How To Lose Weight Backpacking

Hiking is one of the best ways to lose weight. Not only do you burn more calories than you do going on a simple walk, but you get to enjoy the beauty of the natural setting where you are hiking.

Hiking can become much more than an exercise you do in order to lose weight — it can become an obsession, or at the very least, a treasured activity.

Hiking three times a week will help you lose weight depending on the length of your hikes, the terrain and your diet. All three are important parts of the likelihood of you losing weight.

Take A Hike, Lose Some Weight: Strategies To Burn Fat While Hiking

Many different variables affect how much weight you will lose by hiking on a regular basis. Your diet, your current weight and the terrain where you hike can all affect your results. One thing is for certain, however; if you eat the appropriate number of calories for your height, age and gender while hiking on a regular basis, you'll start to see your extra pounds disappear.

Harvard Health advises that you calculate the number of calories you need per day to maintain your weight —multiply your current weight by 15 —and then subtract 500 to 1000 calories, depending on whether you're looking to lose one to two pounds a week. It's a juggling act though because you need calories to fuel a hiking habit.

Hiking burns considerably more calories than walking, and if you previously stuck to walks around the neighborhood for exercise, you are likely to see a pronounced increase in weight loss. A 185-pound person who hikes for two hours can burn 1, 064 calories according to Harvard Health, provided the terrain is hilly. If the same person spends two hours walking on flat terrain, she will burn approximately 712 calories. Over the course of a week, if you hike for a total of six hours, you will lose almost 1/2 pound more than the walker.

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Hiking is an efficient way to exercise. The steeper the grade that you hike, the fewer miles you will need to hike in order to see results. For example, if you walk at a 20 percent uphill grade for six miles, the resulting energy expenditure is the same as if you'd walked 18.9 flat miles. Terrain vastly affects the number of calories you will burn hiking, and thus, the amount of weight you will lose. Brian Mac Sports Coach advocates hill training as a means to condition athletes. The theory is that your own bodyweight is used as resistance and your legs have to work harder.

A 185-pound person who hikes three times a week for two hours each outing is likely to lose approximately 1 pound per week if the calories consumed are the number required to maintain weight. Keep in mind that you may lose less if you weigh less or more if your weight is higher. To increase weight loss, do a couple of long hikes every month. Consider backpacking, which burns even more calories due to the extra weight you are carrying. Remember, people who weigh more burn more calories says Mayo Clinic. You can have a lot of fun hiking to a remote camping spot and hiking out the next day — burning plenty of calories the entire time.While I normally do adventure recaps on Tuesdays, today I thought I'd do something a little different. In the fitness community Transformation Tuesday is a big feature on social media across the internet. Many of us like to share our journeys with each other if for no other reason than to say life is never easy - I know it's hard and I got through. It helps to inspire others to be their best selves. I know for me that Tuesdays are always extremely motivational if for no other reason than I know this could be the story that changes someone's life! For me personally, hiking saved me. If it weren't for me finding this passion in my life I have no idea where I would be today. Here is my story.

This is me in June 2010, only 2 months after knee surgery and carrying more weight than I care to remember - both in my pack and on my body.

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After struggling through some personal issues in 2008 I had gained a few pounds. My doctor was treating me for depression and the pills made me gain weight and slowed down my thyroid function. The lower my thyroid functioned the more weight I put on and the more depressed I became. It was a vicious cycle. By early 2010 I was weighing close to 155 pounds. At 5'1I was unhealthy and overweight. Then, a slip and fall in a friend's kitchen caused major damage to my knee which required an easy surgery but required physical therapy to be able to walk and pedal a bike again. I gained 25 more pounds due to the steroids and the physical inactivity. I was absolutely miserable. I had hired a personal trainer to help me lose the weight, but with my knee pain it was so hard to do many exercises without severe modification. Weight training was helping me get stronger, but without cardio I knew I'd never lose the weight.

Since I was in a lot of pain and walking was a skill I could manage I started hiking more seriously. I could only do short day hikes, 3-4 miles, but since we live near a national park a lot of backpacking trips would fit this description. I could do a round trip total of 6 or 8 or 10 miles in a weekend! I started hiking as often as I could with a group I found on Meetup.Comthat was local to my area. I was often times the slowest person in the group, the one everyone took a break and waited for. I was the one who didn't get a break ever because by the time I caught up to everyone they had been taking a break for a LONG time! Sometimes I really got discouraged, but I had made some amazing friends in the group who helped support me and encourage me on those hard hikes.

Little by little, my injured knee got stronger every day. After about 6 months of working with a trainer and spending my weekends with the hiking group I was able to start doing light impact cardio at a gym - elliptical and bike training. While the pain in my knee was still aggravating, it had lessened dramatically and I was able to work on my endurance. Combined with the strength training, I knew I was getting stronger and was slowly starting to do a better job keeping up with my friends on our hiking trips! By the time we rang in 2011 I had dropped more than 30 pounds, my thyroid began functioning better on it's own, and my depression was lessening. Not only was the physical activity helping my moods, but being outside in the fresh air and sunshine with good company was helping lift my spirits. While I was shedding weight, I was also shedding a dark cloud that had been built up in my soul for a long time.

