Is Backpacking the new DIET - Page 2 - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**Rebel1** · 09-25-2007, 08:09 PM

Sounds good travlvirgin. Eat when you get hungry, sleep when you get tired etc. Works for me.

Jason, drunk kebabs don't count. Oh, they were sooooo goooood! Everyone danced them off anyway. A four kebab night is what legends are made of!

**simply_angelic** · 09-26-2007, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe7f

I have no doubt the food is part of it but I think the main contributing factor is the increased exercise.

I bet I am lucky to walk 0.5 miles a day (unless I go to the gym) whereas when you travel you could end up walking 11k in half the recommended time, through areas where beavers flooded with a girl who feels like that is just a warmup for 60k the following weekend and you realize you should be strapping on an apron and getting her a beer... just a generic example mind you

--Joey

Hahaha yeah Carolyn & I were kind of ripping it at the beginning, lol. But hey, look on the bright side (1) we got firewood!!! & (2) we were ahead enough to be the dumb ones that jumped INTO the muddy beaver flooded areas (me in a white skirt & w/ my shoes off, mind you) to look for the rest of the trail

**maracle** · 09-26-2007, 07:06 AM

Another way that makes it easy to lose weight is to be somewhere where you have no clue about the language. If finding a shop/restaurant and ordering food is a huge ordeal you find yourself skipping meals unless you're really hungry. Or at least I do!

**simply_angelic** · 09-26-2007, 07:37 AM

Oh god no! I just revert to pictures or things pre-made like those tasty sandwiches in france...then you just point! or you learn what you like/dont like. For instance I don't like prociutto, but I like ham. So in Spain I found it difficult to differentiate from the menu what was ham & what was prociutto so I just bought a ton of sandwich mistas and gespacio (mmm). But otherwise I'd just bite the bullet & order something random because I knew a few words just from Spanish's similarity to french such as chicken, etc

**Canadian Bacon** · 09-26-2007, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by travlvirgin

Hahaha so it looks like ill do a bit of both. the first bit im with family so i guess ill put on a ton of weight. after that im solo for six months and in all honesty i cant see myself stopping to eat all that much, ill be more of a continuous fruit eater or snacker. and do heappppppppps of walking so hopefully i come home in better shape.

YES! Continuous fruit snacker is the best thing ever.. actually I have tried to take this habit for regular life here, but it doesn't always work. I'm just not motivated to go out and buy fruit.

Anyway, yeah 6 months you'll be skinnier, although not necessarily healthier, due to the stresses you'll put on your body.

**joe7f** · 09-26-2007, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simply_angelic

But hey, look on the bright side (1) we got firewood!!! & (2) we were ahead enough to be the dumb ones that jumped INTO the muddy beaver flooded areas (me in a white skirt & w/ my shoes off, mind you) to look for the rest of the trail

Definitely the highlight of the campout :D

--Joey

DrGonzo · 09-26-2007, 10:50 AM

i actually gained weight while i was in costa rica. the locals kept feeding me and with all the rice and beans, it just stuck to me like glue. being back in the states and my way of life (homeless hippy with very limited money), im losing weight again. food is too expensive in the states. especially the healthy organic stuff that i prefer over fast food. so, yea, i definitely gained weight abroad, and that includes all the physical activities i was doing!

**voyd** · 09-28-2007, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe7f

Definitely the highlight of the campout :D

--Joey

Muddy beavers and white skirts..wt..?

**simply_angelic** · 09-28-2007, 12:36 PM

Yeah, didn't you know? That's how we rock it in Canada....

Not THAT kind of beaver voyd....

**Sijuki** · 09-28-2007, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by voyd

Muddy beavers and white skirts..wt..?

Good lord... I can't imagine a muddy beaver being a good thing. But white skirts are nice.

