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I generally lose 4-5 lbs while climbing a typical US or Canadian glaciated mountain. I wanted to find out if I was losing lean tissue as well as fat so I had a Bod Pod test done just before and after climbing Mt Baker and Mt Hood over a 7 day period. I lost 5.1 lbs of fat, gained 1.9 lbs of lean, for a total loss of body weight of 3.2 lbs. This is a pretty amazing result. I was surprised that I gained lean. Being an old guy, I was at 22% body fat before the trip. I don't know how much other data is out there, but is this typical? (Wish I didn't live on the East coast so I could do this more often)

I am not sure about what is typical, but I lost 15 pounds on a five day alpine climb once, but lost no weight on Denali.

Probably somewhat typical, but everyones bodies are slightly different. When I am in Peru or Nepal (unfortunately its been a few years..... really need to get back) in a 30 day period I'll loose an average of 15lbs starting out at 4-5% body fat (so for me its mostly lean muscle tissue). But ast 22% body fat I'd expect that you'd gain a little lean muscle while loosing quite a bit of fat (its a Joe Brown trick).

On what turned out to be an epic one day-ish push in the North Cascades I lost seven pounds. A couple of days later once I had rehydrated and eaten a couple of proper meals I was still four pounds lighter. Putting that in calories perspective if a pound of fat/muscle is 3,500 calories then it was a 14,000 calorie day. The only reason I remember this is because I was trying to lose a few pounds at the time.

Note that at the time I was a little over 200lbs and my best guess is 15-25% of "retained energy".

i lose weight during weeks i spend my food money on gas to go to the mountains but i guess this is different than the discussion here

EverydayExplorer wrote: then it was a 14,000 calorie day.

about the same as running 140 miles on level ground in a day.

I typically lose 10 or more pounds on an expedition and assumed it was all fat disappearing because I have a lot to spare. Never seems to last though

Also depends on what you define climbing as....

I didn't find a thread that fits my question but this one is close enough.

Some of this won't be exactly accurate but ........I have had many discussions about diets. The obvious is that if you burn more calories than you are taking in you will either lose weight or at least not gain. But many people who are always talking of diets speak to what is bad for you regarding weight gain. Most state it's calores and carbs. As I understand it, calories that ARE NOT from fat will burn easily if you are exercising. The same with carbs. As they turn to sugars, provide energy, and then are burned off. These "dieters" should be concerned with "fat grams" as they do not burn off as easily, especially if they are not active.

Is that basically the case?

I would say alot of it depends on how much water ones body retains. Most of the initial weight loss is from sweating.

Heh, I will have some data as soon as I get home to my scale (from Colombian airport, yawn)

Smoove910 wrote:I would say alot of it depends on how much water ones body retains. Most of the initial weight loss is from sweating.

FYI- The fat/lean gained or lost from my original post was measured in a Bod pod which factors out the water content of the body.

I started on a long one day hike, weighing 152 lbs. The next day, I was just 69 kilograms.

calories in / out is still a basic law to follow. but there are so many factors about lifestyle, genetics, hormones, and what you eat that affect how much you are burning via resting metabolism and nervous energy.

basically, for sedentary folk, make sure you get a lot of veggies, varied protein, omega 3....with a calorie defecit you will lose weight in a good way. carbs are good (at least cycling) to help keep hormones at good levels.

but with training, you have to up the carbs (especially post training). or else you won't recover, hormones go out of wack, injury, fatigue, all sorts of bad stuff.

Hm, I managed to GAIN 5 pounds in Peru in 5 weeks. Guess I reeeeally stuffed it in town! (I also did lots of calisthenics at the park between peaks.)