To get fat or not!

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Varius

Joined
Jan 25, 2007
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Hi! Should we get "fatter" before a long stretch in the woods to compensate for the potential high demand of energy/lower intake or instead prepare our body to keep energy by lowering or changing our diet in some ways?

Simply said, what kind of diet would you favor before going out for a long run with minimal food?

Varius
 
Better to increase your exercise and level of Aerobic activity.. Make your body a more efficeint machine.
 
Better to be more fit and carry more food. Whether it is on your gut or on your back, you still have to carry it in. If it is in your pack, you don't have to carry it when you don't need it. Your hypothetical beer gut is with you 24/7.
 
If getting fatter helps, I've been preparing for over twenty years. :eek: Rough on the legs though, if you're walking a lot.
 
Varius said:
...going out for a long run with minimal food?
Click to expand...

Yep, you need to fattin up in that case.:thumbup: :thumbup:

Read some of the Mountain Man chronicles about the craving they would get for some fat.:eek:

I always try to keep a few pounds of fat stored on me, just in case:D
 
I exercise MORE leading up to a long trip, but I will take a couple of days off before it starts and do nothing at all. This way I'm in top shape, but not worn out when a trip starts. It's akin to the way marathon runners train, they will gradually build up their mileage but taper off before race day, and probably just be a couch potato the day before. On the trail I'll eat a BIG breakfast, mill around the fire a bit to let it settle and then I just keep snacks handy while I'm on the move. Most of the time I don't stop for a lunch I'll just snack throughout the day. I find that I have fewer cravings the better shape I am in.

I guess it depends on what you're planning to do. Are you gonna live in the wild for a while or just planning a long backpacking trip?
 
It might not be a bad idea to have a little reserve, depending on what you are doing. I did an 8-day backpacking trip in Kings Canyon/Sequoia last year, all of it at high elevation (lowest point was 7200', highest was 14,505'), and on that trip I lost approximately one pound each day. I was never hungry (I lose my appetite at elevation) and I ate about 2500 calories/day. I came home with leftover food.

If I had started that trip with no reserves, it might have been a bit interesting.

But that shouldn't be a justification to just pile on the pounds. That would not be terribly healthy.
 
I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV, but I don't see much point in pigging out or fattening up to prepare for a lean trip. That's a fairly radical and rapid change of diet (actually, two changes) and it seems to me it wouldn't do much for ya except give you a queasy stomach. The suggestions about cycling exercise (see Longlosthiker's post) and just eating well make a lot more sense.

On the other hand, that's pretty much exactly how bodybuilders prepare for their contests: bulk up and then lean down. Bear in mind, they're at their WEAKEST in competitions... and have an interesting tendency to keel over in their 40's.

I think I remember hearing that carbo-loading before marathons or distance bike races has fallen out of favor, I might be completely mistaken about that.
 
Les Stroud said on his show he loads up on calories and fattens up before a show, but he knows his caloric intake will be at a minimum in advance.
I would rather carry that extra weight in the form of some extra food in my bag.
 
Thanks for the replies. Overall, be in shape and pack sufficient food for the context is the key...not to get a belly...That makes plenty of sense! :-)

Even if I usually bring plenty of food in what we like to do (canoeing down the rivers - usual lenght 3 or 4 nights) I still loose a little weight. It's not a big problem, I have some pounds to spare...but it tells me that I don't take enough and now that we want to try longer trips (go up a few days, like a complete week) and go deeper, I want to be more efficient in my diet and packing (and I'm my survival skills overall).

The thing I want to understand now is why I'm not hungry the same way in the woods compared to my everyday life in Montreal. Out in the wild, I always want a big breakfast and take a few powerbars during the day. This is enough to sustain me until the supper. Overall I don't feel very hungry and I find that "suspect", because I loose some weight and bring food back...My body or my brain or both, anyway, don't give me the same signals as in town and I want to understand that better. I suppose my body would adapt better in longer trips and ask for the food more "clearly", but I need better preparation...