**aliz** · 09-29-2007, 05:52 AM

staying with a family usually makes you put on weight.. staying with a german family was crazy, i've never had so many potatoes in my life! if i'm left to my own devices i usually lose weight (or 'waste away' as my mum always says when she sees me) because i don't really eat much and i like healthy food. i probably put on weight when i was in the US... dunno how to say this without possibly offending people, but there is an awful lot of crappy processed food in america... that and the serving sizes in restaurants would feed me for a week! and on top of that, my friend's sister (I was staying with the family) would be snacking on more crap every hour! arrghh i'm sure there are lots and lots of healthy people in America but i just could not believe the amount of fast food chains and just bad eating habits all around.. i was craving a fresh salad the whole time!

**joe7f** · 09-29-2007, 06:29 AM

^It is tough to find fast healthy food, so I ended up eating crap most of the time.

--Joey

**Sijuki** · 09-29-2007, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliz

staying with a family usually makes you put on weight.. staying with a german family was crazy, i've never had so many potatoes in my life! if i'm left to my own devices i usually lose weight (or 'waste away' as my mum always says when she sees me) because i don't really eat much and i like healthy food. i probably put on weight when i was in the US... dunno how to say this without possibly offending people, but there is an awful lot of crappy processed food in america... that and the serving sizes in restaurants would feed me for a week! and on top of that, my friend's sister (I was staying with the family) would be snacking on more crap every hour! arrghh i'm sure there are lots and lots of healthy people in America but i just could not believe the amount of fast food chains and just bad eating habits all around.. i was craving a fresh salad the whole time!

I for one am not offended.. I know we have way overprocessed food, too much fast food, and just plain old too much junk. It's that mindset that makes it so hard for a lot of people to break that habit. Even when I try to eat healthy I end up getting busy or something and end up without food trying to find something. Oye.

**DC_Jessica** · 09-30-2007, 06:09 AM

I agree with the staying with a family deal. It's not "abroad" but I gain weight if I stay at my parents' for an extended period. It's probably what convinced me I didn't need a summer at home after Sophomore year. It's just that a lot of my "exercise" is just necessity in DC because I have to walk from place to place and because you can. SW Pennsylvania offers no such options. You basically have to take a car, and the city isn't a huge sprawl where you can get to lots of different places from the burbs with public transportation.

**freespiritz** · 09-30-2007, 10:27 AM

I am totally expecting to put on about 20 pounds when I go to Italy for a semester and live with a family. Not good, no matter how excited I am for pasta and gelato! Hopefully my proposed summer post-programs wanderings will take care of losing that excess weight though.

**buzzingtalk** · 09-30-2007, 11:34 AM

awe depends where im travelling. if im in asia i always loose, because good food is cheaper there, like big plates of veggies n shit. plus the chocolate is nasty out there so i eat well. but if im travellign ni the uk or in europe i pile it on, good vegan food costs so much more than its more unhealthy greasy rivals

PhilBill · 01-01-2008, 03:18 PM

Backpacking is an excellent way of losing weight. I took off to Kathmandu in 2004 to jump start my diet losing the first 20 lbs trekking the Himalayas and within the next 2 years went overland all through Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos for 3 month trip losing 30 lbs more. Now that I have settled down a bit here in the Philippines I am gaining back the weight so I plan to do some volcano trekking and long distance bicycle riding along the coastal highways SOON in Feb 2008.

**BigE** · 01-01-2008, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freespiritz

I am totally expecting to put on about 20 pounds when I go to Italy for a semester and live with a family. Not good, no matter how excited I am for pasta and gelato! Hopefully my proposed summer post-programs wanderings will take care of losing that excess weight though.

I actually lost weight in Italy. I lost 14 lbs in 10 days and I ate the whole time.

**LiveFreeorDie** · 01-03-2008, 12:12 PM

I think some of it depends on where you come from. As Aliz mentioned, portion sizes are huge in the states and are one partial contributor to obesity, along with the sheer volumes of sugar and processed carbs consumed here. So, if you are from the states, portion control along with activity and moderately healthier food goes a long way. If you are from someplace that already has portion control (such as the UK with those teeny tiny excuses for sandwiches

) I bet its less of an impact.

**c0urt** · 01-03-2008, 03:31 PM

well let's look at our options here
this is how i ate at home

fried every thing

and this was
this was about 10 euro in germany but i was walking everywhere