I’ve noticed from photos that many t hikers are tubs o lard. I just wonder how much exercise one gets thru hiking or if the “hikers” are sneakin in Avis car rental miles eatin donuts and pretending to thru hike. The journals are entertaining but I am not buying some of these chubby’s stories. In the end this site is entertainment which I guess is all that matters. I enjoy the website but take it witha grain or ton of salt.
Stealth Celt
A high percentage of the american population is overweight, so of course that is represented in the hiker population. Kudos to these hikers that they don’t let that discourage them. One can be big AND fit, on the other hand being lean does is not a guaranty for stamnia…
jules
Some people when they started the trail were 100 + pounds overweight so of course they won’t be skinny at the end.
No one that I knew, after 4 months on the trail had failed to lose weight. Well…maybe some technically weighed more because they gained a lot of muscle, but EVERYONE looked slimmer.
Tell it liike it is
I’m fat (obese, even), and I love hiking. Granted, a thru hike is not on my list at the moment, but I have no problem hiking in general. I am fit; I just eat too much. When a 50-pound pack is only 1/6 of your body weight, it’s not so tough to carry. 
emanon
I am guessing that the reason you are wondering about the exercise involved in long distance hikes is that you’ve never actually done it or experienced it yourself.
I’m sure it hurts nobody’s feelings to hear criticism from one who’s never tried.
bearbait
Yes that is how much I lost on my thru hike. I started in Maine at 215lbs and finished in Georgia at 165lbs. So that’s that. I didn’t think of myself as Obese, but compared to all the people I was hiking with, I was larger, hence my trail name (2003 SOBO). But I was burning upward of 10,000 calories a day, of course I lost weight!!!
Michael Sanwald (FatCat)
I am usually around 205, and fit compared to others, but I do keep in shape.
My older brother, to look at him, is overweight at about 275, but don’t let it fool you. He ice climbs, hikes, and bikes a lot, and has huge legs that won’t even fit into most pants. I can barely keep up with him, and even with 60 pounds on your back in the middle of winter he’s unstoppable on the trail.
I agree, weight is not a function of viability.
Lawn Sale
Not a thru-hiker, but since I started sectioning a couple of years ago, I have dropped many pounds!! Unfortunately, I will have a weight problem for the rest of my life. When I look at ice cream, I put on poundage. Discipline to refrain from those foods that are bad- that is the key.
It takes discipline to come home after a big hike and not eat everything in sight!!
I would commend anyone who gets out and hikes, runs, bikes, climbs, etc… who cares if they are big or not. Let’s give them credit for getting outside…
frasier fir
Man, this is silly.
There are fat people everywhere.
I got news for you , if you hike more then once, especially if it is for long distances over lots of time, your wieght will go nuts on you.
1998 hiked 5.5 months
I started at 270, got to 190 by katahdin
2000–hiked about 4 months, lost about 50, gained it all back
2001–hiked about 3.5 months lost about 37 pounds, gained it all back
2003–hiked 6.25 months lost about 50 pounds, gained it all back…
My DR told me my metabolism is F%$#ED for all the stress and strain I have put on it since I began hiking. As long as I stay active, I =can maintain a good healty wieght, I am large regardless, so when I dont hike for months, it comes back as the body expects the same old routine come Spring time. I guess it happens to a lot of old timer repeat offender hikers out there, look at Trail Days…a lot of Bellies on people who were thin only months earlier…thats life babe.
HYOH
LionKing
If you are talking about current thru hikers I believe you are incorrect. By the time the Nobos come through NH there are very few overweight hikers. Now former thru hikers as Lion King points out tend to be large. The hiker appetite does not go away for many months after the hike is over.
Big B
I had to laugh when I saw this thread. I shuttled a thru yesterday and told him I had done it a few times. He didn’t believe me until he asked me a dozen test questions because I am not fat. He had gone to Trail Daze and every single former thru he had met was a tub of lard. I have to admit with the exception of the females almost every former thru I have met is fat. If I do not exercise at least an hour almost every single day my weight goes up. I have to disagree with Big B. Hiker appetite NEVER goes away.
Blue Jay
In this thread, we have come full circle.
The first entry asserts that many current through-hikers, which I interpret to mean those hikers currently on the trail in 2005 in the process of an attempted through-hike, are “tubs o lard”; while in the last entry, just above, the writer asserts that “almost every former [through-hiker] I have met is fat.” In place of these terms, I would substitute the term “morbidly obese.”
We all know the caution against using the words “never” and “always.” So, let us say “most.”
The assertions that “most” through-hikers, past and present, those currently hiking now, and those who succeeded in the past, are morbidly obese, makes no sense.
The fitness level required to complete the trial, is high; those who try and succeed have to be in generally good shape; and one’s fitness level tends to remain constant life-long, the result of one’s life-long lifestyle.
I would love to read a scientific study on this issue: the fitness levels of those attempting a through-hike; the fitness levels of those successfully completing a though-hike; and the fitness levels of both after the failed or successful attempts, over a lifetime, should such a study ever be conducted in the future, or should one be lying about coverying dust now.
But, lacking same, I conclude that the assertions referred to above in the other posts are counterintuitive (ie, they don’t make sense), what information we have would tend to indicate the opposite, and that the assertions referred to are unsupported. The assertions, in short, appear to be based on anecdotal evidence at best–which is simply not enough.
Sincerely–Conan.
Conan
“[C]overying dust” in the entry above, was meant to read as “covered with dust”.
Sincerely–Conan.
Conan