Calorie Burn on a 14er

[djkest]

I was talking about this with my friend during our longs summit and on the way down.
I weighed 271 lbs the day before we summited. We were up and back down in 9 hours, including all rest stops and 20 min on the summit. So at least 8 hours of exercise. Granted, we went much faster from the TH to the boulder field, and on the way down I dont' think my heart rate was much above 130 or so.

Anyway, I hit the gym quite often- but one thing I've seen is that on the treadmill or on the eliptical machine, I can burn 1,000 calories an hour. Now, I couldn't do that for 8 hours, so lets say hiking I'm doing like 600 hr... ? (which, I could do on a flat treadmill at 4mph)

That would put me somewhere in the neighboorhood of 4000-5000 calories. But it could be even more than that, hard to say. I lost 2 lbs (and have since kept it off) in the following 2 days after the summit. I think we'll have to do it again, huh? I think hiking is actually fabulous exercise, I can feel my leg muscles getting a really solid workout, not just the major muscles but the smaller ones as well.

As a side note, ever seen someone 270+ on the top of longs?

[PracticallyNative]

Followup: Ironic for this topic. I'm getting a VO2 Max, resting metabolic rate, Aerobic Threshold, and Lactate Threshold test at Lifetime Fitness tomorrow. I'll finally have the real training zones to work off of. The charts, formulas, and guessing have been all wrong for me. I'm doing it on the cycle trainer and not running so it will be only good for on the bike. I'm not sure if VO2 max changes that much for running but maybe Chris knows?

Your Anaerobic Threshold will be different on a bike vs running. I believe AT is generally 10 bpm lower on a bike, especially if you are a trained cylcist

[bob863]

this is an interesting thread to follow, but i'm not going to contribute anything
since my personal goals are just to enjoy the mountain scenery and serenity....
from personal experience, i know i burn some calories going up....if i don't
consume more calories by eating more than i burn , then i probably will lose some
weight....isn't that a fact of life?

[jcrogers76]

I wore a BodyMedia monitor while climbing Grays last year. Weather forced us to turnaround at 13,800', and when I got back to the bottom, one of the guys there was trying to guess this same thing, so I checked my monitor (via bluetooth on my phone) and found that I had burned almost 5,000 calories.

[ezabielski]

Some things to consider in the equation also.......I have run many trail ultra-marathons, races in excess of 26 miles, at altitude, and over rough terrain, and have found that in such races I expended approx. 1000 calories / hr during those races. A 50k race would put me in the 10,000 calorie day range!

1000Cal/hr sounds like an overestimate to me unless you are quite large (seems unlikely). On the bike, during a race at 88% MHR for two hours, I barely burned 1,000Cal/hour. For one hour at 93% MHR, I burned 1,200Cal/hr. Running for three hours at 85% MHR, I managed 900Cal/hour.

My point is that as the duration increases, HR necessarily decreases, and HR is proportional to energy use, so your energy consumption per hour will decrease. You're saying that in an 8 hour 50k you burned 8,000Cal? I'd love to see the data if that's the case.

[akoller]

I'm 210 lbs. I've estimated that I burn 150 kcal/mile running, 100 kcal/mile walking (flat), and 150 kcal per 750 vertical feet. The last number is based on being able to climb 750 vertical feet in about the same amount of time I can run a mile, given the same effort. That is all with no additional weight from a pack and at Boulder elevation. I think one burns about 25% more from 8-11k elevation and 50% more from 11k to 14k (just an estimate based on how long it takes to climb the same elevation gain). Using these numbers, doing Longs peak with a 20 lb pack I get 3800 kcals, which seems reasonable.

[bigredmachine]

According to my phone app I burned about 3200 calories over 7 hours doing S Boulder Peak to Bear to Green and back to the S Mesa trail. I think it was around 16 miles, but no running. When I jog in the mornings I burn about 300 calories in 15 minutes, so 1000 calories/hour seems well within reason.

[ezabielski]

According to my phone app I burned about 3200 calories over 7 hours doing S Boulder Peak to Bear to Green and back to the S Mesa trail. I think it was around 16 miles, but no running. When I jog in the mornings I burn about 300 calories in 15 minutes, so 1000 calories/hour seems well within reason.

Are you using an HR monitor?

Obviously 1000Cal/hr or higher is possible for some amount of time. I am saying that 1000Cal/hr for the length of an ultra is unrealistic, unless you're on the very pointy end of a 50k. Using the old wives/runners number of 100cal/mi, you'd need to do 6:00 pace for a flat 50k to average 1000cal/hour, and it would take you about 3h06m to finish.

EDIT: For reference, the world record 50k time (in 2011 at least) was 2h43m45s.

[Kitten]

I usually carry my Fitbit with me, which is supposed to take into account weight and distance, and it says I burn 2500 calories during an 8h hike. I have never trusted it, as it depends on the activity itself: flat versus hills, moderate versus fast pace... I guess it's all relative as others have mentioned here.

[bob863]

a great thread...didn't realize there were that many people focused on "calorie-counting"...

[bigredmachine]

According to my phone app I burned about 3200 calories over 7 hours doing S Boulder Peak to Bear to Green and back to the S Mesa trail. I think it was around 16 miles, but no running. When I jog in the mornings I burn about 300 calories in 15 minutes, so 1000 calories/hour seems well within reason.

Are you using an HR monitor?

No HR monitor, it was just an app that tracks, miles and elevation gain and then uses your weight and time to come up with a calorie burn. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it gives me a decent idea.

[shearmodulus]

One of the algorithms that I use says that cross-country hiking with 40-pounds or greater for a guy my size (5'10", 170lbs) burns an average of 12 calories a minute.

And yes, I typically train with greater than 40 pounds because WINTER.

So that equates to about 600 calories an hour including a 10-minute break per hour.

One particular thing to note about calorie burns; just because you're refueling with an equal amount of burned calories during a low threshold activity does NOT mean you won't lose weight.

Low-intensity activities will draw on your fat reserves more readily than a high-intensity workout, which is why you drop inches when you do long-duration backpacking trips, even if you eat a lot of food.

For more information, check the NOLS guide to Backcountry Nutrition: http://www.amazon.com/Backcountry-Nutri ... 0811735052" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;