Hiking calories burned

I'm a little confused.  I went hiking today in a local gorge.  It's very rocky, starts off with an extreme drop down, lots of climbing over rock slides and boulders and ends with a very steep climb back to the top.  It's strenuous, took 2.5 hrs.  I'm 5' 2", I didn't carry a pack (made BF do it!).  I definitely consider this to be hiking but I've seen other posts say that it may be considered walking uphill.  I want to get the calorie burn right, anyone have this figured out?  I came up with more than 850 cal. burned total, which is awesome.  If this is true I'll do this every week, maybe with some weight in a pack.  I did have a snack and water with me, I needed it.  Any other hikers out there?  Seen any real results from hiking as exercise?

Maybe I should have posted this in Weight Loss...

You can always log it and not eat back all the calories if you have doubts. But if it was a tough hike you could have burned that many.

Based on your description, it sounds like hiking to me.  I'd log it that way myself, hiking is awesome exercise and also lots of fun!

Hey-

I went hiking yesterday in the Adirondak's up a mountain (kid and older age friendly).  It was really rocky, uphill the whole way up- 2 hours up and 1 hour down.  I'm 5'1 and 1/2 and 24 years old.  I'm 120lbs.  I wore my heart rate monitor and counted calories burned the entire time (stopped it when we ate and rested).  I burned 1,043 calories in those 3 hours! It's hard work! I would say you are probably right! We hike all the time.  It's a "hobby" of ours... we live an hour south of the Adirondak's- so we hike a lot! It's a total body work out! I burn way more calories than doing an exercise video (or 3 combined!) However, I still love those too.  Make sure to stay well hydrated and to eat a lot! Yesterday,  in order to not go into starvation mode I had to eat a ton of food! A hiker tip: We love to freeze water bottles and take them out the morning of your hike- and hike with your frozen water! They stay cold all day and can use them to cool yourselves off and drink them!

*Happy hiking!*

Original Post by kwietro01:

 Yesterday,  in order to not go into starvation mode I had to eat a ton of food!

Actually you can't go into starvation mode in one day. Hiking is great exercise but you don't have to eat an extra 1000 calories because you've burned it off - especially if it's a once a week excursion, you can just eat the same and have an extra boost in your calorie deficit.

I'd rather go hiking outside and experience nature than go to the gym (which I also do). I love the adirondacks, I wish I lived closer to them.

 I went hiking yesterday too but logged that as walking as it was very easy on groomed trails at a nature preserve.  Such a great weekend!  I logged today's hike in my activity meter and planned on eating a little more but still keep a 500 calorie deficit.  Or if I'm not hungry I will just stop and have "the extra boost in my calorie deficit" mentioned by the previous poster.

Thanks for all of your responses!  

I think you're going to have a hard time getting an accurate count for hiking, since there's so much variety you can encounter.  I'd say log it as CC's hiking, but don't worry if you have an extra snack or slightly bigger dinner later in the day.  I love hiking, and I know on backpacking trips I would always lose weight in spite of the fact that we brought really dense, high calorie food with us

One can easily burn that many calories and more during a hike.  Hiking is a much better form of exercise than gym workouts, not just because it gets a person outside and enjoying nature, but because hiking actually raises your heart rate and maintains that heart rate at a level higher than being on an elliptical or StairMaster, and for a longer period of time.  Here inTucson, when I hike, I usually have to use a lot of upper-body strength to pull myself onto high rocks.  I notice that my biceps and triceps, though aching, are way more toned than after a regular day at the gym.

Hiking is great exercise and the type you described definitely could have burned that much.  I always seem to lose when I go hiking but if I'm not going to the gym I will gain it back!  That's because I can't hike every day!  I need to do something consistenly.  I love the woods, the air, the smell of the trees and earth!  Nothing like it in my book!  But we don't have a lot of hills in my general area have to drive a ways to get that higher calorie workout like you did!  My kids wanted to hike thae Appalacian trail (takes about 4-7 months from Maine to Georgia)  We got a video and I remeber the saying that the average hiker lost 20 lbs.  It might have been higher.  I think I actually found a website at one time that was on that very thing Hiking to lose weight! 

A few weeks back I went hiking with some fellow CCers and in the 2 hours my HRM said I burned well over 1500 calories.  It was a strenous hike to say the least so its quite possible you did burn a good many calories.