My plan for my main trip this summer is to get up to some lost lake, fish and explore instead of canoeing down rivers. Most of our parks have lakes with no trails or camps and they don't even know if they have fish in them (but probably...). The majority of them have never been fished in numerous years. Until recently we could'nt go to these lakes but now we can. It's up to us to get up there and camp for as long as we want...That's great in my mind and that's what i'm trying to be ready for.

Varius
 
The two don't have to be mutually exclusive, you know. A person can still be very physically capable and still have some pounds on 'em. You can exercise and consume more calories than you burn to gain some "survival muscle".

I remember our pastor once telling us about the sumo wrestler he knew. He ate a lot to maintain his weight, but before his real exercise would warm up by curling 160 pounds in each hand. :eek:
 
I guess I look at as "My body can only carry so much weight." I can either carry that weight as gear, gear plus fat, or fat. If gear includes food, then why carry the fat? In a survival situation your body will breakdown muscle before fat. Your brain can only function on two forms of calories, carbohydrates and ketone bodies. Your body only stores about 200 grams of carbs and that is almost enough to get you from dinner to breakfast. Ketone bodies are breakdown products of protein. I guess what I am trying to say is, if you know that you are going to be out for x number of days and are going to expend about y number of calories, you should take z amount of food such that the number of calories provided by the food is equal to or greater than the number of calories required, and leave the beer gut and thunder thighs in the gym.

Went elk hunting in Colorado a couple of years ago. A friend and I packed everything in, and packed the elk out. It was a 5 day trip and I was eating close to 5000 calories per day. I lost 12 lbs. Remember that water weighs close to 8 lbs per gallon. If you are sweating a lot and not drinking enough, it is easy to shed some serious weight.

Continuing with the wrestler theme: A friend of mine (name ommitted to protect the guilty) wrestled competitively in high school. His regimen for cutting weight before a competition consisted of getting hammered the night before (alcohol is a diuretic), and running on a tread mill in a neoprene wet suit before weigh in. Apparently it worked, the only match he lost was to the eventual state champ.

That big fat sumo wrestler could curl heavier weights if his arms had less fat.
 
Yes, it is better to carry the weight as food rather than fat when it can be done. However, in my case, I simply lose my appetite at elevation. I always bring food home, and I don't feel any hunger.

The other limiting factor for me is the food storage requirement in many areas of the Sierras. The bears in a number of locations have learned how to get hung food, so bear canisters are required; you can be fined if a ranger catches you without a canister. I have a standard size canister, and it fits six days worth of food no problem. But when I go on longer trips (last year I did an 8-day trip, and I will do another 8-day trip this summer), I have to get pretty creative with what food I can cram into the canister. But even with that limitation, I still come home with uneaten food due to lack of appetite.
 
I've noticed less appetite when out camping or hiking, too. Yet I feel better and have good energy. It never fails to remind me that I consume way too much junk most of time. :o

It occurs to me that in documentaries I've seen about "primitive" people all over, they're very rarely really heavy or really thin. Probably a lesson in that somewhere...
 
Stay in shape and take a fat mate,that way he''ll probably die first due being unhealthy and then you can eat him..............crackling anyone !!!!!:D
 
Being serious if you google Ranulph Fiennes I believe he did some tests on the very subject during one of his adventures......I believe they tested the body when it was taking in less calories than they were burning !!!
 
Fat is a nice insulator. That's something to keep in mind considering how often the subject of getting caught out or wet in cold weather comes up here.

I remember one year I decided I was gonna really lose some weight. I hadn't seen those numbers on my bathroom scale since the 6th grade. That fall when I was deer or duck hunting, I couldn't believe how cold I was getting. I have always been known as an extremely "warm blooded" person- I'm comfy in just a T-shirt in freezing weather. But once I lost all that weigh, man, I just couldn't seem to put on enough clothes.
 
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