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Lost weight due to geocaching?


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Sorry, no. You won't spend a lot of calories from walking around finding caches - it's probably not even enough for one bite from a candy bar. Even sport doesn't burn much calories. Hey, if I go on a 30 minutes run I burn about 140kcal. Keep in mind that I'm not very tall or heavy, but still. Losing weight happens to about 90% in the kitchen. Thus: eat less calories than your body needs and you'll lose weight. If you don't then you're overstimating your intake. It's that simple. But, having said that, any moving around, either be it sport or a hike for a cache is good for your health. Thus: sport for heath, kitchen for losing weight.

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I know of at least one cacher who started as a way of getting out of the house and getting more exercise, and it worked for him.

 

What you have to remember is that caching can be as strenuous or as easy as you want to make it. Driving 5 miles to a cache and getting out the car to look for it isn't going to burn as many calories as if you cycled there.

 

If caching helps give a sense of purpose to your outdoor activities (walking, cycling, kayaking etc) then that's got to be a good thing as part of a healthy lifestyle.

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Almost a year ago, we went on a major diet and workout lifestyle change for various reasons. Geocaching may not be the exercise solution to lose weight, but it is a nice addition to a regular plan for us. It fills in the gaps between our workouts. We do 3 regular workouts each week and the rest is free style. We have found lots of great trails that we will be hiking in the area, but the rain is killing us. It makes these trails sloppy wet that would normally be dry this time of year. We have found 2 concrete trails that we have hit.

 

As said above, it is what you make of it. You can hit a 12 mile trail to burn calories and find some geocaches, or you can go to the gym. As for me, I would rather burn that same number of calories looking for caches. I am new to all of this and I know the best trails are out there for me to find yet.

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I'd say no. But I've been a hiker for a long time. (Hiked half the AT!) Hiking and daily walking is good for my health. But is not affecting my weight. Still between 190-200 pounds. New Year's weekend, I did about twelve miles, with over a thousand feet of climb. Lost ten pounds, but I don't eat as much on weekends. And it's back.

But, with that exercise, I can hike twelve miles with over a thousand feet of climb.

So, yes: it is good for me. But no: being a hike anyway, it does not affect my weight.

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When I lived in Chicago, I'd ride my bike every Sat/Sun for caching, usually doing about 20 - 25 miles each day. Kept myself in fairly good shape, but didn't really lose weight. Now that I live in ID, biking for caches is not as easy as the roads are not as conducive as they were in Chicago, so am gaining weight <_< Probably makes one question how biking was easy in Chicago, but every block has an alley, so very easy to use the streets and alleys to get around. Loved it!

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I know some really high cache finders that have weight on them. :unsure:

 

This is something that surprised me as well. There are actually alot of cachers in my area, myself included, who are obese. Some are much bigger than me and you'd be surprised at the thousands of finds they have. Even the year I did alot of hiking, I didn't lose much. Exercise is great, but it's even more important what you put in your mouth if you want to shed the pounds.

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It wasn't just geocaching, but I lost about 70 pounds about 8 years ago. My main exercise was hiking to caches. As my weight dropped my pack weight increased - it's now about 60-65 pounds. At first I'd have to take the pack off at GZ to hunt the cache, but now I hardly notice the pack and will wear it for several hours at a time, doing whatever to find a cache. It's not all woods/backcountry caching either, I'll do several mile walking around a town caching with the pack on. All the hiking/caching lead me to start mapping trails for NW Trail Project, so I ended up caching while mapping trails. At times I'd add ankle weights for even more workout (1 pound on the feet is the same as 6 pounds in the pack). I've done hikes with the 60 pound pack and 4 pound ankle weights for an effective load of 100+ pounds - that burns some extra calories.

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I know some really high cache finders that have weight on them. :unsure:

 

This is something that surprised me as well. There are actually alot of cachers in my area, myself included, who are obese. Some are much bigger than me and you'd be surprised at the thousands of finds they have.

 

I think there's an inverse correlation here. My biggest weekend was three finds (plus one DNF and one aborted search due to high winds), and involved a nine-mile hike with an overnight pack. In contrast, the easiest way to get thousands of finds involves rarely going more than a few yards from the car.

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I know some really high cache finders that have weight on them. :unsure:

 

This is something that surprised me as well. There are actually alot of cachers in my area, myself included, who are obese. Some are much bigger than me and you'd be surprised at the thousands of finds they have.

 

I think there's an inverse correlation here. My biggest weekend was three finds (plus one DNF and one aborted search due to high winds), and involved a nine-mile hike with an overnight pack. In contrast, the easiest way to get thousands of finds involves rarely going more than a few yards from the car.

 

This is it. Last year I did a 4 day trip and was typically hiking several miles a day with camping and cooking gear and up to 10 kilos of coal in my pack for the fireplaces in the wilderness huts. I only found 6 caches but I got alot more exercise than the days when I have driven from church parking lot to church parking lot picking up loads of micro caches.

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I know some really high cache finders that have weight on them. :unsure:

 

This is something that surprised me as well. There are actually alot of cachers in my area, myself included, who are obese. Some are much bigger than me and you'd be surprised at the thousands of finds they have.

 

I think there's an inverse correlation here. My biggest weekend was three finds (plus one DNF and one aborted search due to high winds), and involved a nine-mile hike with an overnight pack. In contrast, the easiest way to get thousands of finds involves rarely going more than a few yards from the car.

 

I think you're on to something. Some of the fittest cachers I know have relatively low find counts. They will hike literally for 20km just to get 1 cache.

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I helped recruit cachers who had lost weight via caching for a PBS documentary a few years ago, and found some great local success stories. Contrary to terratin's assumption, there have been cachers who used geocaching as a focus for exercise and weight loss, and it worked. The Jester (who commented) and TotemLake are two local cachers who've lost weight with geocaching as a focus, but the most impressive has been GrnXnham, who lost a combined 120 pounds a few years ago (40 for him, 80 for her) - and kept it off! The secret to their success was changing their sedentary lifestyle to an active hiking one, and geocaching was the lure. When I started caching as a supplement to my hiking, they were couch potatoes. Now, they can leave me in the dust going up a mountain. Way to go, Dave and Staci!

Edited by hydnsek
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I burned over 900 calories this past weekend hunting for one cache. I am training for the Bataan Memorial Death March coming up in about eight weeks and am at the point where I need to start doing ruck marches (35 lb pack) in the foothills. The 8.5 mile round-trip hike to a letterbox near the US's only tin mine seemed like a golden opportunity.

 

Over the next few weekends I'll be adding distance, getting up to 20 miles for my training hikes. I plan to chip away at a powertrail on the other side of the mountains from my house to take advantage of the dirt roads and rolling foothill terrain.

 

I dropped 4 pounds last week, partially as a result of geocaching. Hoping to shed more in the coming weeks.

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You can make into an exercise if you go after the right caches, say deep into the woods.

 

But the vast majority of caches require as much effort as walking from car to your house.

 

Even with power trails, people will get out of their car, find the cache, and rather walk the 528 feet to the next cache, will jump in their cars and drive to it.

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Driving along a power trail and jumping out of your car is not going to help you lose weight. Choosing caches that involve a hike on the other hand will burn much more calories. If you have a dog he will be happier also. :rolleyes:

 

If you do it 1500 times a day it just may help. :rolleyes:

LOL :lol:

Edited by TahoeJoe
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