Hourly Calory Use -- [Was: Re: [at-l] Re: Weight Loss]

[greyowl at rcn.com (greyowl@rcn.com)]

THe calculations that I presented were based on distance only.  
The hiking pace is about right when I hike.  I lead a number of 
hikes each year and over the years I find that we consistently 
do 2.5 mph.  I always subtract lunch time, break times etc.  
When leading a hike I generally walk for 1 hr, have a 5min 
break, walk another hour have a 15 minute break (snacks etc) 
and then back to a 5 minute break foloow by a 30 minute lunch 
break.  So during the first 4 hrs of hiking we do only 3 hrs of 
actual hiking and 1hr 10 minutes of resting.  This has worked 
for Va, MD, PA, NJ, NY, and CT AT sections.  When I lead canal 
towpath hikes the speed picks up to 3.5 mph, when I climb out 
of Lehigh Gap the rate drops to approximately 1.5 mph.  As 
they say YMMV but these are the calculations that I use when 
planning my hikes.  We always get to the terminal trailhead 
early.

So if you weigh 240 lbs (I wish) carrying 25 lb pack, running the 
ridges in PA doing a 20 mile day you will burn approximately 
6000 calories.  Believe it or not it is difficult to pack in 6000 
calories a day.  By the time  one reaches mMaine one becomes 
a mean lean hiking machine and you will be burning less 
calories.

Cheers All

Grey Owl