Lost 25 pounds eating 6,000 calories per day :)

NorthCascades
NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
edited November 13 in Health and Weight Loss
VANCOUVER, Wash. — Jeff Garmire of Vancouver hiked America’s three well-known long-distance routes — the Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Continental Divide trails — this year. He’s now a member of the elite cadre who have walked the three paths in a calendar year.

The Appalachian Trail is 2,200 miles long; the Pacific Crest Trail, 2,650 miles and the Continental Divide Trail is 3,100 miles. Total: 7,950.

Here are a few other numbers:

• He weighed 185 pounds in early February in Georgia and 160 pounds by the time he finished in New Mexico in mid-October.
• He tried to eat 6,000 calories a day.
• His base pack weighed 10 to 16 pounds depending on the season, weather and conditions. With food and water, it still weighed under 30 pounds most of the time.
• The cost of his adventure was about $10,000.

But enough with the numbers.

http://www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoors/vancouver-man-hikes-nations-3-long-distance-trails-in-under-a-year/

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Replies

  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    Dat beard.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    I wonder what he ate to get all those calories. It seems like a lot of food to tote around. The article doesn't say, just says he tried to eat 6000 calories a day.
  • discnjh
    discnjh Posts: 33 Member
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I wonder what he ate to get all those calories. It seems like a lot of food to tote around. The article doesn't say, just says he tried to eat 6000 calories a day.

    I did about 100 miles on the appalachian trail and certainly never ate that much - in part because I didn't want to carry around any more than I needed, and in part because I wasn't really that hungry. I imagine that would have changed pretty quickly our of necessity if I'd stayed at it much longer.
  • evileen99
    evileen99 Posts: 1,564 Member
    edited November 2016
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I wonder what he ate to get all those calories. It seems like a lot of food to tote around. The article doesn't say, just says he tried to eat 6000 calories a day.

    I read an article in National Geographic many years ago about people who were trekking/working/something or other in the Arctic (it was so long ago I can't accurately remember what they were doing) and they estimated they were eating around 6,000-7,000 calories a day and losing weight. The people profiled in the article said they ate a jar of peanut butter a day, along with dried fruit and candy bars for calories.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    evileen99 wrote: »
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I wonder what he ate to get all those calories. It seems like a lot of food to tote around. The article doesn't say, just says he tried to eat 6000 calories a day.

    I read an article in National Geographic many years ago about people who were trekking/working/something or other in the Arctic (it was so long ago I can't accurately remember what they were doing) and they estimated they were eating around 6,000-7,000 calories a day and losing weight. The people profiled in the article said they ate a jar of peanut butter a day, along with dried fruit and candy bars for calories.

    All those jars of pb would weigh a lot!
  • Jeannie3099
    Jeannie3099 Posts: 61 Member
    Sounds like B.S. to me.
  • ugofatcat
    ugofatcat Posts: 385 Member
    evileen99 wrote: »
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I wonder what he ate to get all those calories. It seems like a lot of food to tote around. The article doesn't say, just says he tried to eat 6000 calories a day.

    I read an article in National Geographic many years ago about people who were trekking/working/something or other in the Arctic (it was so long ago I can't accurately remember what they were doing) and they estimated they were eating around 6,000-7,000 calories a day and losing weight. The people profiled in the article said they ate a jar of peanut butter a day, along with dried fruit and candy bars for calories.

    I think I read or heard something similar. They where putting entire sticks of butter in their oatmeal just try and get calories.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited November 2016
    I don't know...it could happen...I guess since it says "tried to," who knows how often he did eat 6000 calories in a day and if he was actually keeping a log of his food and weighing and measuring and so on. I'm sure he had to eat a lot of calories, anyway, just to accomplish that hike. So good on him for doing this...this is really cool.
  • upoffthemat
    upoffthemat Posts: 679 Member
    evileen99 wrote: »
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I wonder what he ate to get all those calories. It seems like a lot of food to tote around. The article doesn't say, just says he tried to eat 6000 calories a day.

    I read an article in National Geographic many years ago about people who were trekking/working/something or other in the Arctic (it was so long ago I can't accurately remember what they were doing) and they estimated they were eating around 6,000-7,000 calories a day and losing weight. The people profiled in the article said they ate a jar of peanut butter a day, along with dried fruit and candy bars for calories.

    I think I read that article too, the Will Steger expedition back in the 80's or 90's. Partially from the work and partially from the extreme cold. I grew up in Duluth, MN and he was from near that area, so got a lot of coverage.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    All I have done since reading this is tried to imagine what 6000 calories of something calorie dense like candy bars or cake looks like. That's a lot of food!
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    VintageFeline wrote: »
    All I have done since reading this is tried to imagine what 6000 calories of something calorie dense like candy bars or cake looks like. That's a lot of food!

