Friday, October 26, 2007

Eating and hypothermia

Date: Oct. 26
Mileage: 32.5
October mileage: 573.4
Temperature upon departure: 39
Rainfall: 1.36"








"In wilderness environments, hypothermia results from:
1. Inadequate protection from the cold.
2. Inadequate fluid intake resulting in dehydration.




  1. This is one of the things I teach in my winter camping classes I lead. Keep the furnace stoked. If you don't continually stoke the furnace with fuel (food), the fire (or warmth) eventually goes out.

    My moment of epiphany was when we were thru-hiking the AT. It was March in the Smoky Mountains, we had had a snowstorm with 1 1/2 feet of snow followed by night time temps in the single digits. We made it to a trail shelter for the night. After stopping I started to get cold and my toes went numb. We quickly made some dinner. As I was finishing my meal I literally felt the warmth return to my toes. Nothing had changed except I had eaten a bunch of calories. I was still sitting outdoors and the temp was still 9F degrees. Prior to that experience it had never crossed my mind that the simple act of eating could warm me up.

  2. I've never had hypothermia, but I didn't make this connection either until someone reminded me of the definition of a calorie:

    From Wikipedia

    A calorie is a unit of measurement for energy. Calorie is French and derives from the Latin calor (heat).

    The small calorie or gram calorie approximates the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 °C. This is about 4.184 joules.

    It's kind of a duh moment when you think about it like that. Glad you made the connection! I'd never last biking in the crazy conditions you go out in. I salute you and I will continue to enjoy the pretty pictures from my nice warm house. :)

  3. I work a lot with endurance athletes to perfect their nutrition intake for the winter months it's really important to pay attention to hydration and food intake.

    While you may not sweat as much, you loose a lot of water due to the fact you are breathing cold air. Cold air must warmed and moistened as it travels down your throat and into your lungs.

    You will also lose more water through an increase in urine production. The body wastes energy keeping urine that's why you pee more in cold conserve energy.

    Your caloric intake will also increase...why? Essentially because you are wearing more clothes and riding a much heavier bike...not to mention carrying the appropriate gear. So your increasing your workload which will require more calories.

    Almost done...people eat more in the winter because I by prodect of metabolism is heat by eating you actually help warm your's called the thermic effect of food. It's also why you don't want to eat when it's so hot...because by eating your body is creating more heat...the last thing it wants to do.

    Hope this helps a little...if you need some nutritional advice let me know :-)

  4. I had that same sort of epiphany on one of my winter backpacking trips a few years ago, so now when I go out snowshoeing or camping in the winter, I'm constantly snacking.

    That's the key for me - snacking. When I'm hiking with a loaded pack or pounding out the miles on the bike, I hate eating large chunks of food like cliff bars, etc. So when I hike I keep baggies of trail mix in my pocket and constantly dig into those. That way I keep the calorie count up, but never feel like I'm inundating my stomach w/ a mass of food that's just going to make me feel lethargic. On the bike I usually opt for power gels, but end up using clif bars, too, on longer rides, as after a while gel gets old.

  5. I once bonked so bad that even though it was in the upper 50s, I sat for an hour with a jacket and 2 blankets and I was still shivering. The biggest problem is that once you get too cold your brain slows down and you have trouble figuring out what's going on. I once was really hypothermic when I was riding and I slammed my brakes a block after a car turned in front of me. Eventually think they're hot and start stripping their clothes.

  6. also think in terms of hours out not miles traveled!

    coca cola from a gas station always seems to do the trick for me...

    Got so cold 3rd day in on the GDR that took me 8 hours to get warm again. Partly do due to not stopping to eat something!

  7. My friends laugh at me as I stuff m & m's into the deepest reaches of my bag -- the last defense against hypothermia ...

  8. This just happened to me on a road ride a few days ago. This time of year, I always forget that I need to eat almost twice as much on the bike as in the summer. I was on the edge of bonking when we stopped at a store for food. Ten minutes off of the bike and I felt my body temperature drop like a rock. I stuffed down a muffin and a bag of M&Ms while shivering violently, and after 15 minutes back on the bike it was like nothing had happened.

  9. I found some interesting information about Hypothermia here. Check it out!