Fatpacking - Hike Off the Weight

Steve Silberberg is a wilderness backpacking outfitter with a program for overweight people to have a great outdoors experience while losing weight and building muscle. Fatpacking has been operating since 2004 and collects data on his clients to show how the trips improved their fat to muscle ratio. I far prefer letting a llama carry my pack, but the photos on his site have me itching to get out on the trail myself. I asked Steve about his program and his clients, especially since I have so many bones to pick with how the TV series Fat March was set up.

What is the basic Fatpacking program?
Fatpacking escorts moderately overweight people on 1 and 2 week backpacking weight-loss adventure vacations. Participants lose weight, or more accurately alter their body compositions, because they carry all their stuff around on their backs, including all the food they are to eat during the trips. Once you get on the trail, whatever you're carrying is all the food you get.

How do you determine whether hikers are appropriate for your trips?
As a guideline, participants should be no more than 60 pounds overweight. Certainly other factors such as age, activity level, and hiking experience make a difference. Unfortunately, the approval process is pretty unscientific. I have been surprised both by what some people can do that I thought they couldn't as well as what some people couldn't do that I thought they could.

Participants are encouraged to consult a doctor, which sometimes helps in the determining appropriateness. They are also encouraged to speak with sales reps at the outfitter store when they go buy equipment. This kind of in-person evaluation is very telling in a way that internet and phone consultation can't be.

Do your clients bring their own backpacks, boots, etc.?
Yes. While we often provide some of the more major items such as tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, and even backpacks, size-specific items such as boots are very individual, so clients provide them. However, participants are also advised that the fit from our loaner backpacks might be very imperfect, plus not every person is comfortable with a used sleeping bag, even though they're laundered after every trip.

How far per day do the fatpackers hike? Do you start out with a shorter distance and build up?
Yes, we start with shorter distances and increase them as the trip progresses. We hike as little as 3 miles a day, but this is an anomaly. The target distance is usually between 5-8 miles, although this is highly dependent upon terrain and the location of water and campsites. As it turns out, daily mileage is much less important than elevation change and footing. It's only 4.1 miles to the top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, but it would be an occasional rare client indeed who would be able to successfully complete that hike in an entire day carrying a full pack.

How much weight must they carry in the pack?
About the minimum weight any participant carries is 35 pounds. Ultralight backpackers might scoff at this, but most people are already shocked by wearing the same clothes on consecutive days, much less sawing their toothbrushes in half or washing their clothes in the cook pot.

Participants also carry their share of group equipment, whether it's food, cooking equipment, or water treatment items. Plus, in some dry locations such as Arizona, you must carry 2 gallons of water in order to prevent dehydration, which adds significantly to pack weight.

What sort of eating advice and food is provided?
The most important advice that's offered is to eat small amounts continually in order to keep blood sugar constant and prevent crashes. The most difficult type of client is one that goes from a daily sedentary existence to the demanding rigors of backpacking, only to stop eating because they think it will accelerate weight loss. We continually have to encourage some people to eat as the hunger that comes from physical exertion is the sign of a healthy body.

We also must finesse the opposing objectives of providing nutritional food that comforts and tastes good, doesn't spoil, and is light-weight in the pack. I like to plan meals with say, tofu. But while it's healthy and won't spoil, not everyone thinks it tastes great and it's extremely heavy to carry. On the other hand, macaroni and cheese tastes great, won't spoil (using powdered cheese and milk), and doesn't weigh that much, but nobody considers it the most amazingly healthy dish ever. So each meal is a balancing act, which often leans towards differing objectives.

What is the average weight loss per client?
It's actually pretty modest. It comes to about 5 pounds per person per week. Men lose more weight than women. But the important metric is body composition change. Women burn fat and replace it with muscle or water weight. They're often disappointed with this as they have been indoctrinated to evaluate fitness level by the single all-encompassing number that appears on the scale, even if their clothes feel looser.

Although the data on the web site is 2 trips behind, here is a tool to use to analyze body composition change of past participants.

Do some people drop out?
Yes. Occasionally, it's just too hard for some people, but by far the most common reason is blisters. We provide a lot of encouragement and a framework where people can succeed, but if your feet become bloody stumps, it's usually too painful to continue.

How are your tour leaders trained and are they ready for any medical problems?
All guides are Certified Wilderness First Responders through either SOLO, WMA, or WMI. We're not physicians, but we can keep people alive until qualified medical practitioners can be summoned. Fortunately, we've never experienced any serious injuries.

What kind of problems do you usually see with your clients on the trail?
It's no secret that some people use food as a way of dealing with pain or emotional issues. Some of our clients are not the happiest people. When the unexpected occurs (we really can't control the weather, water availability, or whether a storm knocked down a bunch of trees blocking the trail) these participants are frightened because they cannot control the situation. They can then get belligerent and even abusive to mask their fear and inability of coping with certain situations and challenges.

Do you have any stats on long term weight loss success for your clients?
No, sorry. I do know that some people go on to make great improvements. One guy, who had had a heart attack many years ago, lost around 8 pounds on his trip with us, and has continued to backpack on his own, losing 15 more pounds since. Others get back to their lives and proceed to "bulk up". There are so many factors people have in their lives that are far beyond our control when they return home, that we haven't really pursued long term monitoring.

Thanks, Steve for the interview.

• Hiking vs. Walking
• Top Picks for Trail Shoes
• Top Picks for Trekking Poles

^{Photo © 2007 Steve Silberberg, used with permission}