Weight Loss Camp

The Greenland Icecap crossing should be re-marketed to those people wanting to loose a guaranteed stone in weight but eat as much as they like for a month. Obviously the risk of death by Polar Bear mauling or falling to your death into a bottomless crevasse could be described in the small print, but I think it may have legs.

It really is quite easy to loose a stone, it took me 31 days exactly, in fact when I got off the ice I had practically no body fat and during the last 2 days (when Charlie and I ran out of food) I believe my body was using its own tissue to fuel itself. We literally had one porridge, a few handfuls of peanuts and some chewing gum over 48 hours. The reason for this lack of food was not a gross miscalculation of rations but more to the fact that we lost 2 days to helicopter rescues and 2 days holed up in the tent in storms - and we only had spare food for 2 days. It could be said that I overate a small portion of my snack food over the 29 days and therefore ran out of vital calories, but I had lost so much weight in the first 2 weeks - my body was demanding more calories as time went on.

I think my daily calorie deficit was about 2000 calories - which was a bit too much.

I have however done a splendid job of putting all the weight back on - more or less a stone in a month, and do feel better for it - for one my skin now fits my body, I wont go into details but I think the phrase "a size 10 body in a size 14 skin" springs to mind.

Food planning and calorie intake for the Pole has been planned in precise detail - I have to carry enough food for 55 days + 5 days of spares, I will have to eat approx 6000 calories a day, which means over half the weight of the sled will be food, the great thing about this is, once I am half way, the load will be much lighter!