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Pro Tips

Less is More: How to Feel Full(er) While Hiking

Last updated: April 19, 2022 by Canberk Koksal

Since most of us are used to feel full on our day to day lives, we're unaware of its effect on our overall mood and physical performance. Because hiking demands more physical activity than our daily lives, it's particularly important to break this cycle and have a plan to feel full as much as possible.

Even if we're able to perform physically most demanding hiking/camping tasks, we'd better do them comfortably as most of us here hike for personal enjoyment. Feeling satiated is one of the most important factors to improve your overall mood and physical performance during hiking.

And, calorie intake is single-handedly the most important factor when it comes to feeling satiated. Unless your TDEE is very low, or you can pack unusual amounts of food, or you'll be "hiking" for 10 minutes before you camp at night and return home the next morning (which is called picnicking), feeling hungry to a degree is inevitable.

This post is devoted to minimize that hunger with smallest serving sizes.

Table of Contents
High calorie intake the previous day
Go for calorie dense foods
Implement intermittent fasting
Macronutrient choices 

High calorie intake the previous day

This tip differs from others as it isn’t implemented during hiking but before that. 

In the introduction, I said "when it comes to feeling satiated, calorie intake is the most important fact.”

A calorie is a unit of energy. Calorie intake, on the other hand, is a rate; such as "2000 kcals a day", or "500 kcals a meal" and it’s very closely related with satiety. 

Let's say Bob is going to go hiking and he calculated his TDEE to be around 2000 kcals/day, and he more or less eats that much everyday. To feel satiated, his daily average calorie intake should be around 2000 kcals everyday. Of course there are thousands of other factors which some will also be mentioned in this post, but as a rule of thumb, if he eats more he’ll feel more than full, if he eats less he’ll feel hungry and if he eats the same amount he’ll feel borderline satiated.

The important word here is average. If Bob (TDEE: 2000 kcals/day) eats around 2500 kcals the day before hiking, he basically allows himself feel satiated while eating that less (500 kcals less, which means 1500 kcals of daily calorie intake) on his hiking day and still feel satiated.

But...

You will burn additional calories during hiking (duh). Depending on pack weight, gender, distance, terrain inclination, bodyweight and many other things, a leisurely hike will burn between 300-600 kcals per hour. That's it makes eat that more the day before hiking.

This is the easiest and most effective tip to feel full especially during 1-2 nights of hiking & camping. 


Go for calorie dense foods

Calorie dense foods provide you the highest energy with the smallest serving possible. Highest energy is important because you're trying to feel full, and smallest serving size is important because you're trying to minimize the weight and volume of foods you'll be carrying.

A good example of high calorie density foods is nuts. They contain high amount of fats and hence, calories.

  • Macronutrient calories
  • Proteins: 1 gram = 4 kcals
  • Carbs: 1 gram = 4 kcals
  • Fats: 1 gram = 9 kcals

As long as they're not processed, you can go after any food you like. Here are some common choices.


Implement intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a pattern of eating usually implemented by gym enthusiasts.

Main benefits are optimized fat loss & muscle gain, increased energy levels inside the gym, better focus when fasting, simple calorie counting...

...and increased satiety feeling.

  • A little off topic here but a notable fact

For many people "optimized fat loss & muscle gain" are considered as the results of other benefits of IF. Because IF is a way of eating and not a diet. Besides meal timing, nothing else changes.

So how do you do it?

You basically eat your last meal of the day around 8-9 hours after your first meal of the day. Then you fast for 16 hours - and next day you start eating the same time you did the previous day.

Usually skipping breakfast is recommended because of its convenience for most people - and I'm one of them. Most days I eat my first meal around 11 am and last meal around 7 pm.

First few days can and will be a little painful for you since your body will take time to adapt. I recommend eating in IF pattern at least 2 weeks before hiking if you want to see its benefits on your satiety. 


Macronutrient choices 

Breakfast of most cultures in the world are centered around foods heavy in carbs. It's because they spike your energy levels fast since they're digested quickly. As a result your mood, willpower and satiety are boosted.

However, carbs boost you only for a short period of time. After an hour or two, you're going to start feeling lazy and hungry again since all the energy obtained is used very fast and your body is again left with nothing quickly after. You'll reach for another carb source and this cycle will repeat itself.

On the other hand, digestion of foods that are rich in proteins and fats take much longer. When you choose them over carbs, you're going to feel good and full around 4-5 hours. That's why centering your first meal in the day around those foods will help you feel satiated a lot.

Filed Under: Pro Tips Tagged With: camping kitchen, CookwareFoodsDrinks, hiking, nutrition

2 Most Effective Real Life Tips to Stay Fit While Traveling

Last updated: April 19, 2022 by Canberk Koksal

  • Ryan Alston · April 2018

It isn't tough to stay fit while traveling, guys.

There I said it. IT ISN'T! You can start celebrating! It's doable!

Because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to do it for 6 years.

Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you to run hotel stairs, run 5 kilometers every morning, or eat 7 avocados and X grams of oatmeal (as if every traveler carry a kitchen scale) for lunch.

While staying fit you'll ENJOY traveling and stop worrying about your fitness completely.

  • In this post, I'll assume that
  • You're between 18 - 50 years old
  • You don't have any health issues
  • You've been hitting the gym seriously (3+ days a week) for a while (at least 5 - 6 months) and started seeing changes in your body
  • You want to preserve your current physique during traveling
  • You want to preserve with minimum effort (as you want to enjoy your valuable time wherever you are)
  • You'll be traveling for 3 weeks at most

If the above apply to you... You're so darn lucky...

