Hehehe Kaizen. I've been trying to convince folks for years that hiking (and other "fun cardio") is some of the BEST fat-burning exercise you can do. And as long as you're chugging down all that sweet, yummy high carb trail food it's not catabolic to any great extent. You couldn't pay me enough money to hop on a treadmill! But you wouldn't want to go hiking for 4-6 hours every day! Now THAT would be catabolic, like training for a marathon.