Weight loss during backpacking trip

Sorry, I don't see the downside here. You went on an amazing trip and came out on the other side in better shape.

yeah all the time; I am a male 6 feet tall; last trip I went from 178 to 173 in 2 weeks but gained it back in 3 weeks; you may have too sedentary a job and be unhealthily over weight at 178 pounds or not drinking enough water and eating enough calories when traveling if you want to stay at a healthy weight traveling back packing;

they say that sitting at a job in a cubicle and going on lunch break and just sitting stuffing the face with food 40 hours a week is the new smoking i.e. unhealthy

But be honest the bottom line is are you healthy? another thing to consider you do not want to lose muscle which weighs more than fat.

I'm not worried at all my girlfriend is freaking out; she says it's not normal 'don't think she's normal'. I somewhat do maintain a healthy lifestyle. I do have a job that keeps me moving all day, and I don't feel sick in anyway. I did feel like it was a pretty drastic loss, but wasn't too worried. Just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this kind of weight loss.

thats good; you sound like a youngster; most here are older than you; you can recover easier; you just got drink enough water weight when you are even more active carrying weight on your back sweating; i just back packed in Switzerland last month came back my boss said you look thin; also flights are like vacuums they suck all the water out of you;

Doesn't sound like anything to worry about.

I almost always lose weight when I go on vacation. Since I work in a sedentary job, I'm not in the best of shape when I start my vacation. Usually by the end of the vacation I am in much better shape and lighter.

The most radical was a trip I took to Hawaii. Stayed near the beach, went walking in the sand every morning, swam a bit, walked back and forth to the grocery and most everywhere else I needed to go. Ate and drank whatever I wanted. Lost 30 pounds on that 10 day trip and kept it off for nearly 2 years.

I loose around 15 pounds every time I take a RS tour as well (except for the Tour of Italy where I gained 10 pounds because of the food!). Just getting off my seat and moving makes me loose the weight.

Thanks mark, yeah I not worried about it all. Just wanted to see if it normal before my girlfriend talks me into bloodwork. I was budgeting myself pretty well, and not over eating. There were a lot of steep hills in Switzerland, and long distances to get somewhere. Lots, and lots of walking! 178 miles to be exact.

blood work lol.
the Doctor will see that your cholesterol is better than it was before since you burned a lot of grease by walking

Hmmm...
I think it's safe to say that you burned way more calories than you took in and that accounts for the weight loss.

However, losing 31# in 40 days sounds a bit excessive to me.

It may be wise to go to your doctor and get a check up; and you'll find out if your current weight is considered "normal" for you.
Your doctor will determine whether blood work is warranted or not.

Why risk your health? Get it checked asap.

Tape worm.

I normally lose a little each trip, maybe 5 lbs., because of all the additional walking I do.

Your weight loss seems more like what I lost the first semester of working my way through college, when I was eating one plate of rice a day. If you don't feel you were skipping meals or can't otherwise explain the weight loss, you should visit a doctor to see if there is a medical issue that's making you lose weight.

An involuntary weight loss of that magnitude is abnormal and could represent something serious. To play it safe see your doctor soon. He/she will know what tests to run. You would have had to burn over 90,000 calories in excess of what you took in to lose that amount of weight. Yes you burned a lot, but there also could be something else going on coincident with your trip.

It always annoys me how easily men can lose pounds. My husband can lose 20 while I struggle with 2. I imagine you just didn't eat nearly the calories you do as you were not likely to munch all day hiking versus maybe munching all day at work or in the evenings. This means you lost 5 lbs per week...not really extreme. Drastic weight loss when there is not change in activity, etc. might be an issue, but not with this type of change in activity, IMO. If you continue to loose weight, then have it checked, but you now have a nice opportunity to find your best weight and stay there.

31 lbs in 40 days is pretty drastic. the numbers don't mean much without knowing how tall you are. If your BMI is less than 18.5 then you should try to put some of that weight back on. It can't hurt to see a Dr., but you might put it off a week or two just to see if some of that weight comes back.

It always annoys me how easily men can lose pounds.

Women need more body fat than men:
https://www.acefitness.org/acefit/healthy-living-article/60/112/what-are-the-guidelines-for-percentage-of-body-fat
Remember that ideal body fat percentage is different for men compared to women, as women require a higher body fat percentage in order to maintain menstruation and the ability to have children (see chart).

Gusty Wind, worried about the weight you lost during your 40 day trip? Don't worry, I found it (some of it, anyway) during my recent 40-day trip to Portugal and Greece. Always an on-going contest between all the walking and all the good eating, and usually the eating wins. You can have it back, I'll try to figure out a way to transfer it to you!

I have a male friend, in his late 40s, who walked the Camino over a period of about 30 days. The Camino is just shy of 470 miles from where he started, and he lost 22 kilos (about 48 lbs).

A friend lost about 20 kg trekking in a Nepal for a month. Part of the weight loss was due to getting a digestive "bug" at the start of the trip, then avoiding food prepared with unrefrigerated meat products that may have caused the digestive "bug". Trekking at elevation with not enough calories equals weight loss.

"Backpacking" can have different meanings to different people, depending on context. For many, it is an extended hike in the back-country, with all belongings, food, sleeping bag, hauled by you in a back pack. As in "I spent a month backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail."
The other meaning is to spend time traveling in Europe with a Eurail pass and your clothes carried in a backpack, not necessarily with much walking involved. As in "I spent a month backpacking through Europe: Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Venice, Florence, and Rome."
Which is it?

I don't lose weight on walking holidays or hut-to-hut ski tours because the food is good and plentiful. And on UK inn-to-inn walks, pubs are the usual evening meal venue where a pint or two is somewhat mandatory. (And the full English or Scottish breakfasts and Nordic breakfasts can be high calorie affairs). So the question is, were you on a budget backpacking trip where you were food deprived?

A 31 pound loss in weight over 40 days computes to a bit over 3/4 lbs/day. Mayo Clinic's weight loss guide suggest that:

Because 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat,
you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose 1 pound.

This would suggest that you would have to expended 2625 Kcal per day MORE than you took in. Your backpacking mileage must have been fairly strenuous (Tour de France riders burn about 5000 Kcal on flat stages, 7000 Kcal on hilly stages). That combined with minimal substance to average a 2625 Kcal/day deficit.

LiveStrong estimates that a 160 pound hiker burs about 435 Kcal/hour. Hiking 10 hours/day = 4350 Kcal/day. Adding basic metabolism, you would have had to limit your daily intake to something like 2000 to 2200 Kcal to lose 31 pounds over 40 days. That seem to be more of a physical fitness boot camp than a holiday vacation.

Care to comment on the severity of your trekking and the amount of food intake to lose that much body weight?

When I was a few years younger, it was not unusual for me to lose ten or 15 pounds per month of travel. Twenty years later, it's about three pounds per month. Much more exercise, less mindless eating.