Why?

Because in this post, an advanced trainee (me) about to give you the best-bang-for-your-buck tips which have had cost too much frustration and trial & error methods to learn in 6 years.

Hopefully, it won't take that long for you.

And I value this "know how" so much I'm not even mad that I sound extremely arrogant.

Yes, I've been going to the gym seriously for 6 years, I travel once every nearly 3 months, and I DO manage to stay fit while traveling. How? Buckle up.

First, let's start with some facts.

The single reason that your body gets fitter and healthier always comes down to two things:

1- Stimulation

2- Recovery. Sorry, I meant enough recovery.

You know that feel when you feel good in the gym and your stats continuously increase. Each time you hit the gym you lift more, run longer, get faster and be stronger. It's more common for newbies. As a reward, you feel and look much better.

I know, I know. It feels amazing.

After a while, you keep feeling good, but your stats somehow stop increasing. So you open your laptop (or, if I'm your friend, you text me at 02:00 AM as to why your squat is stuck at 200 lbs.) and start researching.

If you're researching from reliable resources, you'll definitely see this:

If you feel good in the gym but your stats don't increase, do a little more.

This is a great advice.

You hit the gym 1 more day every week and up the training session for 15 mins.

After a while, your stats somehow stop increasing but this time you don't feel that good in the gym. You feel tired. So you open your laptop (or, if I'm your friend, you text me at 04:00 AM as to why your squat is stuck at 220 lbs) and start researching.

If you're researching from reliable resources, you'll definitely see this:

If you feel tired in the gym, your stats don't increase, and you have been training continuously for nearly 3 months, deload.


1- Deload While Traveling

Do you know why you feel bad?

Do you know why you can't stop the barbell from rolling from your hands anymore?

Do you know why your grip strength decreased?

Your overall focus throughout the day decreased?

I do.

You have been doing more than your body AND mind can recover.

My beloved Alan Thrall from YouTube makes a much better job than me to demonstrate how overtraining works. 

If you have a life (e.g. you're not a professional athlete: you're a college student or you have a job), it means your recovery will be inferior to other people. The truth is that for you, reaching that level is much easier than you think.

But if you're reading this, I should probably assumed that you're a stubborn person and probably have OCD. You'll probably convince yourself not to listen to people that are telling you to stop. But that's not true.

When you start feeling not so great in the gym after a long period of training and your lifts stop increasing, you must forget about weights and deload for an entire week if you want to get stronger, healthier, fitter or faster.

When you let your body AND your mind (which, is as important as your physique if you want to stay in shape all the time) rest enough, you'll see you look and feel BETTER! 

Recently, I started to travel for my work around once every 3 months. Since I ALWAYS train hard when I have settled life, my must-take-deloads overlap with my traveling time.

As a result, when I travel, I enjoy the different food, and eat around maintenance. I swear I start to look BETTER since my body recovers, I enjoy the moment without worrying about gym as I KNOW that stopping for a week is BETTER than constantly going hard.

And when I'm back, I am always able lift more - which is not surprising at all. Read more about deloading and you'll find out.

What's more...

Being fit is a marathon, guys. If you want to stay fit ALL THE TIME, you're going to have to learn to EMBED it into your life and make it a HABIT. Gym is there to improve your life, not to consume it. If you sprint, you're going to burn out, and your fitness journey won't last than a few months. Long term goals don't come with sprints. Neither they have a finish line.

In short, deload while traveling & eat what you want but at maintenance.

But what if you'll be traveling more than a week?


2- Calisthenics

Calisthenics involve the exercises performed with minimal equipment - hence, in many situations, your bodyweight.

If you finished your deload, do the following for 1-2 weeks before you hit the gym. I guarantee you that it's the best bang for your buck while traveling.

For your nutrition, worry more about how much you eat than what you eat. You're not going to travel forever - focus on things that matter the most. I don't care if you're losing or gaining weight - stop your calorie deficit or surplus and eat at maintenance level (use your gut feel).

When applied, this tip alone works wonders.

I recommend you doing the following routine once every 3 days. Try not to eat anything at least 1 hour prior to training.

To optimize your time there, try to shower first and eat after that once you finish your training.

  • Program
  • Pistol Squats (3-4 sets x 5 reps)

It's very difficult to say how many sets and reps you should do, but if you've never done them before & if your mobility isn't enough, even a single rep will be very difficult. As a starting point, I'd recommend 3-4 sets of 5 reps.

  • Push ups (4 sets x until failure)

Push ups! The most underrated exercise in the world. Do you know what grinds my gears? "Serious" gym goers who have a life do 20+ sets of chest exercises A WEEK! This is more than overkill. I currently only do 3-4 sets a week. Only bench press. Yes, more of it does help once in a while, but 3-4 sets a week is more than enough for most people - especially during traveling when you're trying to preserve your physique. And push ups is one of the best chest exercises you can do even INSIDE the gym.

  • Pull ups (4 sets x until failure)

If you do have access to a pull up bar - do them as well. If not - skip and don't worry about them.

Filed Under: Pro Tips Tagged With: fitness, travel

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Hey, what's up? Canberk here. I try to approach outdoor gear from a scientific point of view. Here's more about me.

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