I read a post about hiking to lose weight it basicaly said burn 3500 calories and you lose a pound.  There is more to it than that.  Your body burns calories no matter what you are doing; sleeping, eating, running, driving, ect.  The number of calories burnt at rest varies person to person but you can calculate it roughly.  First you have to caluclate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR measurements are typically taken in a darkened room upon waking after 8 hours of sleep; 12 hours of fasting to ensure that the digestive system is inactive; and with the subject resting in a reclining position.) to calaulate your BMR use the following formula.

-Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age)
-Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age)

or you can take the easy way out and use www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

that gives you an estimate of calories burned per day at rest.  Next multiply by your activity factor from the list below.

Activity Factor     -     Category     -     Definition

1.2                          Sedentary                  Little or no exercise and desk job
1.375                      Lightly Active           Light exercise or sports 1-3 days a week
1.55                        Moderately Active     Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week
1.725                      Very Active               Hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week4
1.9                          Extremely Active     Hard daily exercise or sports and physical job

This gives you a rough estimate of your caloric needs for a day.    Multiply this by 7 this gives you your caloric needs for a week.  If you want to lose 1 pound a week reduce this number by 3500 or increase exercise to burn 3500 calories a week or a combination of eating less exercising more (eat 1500 calories a week less needs and burn 2000 calories a week through exercise). The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1800 calories per day for men.

So lets use me as an example…    I am 5’10″ tall, weight about 280lbs and I am 28 years old.

66 + ( 6.23 x 280 ) + ( 12.7 x 70 ) – ( 6.8 x 28 ) = 2509    – My BMR is 2509, I am lightly active so 2509 x 1.375 = 3450  calories a day

3450 x 7 = 24150 calories a week

At my weight I burn about 500 calories an hour hiking, so if I hike 4 hours a week and eat 3236 calories a day I will lose about a pound a week.   A 200 lb male burns 420 calories an hour hiking.   So get out and hike!

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