sure you're eating fuel for your body and not just filling up on high calorie junk to meet your goal. Do you have a HRM you could wear? That would be your best bet for getting an accurate number of calories burned and you'd have a better idea of how many calories you should be eating.
    Have fun!
  • beattie1
    beattie1 Posts: 1,012 Member
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    I sugget you eat what you want and not worry about calories at all. It's only 8 days s you're not likely to do much damage, whichever way you go, and your body is very good at telling you what it needs. Listen to it and enjoy your holiday - I'm jealous too!:smile:
  • slhodge78
    slhodge78 Posts: 16
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    From my experience hiking a few times a week, I burn about 280 calories an hour. That is at moderate pace, up and down hills, with a pack. I am 5'4" and 117 lbs. I got that number by wearing a heart rate monitor a few times and watching how many calories I need to maintain my weight. I have a fitbit now, so I just let it calculate my hiking calories and it is pretty close to the 280/hour I had estimated. If you are really curious, you could get a fitbit. I don't think it would be very helpful for kayaking, but for hiking it seems to work great.
  • steinsopp
    steinsopp Posts: 14 Member
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    I don't think fitbit exists where I live, but I can look into getting a heart rate monitor. Thanks for the help!
  • scookiemonster
    scookiemonster Posts: 175 Member
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    I understand wanting to make sure you keep up with your diet when you're on vacation, but I think that, given how active your vacation is, it's okay to just listen to your body and eat whenever you're hungry.

    I'll be going on a similarly active trip in July (combination of hiking, rock climbing, and light mountaineering). I'm just not going to worry about logging my food. We'll be snatching bites here and there, and I have no idea if I'll even have cell service or internet through much of it (we'll also be camping for about half the trip). Given that it's basically all-day fitness, I'm just not even going to worry about it. I'm just going to focus on having healthy food available and eating whenever I feel hungry and stopping when I'm full. It's only a week of my life that I'm not logging, and it's not like I'm going to be just laying out on a beach.
  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
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    I don't think fitbit exists where I live, but I can look into getting a heart rate monitor. Thanks for the help!

    If you have an Apple store, then you can get fitbit as Apple stores now sell them.
    Amazon does as well, and ebay.

    As to eating, your body will let you know. Take plenty of decent, healthy, energy rich snacks, eat what you want at meals, as in all honesty, you will need the extra energy. If there is any vacation when I would advocate eating whatever the hell you want, this would be it.

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