My personal goal wt. when hunting season comes around is 150-155 lbs. At that wt. I really don't have room to drop more body wt. so my only option is dropping pack wt. The older I get, the less wt. I want to carry on my back and if I can afford to spend more money on lighter, and a lot of times better, gear, I'm going to do it.
I’m kinda the same, but a few years ago I got up to almost 190lbs, I’m 6’ even... I started having knee problems, and decided to drop some weight... now I’m 155-160, and now after spring bear season I’m down to 150, and am trying to gain back 10.
I did take the approach of dropping weight, not to walk around lighter necessarily, but to take some strain off my knees. All of the walking I do in combination of working on the ocean my whole life takes it’s toll.
I do think dropping some weight is better than trying to drop pack weight, because dropping pack weight usually means a lot of money or compromising comfort... shedding 10lbs through the year makes more sense (unless you are as light as you want to get)
I hate fixating on ounces, I know they add up but I keep things reasonable without fixating.
my weight doesn’t fluctuate much during the year, I’m either working on the ocean, running around the woods or climbing up and down coastal river canyons chasing salmon and steelhead, I’m lucky in that regard, trying to diet every year prior to hunting season sounds like a drag.
I do think for someone looking to drop a few lbs, the theme of this thread is a great concept, I took that approach and my knees have been better... still not perfect, but not getting worse at a noticeable rate.
the year that they started bothering me was the one year I logged my boot miles for 365 days, and my fishing and hunting related walking miles was just shy of 1650 miles...