[at-l] Hiking & Low Carb Diets

[bushwackerfish@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Bushwacker)]

I would urge you to think twice about the low carb route.  Where are you
intending to get the needed calories from? All from fat?  It won't be from
protein.

If you are thru-hiking you won't have too much of a problem of losing
weight.  By the end of the trip your main concern will be in halting the
process to prevent body damage.

You should check out the work done by Brenda Braaten - Pack Light, Eat
Right - http://www.frc.mass.edu/bbraate/packlite/

She recommends a 50:35:15 ratio diet (%Carbs/%Fat/%Protein) as a light
weight combination.  For the Ultralight combo she recommends 45:40:15.
There have been other nutritional studies:  the Navy recommends
55-60:<30:15 diet for SEALs, the American Dietary Assn. recommends
60-65:20-30:12-15 for high intensity athletes, and an author for a high
performance nutrition book recommends 65:20:15 but he considers marathons a
long distance event and has no indication of knowledge of the thru-hiking
world.

Likewise there is the consideration of cold wet environment the thru-hiker
is likely to encounter.  The overall concern is preventing
hypothermia.  One of the more recommended ways to do this is to stay
hydrated and eat a high carbohydrate diet to have quickly available energy
stores for generating heat inside the body.

I don't think that concerns of cutting pounds before the hike would be
major unless you were severly overweight.  Barring that - you shouldn't
worry so much about cutting pounds but more like helping your body adjust
to the new diet plan and working out before your trek.

Take a good look at Braaten's work and it should help.

Bushwacker


At 12:51 AM 1/30/2003 -0500, Jackie Turbot wrote:
>This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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>Is anyone doing a low carb diet?  Anyone trying to do it on a thru
>hike.  I am thinking that while I am preparing, it is fine to
>continue--more important to shed excess pounds.  But, once the thru hike
>starts, I will need the complex carbs to keep going.  Any nutrition gurus
>out there???
>Jackie
>--
>
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