Weight Loss: Obesity, Diets, And Calories

Hiking on the Appalachian Trail in the Spring of 2011 - thinking how hard it would be to go all the way to Maine one day!

In the late spring of 2011 I met Jennifer Pharr Davis. She was the female speed record holder for the Appalachian Trail. She was going to try to (and did!)set the overall speed record during the summer. I had already started throwing around the idea of doing a thru hike after spending some time with friends who had done large sections and, after meeting her and listening to how she spoke of the life changing experience of hiking the trail, I knew I had to do it... but how on earth would I manage something like that?! That summer a friend of mine began a bucket list item - hiking the 900 miles of trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park before her next birthday. She spent every single weekend out on the trails and by now I was one of the faster hikers. I spent most of my weekends with Elise and other friends of hers doing obscure day hikes and combinations of trails that no one could ever even dream of! With Elise at my side I took my first ever multi-day backpacking trip. Because of all the hard work I put in with her, by the fall of 2011 I knew for sure I could not only start a thru hike but I also knew I would complete one!

By the time I left for Springer Mountain in Georgia on March 27th, 2012 I had lost 50 pounds. I was a strong hiker who for the first month of the trail didn't spend more than a night or two with the same person because I usually completed more miles. I was physically prepared for the trail and even dropped 8

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After struggling through some personal issues in 2008 I had gained a few pounds. My doctor was treating me for depression and the pills made me gain weight and slowed down my thyroid function. The lower my thyroid functioned the more weight I put on and the more depressed I became. It was a vicious cycle. By early 2010 I was weighing close to 155 pounds. At 5'1I was unhealthy and overweight. Then, a slip and fall in a friend's kitchen caused major damage to my knee which required an easy surgery but required physical therapy to be able to walk and pedal a bike again. I gained 25 more pounds due to the steroids and the physical inactivity. I was absolutely miserable. I had hired a personal trainer to help me lose the weight, but with my knee pain it was so hard to do many exercises without severe modification. Weight training was helping me get stronger, but without cardio I knew I'd never lose the weight.

Since I was in a lot of pain and walking was a skill I could manage I started hiking more seriously. I could only do short day hikes, 3-4 miles, but since we live near a national park a lot of backpacking trips would fit this description. I could do a round trip total of 6 or 8 or 10 miles in a weekend! I started hiking as often as I could with a group I found on Meetup.Comthat was local to my area. I was often times the slowest person in the group, the one everyone took a break and waited for. I was the one who didn't get a break ever because by the time I caught up to everyone they had been taking a break for a LONG time! Sometimes I really got discouraged, but I had made some amazing friends in the group who helped support me and encourage me on those hard hikes.

Little by little, my injured knee got stronger every day. After about 6 months of working with a trainer and spending my weekends with the hiking group I was able to start doing light impact cardio at a gym - elliptical and bike training. While the pain in my knee was still aggravating, it had lessened dramatically and I was able to work on my endurance. Combined with the strength training, I knew I was getting stronger and was slowly starting to do a better job keeping up with my friends on our hiking trips! By the time we rang in 2011 I had dropped more than 30 pounds, my thyroid began functioning better on it's own, and my depression was lessening. Not only was the physical activity helping my moods, but being outside in the fresh air and sunshine with good company was helping lift my spirits. While I was shedding weight, I was also shedding a dark cloud that had been built up in my soul for a long time.

Weight Loss: Obesity, Diets, And Calories

Hiking on the Appalachian Trail in the Spring of 2011 - thinking how hard it would be to go all the way to Maine one day!

In the late spring of 2011 I met Jennifer Pharr Davis. She was the female speed record holder for the Appalachian Trail. She was going to try to (and did!)set the overall speed record during the summer. I had already started throwing around the idea of doing a thru hike after spending some time with friends who had done large sections and, after meeting her and listening to how she spoke of the life changing experience of hiking the trail, I knew I had to do it... but how on earth would I manage something like that?! That summer a friend of mine began a bucket list item - hiking the 900 miles of trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park before her next birthday. She spent every single weekend out on the trails and by now I was one of the faster hikers. I spent most of my weekends with Elise and other friends of hers doing obscure day hikes and combinations of trails that no one could ever even dream of! With Elise at my side I took my first ever multi-day backpacking trip. Because of all the hard work I put in with her, by the fall of 2011 I knew for sure I could not only start a thru hike but I also knew I would complete one!

By the time I left for Springer Mountain in Georgia on March 27th, 2012 I had lost 50 pounds. I was a strong hiker who for the first month of the trail didn't spend more than a night or two with the same person because I usually completed more miles. I was physically prepared for the trail and even dropped 8

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