Why do I gain weight after a hike?

With all of that peanut butter and stuff in the recipe, they are moderately solid but not brick-like. I just stuff as many of them as will fit into a ziploc bag, and that goes along for half of my lunch food. From my estimation, they seem to have a good caloric dose of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

–B.G.–

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On days I go for a hike my belly bloats way huge and I get a lot of water retention even though I often eat foods that have no salt added and drink just water. I don't worry about it.

I gained weight toward the end of my two PCT half-thru-hikes. I believe that lots of daily long endurance-style cardio is actually not very good for your health, and neither are typical foods eaten when hiking. I have switched over to weight lifting 2x a week plus sprinting 2x a week on an exercise bike (22sec on, 90sec rest) and a hike 1x a week. I have the best-looking body of my life, plus I can squat more than my own body weight and pretty soon I will be able to do a pull-up, something I've never done before. Walking around with 22lbs on my back feels like nothing.

yes.. water and feces … the volume of food I eat stays with me a few days and the body tends to retain water, especially with high carbohydrate loads.

Have you tried measuring circumferences (waist, arms, thighs) before and after a weekend of backpacking to see if these change in the same or a different direction as your weight?

Resurrecting a 4 year old thread ….

Measuring body parts and trying to correlate to weight loss/gain – fat loss here, muscle gain there, etc, etc, – would be a challenge.

Getting back to Curtis, the OP on lack of weight loss after a 10 mile hike.  Curtis, with the example you mention for being your after hike meal and it’s calories, I’m curious as to what is your regular diet is during the week?  Without knowing your regular diet and  eating habits it’s tough to figure out what is happening with your after hike weight gain.  I will offer that looking at your everyday diet is probably involved in solving this, not just your hike, trail food and after hike meal.