How to Lose 10 pounds in 10 days: The AT Method
First, let me preface this by saying this blog is not health advice and should not be taken as such. It is the story of a massive miscalculation in my backpacking career and it is not something that anyone should strive to replicate as it was highly unhealthy and potentially dangerous. This is the story of how I lost 10 pounds in 10 days while hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
In 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic, my friend Mark and I planned a backpacking trip of epic proportions. We were going to hike the first 135 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain, GA to the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina. We planned to do this in early October as the weather would be cooler and, with luck, the leaves would be changing colors. Spoiler: we got exactly what we wanted and a whole lot more from our adventure.
As this was my first very long distance backpacking trip with resupplies planned in towns, I was hyper conscious of the weight I planned to carry. My goal was to have a pack that weighed 30 lbs at maximum load. To make this goal a reality, rather than lightening my gear (like my 5 pound tent), I foolishly brought significantly less food than I should have - about 2400 calories per day. When you’re hiking 17-20 miles with about 5000 feet of gain per day, for ten days straight, that is not nearly enough. I estimate I was burning 4000 to 5000 calories a day with that kind of exertion and I should have been eating between 3400 and 4000 calories a day to better maintain body weight while balancing the load on my back. Instead, like a doofus, I opted to carry effectively 60% of the food I needed - ouch.
Let me tell you more about how the trip went to even better illustrate how that extraordinarily large number of calories gets burned.
For the first couple of days of the trip the weather was absolutely gorgeous. We visited scenic waterfalls and hiked the Georgia trails without incident while responsibly social distancing from society. The weather turned sour on our third day as Tropical Storm Delta rolled in and proceeded to dump a torrential amount of rain on the region.
Blood Mountain, GA is a place that will forever live in infamy for Mark and me. After pushing through a soggy 17 mile day of hiking (the trail was covered with 4 inches of water in places), we sought shelter at the highest point on the AT in Georgia: a “dank” historic stone building with no windows or doors. Man did we feel smart. That night was a rough one as hikers shoved their packs and tents into the windows to keep as much moisture out of the shelter as possible. It might have helped a little, but we all still woke up wet because, as it turns out, clouds tend to form near the tops of mountains.
Over the next couple of days we dealt with near constant rain. The region became totally saturated and natural springs popped up all over the place. This was the only time I’ve backpacked voluntarily without water in bottles - there was so much water everywhere that we could practically scoop, filter, and drink on the move. The rain was so plentiful in fact that we received an emergency notification that a dam near us was at risk of being breached. We had to rapidly consult maps to determine if we were in the flood zone just in case we needed to make tracks to higher ground. Thankfully we were above the dam altitude wise and the only risk we had was from trench foot - something we could deal with by drying our feet… easier said than done in a tropical storm.
Thankfully Delta let up before our fifth day on trail, the day we were due to get into Hiawassee Tennessee to resupply. Prior to getting into town, my lack of sufficient food became readily apparent. I was out of everything by lunchtime - not something I strive for as I had zero room for error or emergency. I mentioned this to some incredibly kind day hikers and they offered me their snacks, but I declined figuring I had only five miles to go to get to town. There’s always trail angels out there, make sure to appreciate them.
When Mark and I reached Hiawassee we had one thing on our minds: Food. We had heard of a brewery that had a taco truck in town and we were ravenously ready to reap the rewards of our ramble in the wilderness (sorry couldn’t resist the word play). Mark managed to eat something on the scale of 18 tacos with three beers while I consumed a paltry 12 with the same number of beers. We stayed at an amazing BnB that night where we showered, cleaned our clothes, and passed the heck out in preparation for the second half of our journey.
Thankfully, the second half of our trip was far less eventful than the first five days. When we reached the NC border, the trail became downright enjoyable as it had mostly dried out. The miles turned “cruisey” and the leaves were noticeably changing color. Furthermore, we had full food supplies again and we were in high spirits knowing we had eaten enough food in TN to fuel us for a day or two.
On our seventh night on trail, we stayed at a shelter near Rock Gap in North Carolina. Because of all the rain we had been shelter hopping basically the whole trip and I had not used my almost five pound tent the entire time. Determined to make the weight on my back worth my while, I set up just down the hill from the shelter for what would become an entertaining, if also off-putting, evening.
Wildlife encounters are not unheard of on the trail. There’s deer, black bears, and Sasquatches along the entire length of the AT. It was none of those species that became an issue for Mark and me that night though. It was mice! In the shelter they were moving all around and on top of (eww) the sleeping backpackers. Where I was sleeping in my tent, 30 yards from the shelter, they were running races around and over the top of my tent. Thankfully they did not decide to chew into my tent - I had hung my food. Because they were interfering with my precious sleep I decided they were not allowed ON my tent. I used the tent wall as a trampoline of sorts and pulled back the side when a mouse showed against the light of the moon. Then I catapulted that little squeaker into the woods. Laughing, I went to sleeping hoping the pesky projectiles would tell their friends to not bother me anymore.
My last full day on trail passed quickly for me. We hiked fast knowing that the last night out would be a cold one and we wanted to be setup well before nightfall. Not only did we contend with a tropical storm on this trip, but the last night we were in for a 23 degree night. Mark ended up sharing a tent with me that night since hammocks are drafty and we packed leaves under the fully sealed rainfly to keep as much warm air in the tent as possible. To this day I insist that was a brilliant idea, we stayed warm the whole night and it was the best night of sleep I got the whole trip.
After getting back home was when I realized just how underfed I was for the duration of this grand adventure. Over the course of ten days I hiked 135 miles, climbed around 40,000 feet, and lost ten pounds that I didn’t know I had to lose. This was mind boggling to me as I had pushed myself further and faster, on a limited diet, than I ever thought possible. I will never make this dietary mistake again, but will always remember this epic journey.
Mark continued solo through Great Smoky Mountains National Park over the next five-ish days and got back safe and sound with no unexpected events that I’m aware of. He has now trekked ALL of the AT South of Pennsylvania and is working on the northern segments when he can squeeze them in.