>>1203895The amount of squats you do doesn't magically make your body require less calories and water to carry itself, and the more your pack weighs the more water and food you burn, meaning more frequent resupplies, more frequent water breaks, more muscle breakdown at rests, slower pace etc
Grit and strength of character don't outdo basic calorie consumption, plus if your pack is heavy with loads of unnecessary and overdone kit you don't have room for fun and autistic shit like beer, fishing gear, books etc.
Plus, the heavier the pack and the more you carry, the more your muscles exert themselves and breakdown each day. That's not the path to getting great endurance or being hench, unlike Dragonball, IRL if you carry heavy shit for weeks on end your body just requires far more time and nutrients to heal and restock glycogen, repair tissue etc. Working out doesn't change this biomechanical fact.
The final aspect is the notion of ultralight gear being shit durability, which I think is false - some of these space age materials are just as tough as the previous generations, often with better performance. Bombproof though army surplus is, often it's clunky, overdesigned, one-size-fits-all, made for wearing over armour or using in sub zero temps or simply cheaper, heavier materials because the military hates its infantry. I like the middle path, I expect to replace my gear every 3-4 years, I don't need a backpack or tarp that can be run over with a tank like military guys do, nor do i need a shitty 0.50 cuben fibre tarp that gets holes shot through it by a hailstorm