    Yummy, LOL.

    All the visuals are making me hungry, frankly...

    But then like you, I'm envisioning Milky Ways, not jars of peanut butter...oh wait, peanut butter, mmmmmmmm.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    edited November 2016
    This content has been removed.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    futureicon wrote: »
    Damn.. I wish I had the free time and spare cash to join the "elite few" and go hiking for a year..

    Me too! I keep telling my husband I want to do this when we retire. I'm not sure he's on board with it. He seems to just be hoping I'll get over it by then.
  • discnjh
    discnjh Posts: 33 Member
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

    Me too! I keep telling my husband I want to do this when we retire. I'm not sure he's on board with it. He seems to just be hoping I'll get over it by then.

    I have far off dreams of doing a through hike on one of the trails once the kids are older. Unsure if I could really convince my wife to do it with me, although by the time I'd feel secure taking the time off work she may be tired enough of me that she could do with a few months of me off on a trail. :)
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    midwesterner85 wrote: »
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I wonder what he ate to get all those calories. It seems like a lot of food to tote around. The article doesn't say, just says he tried to eat 6000 calories a day.

    Mostly freeze dried food, because it doesn't weigh much, and you can cook it quickly and easily by adding water you boiled from a creek.

    He probably carried about a week of food at a time on average and re-supplied by hitchhiking to nearby towns where the trail meets a road. That's how most self-supported thru-hikers do it.

    Yes, and I would add that a lot of self-supported thru-hikers will stop at buffets on town days and load up their bellies. So to average 6K calories consumed per day, it is not necessary to carry 6K calories per day while on the trail.

    Though I have never even thru-hiked 1 of these great trails (I would like to, but can't afford that much time off from work), I tend to carry more than 30 lbs. when I backpack even for a few days. I know there are a lot of ultra-light hikers with small loads, but I just can't deal with the anxiety of not having certain things (plus I need medicine and medical equipment that most hikers don't need). Heavier pack carried = more calories it takes to hike with it.
    k9education wrote: »
    As an avid backpacker, I am just as impressed that he was able to keep his pack under 30 lbs as I am with the miles. :D

    My pack is 5 pounds. Padding is expensive in ounces and grams. I have a very light down quilt and love it. But I use a full tent, not a tarp, because we have a lot of bugs.

    I also carry 10 pounds of camera gear.
  • RunBakeLove
    RunBakeLove Posts: 101 Member
    edited November 2016
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I wonder what he ate to get all those calories. It seems like a lot of food to tote around. The article doesn't say, just says he tried to eat 6000 calories a day.

    MREs (the food that soldiers eat) are lightweight and have a ton of calories. When my now-husband, then-boyfriend, first started camping together he said that's what he always took camping and I said no way...that's 4000 calories to sit and fish. This guy (and soldiers) have more of a need for it. :)
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    midwesterner85 wrote: »
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I wonder what he ate to get all those calories. It seems like a lot of food to tote around. The article doesn't say, just says he tried to eat 6000 calories a day.

    Mostly freeze dried food, because it doesn't weigh much, and you can cook it quickly and easily by adding water you boiled from a creek.

    He probably carried about a week of food at a time on average and re-supplied by hitchhiking to nearby towns where the trail meets a road. That's how most self-supported thru-hikers do it.

    Yes, and I would add that a lot of self-supported thru-hikers will stop at buffets on town days and load up their bellies. So to average 6K calories consumed per day, it is not necessary to carry 6K calories per day while on the trail.

    Though I have never even thru-hiked 1 of these great trails (I would like to, but can't afford that much time off from work), I tend to carry more than 30 lbs. when I backpack even for a few days. I know there are a lot of ultra-light hikers with small loads, but I just can't deal with the anxiety of not having certain things (plus I need medicine and medical equipment that most hikers don't need). Heavier pack carried = more calories it takes to hike with it.
    k9education wrote: »
    As an avid backpacker, I am just as impressed that he was able to keep his pack under 30 lbs as I am with the miles. :D

    My pack is 5 pounds. Padding is expensive in ounces and grams. I have a very light down quilt and love it. But I use a full tent, not a tarp, because we have a lot of bugs.

    I also carry 10 pounds of camera gear.

    My pack empty is 6 lbs. 6 oz. (Deuter AirContact 65+10). I have used some lighter weight packs that were also not as well designed... and this may be heavier, but it is so much more comfortable. It contours in the right places, doesn't trap sweat against my back as much, and cinches up in all the right spots to the right amount. The rain cover works and is quick to apply, and it seems to hold up pretty well under trail conditions. The extra weight for this better pack is definitely worth it and it feels like it actually weighs less.
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