He’s Out Of Shape And Doesn’t Hike Fast Enough For His Girlfriend’s Liking, And Now She’s Upset About It

Matthew Gilligan

4 months ago

Shutterstock/Reddit

I guess some things just aren’t meant to be…

And some couples definitely aren’t on the same page about certain things.

The fella who wrote the following story on Reddit is having some serious conflict with his girlfriend about the great outdoors and he wants to know if he’s doing anything wrong.

Get all the details below and see what you think!

AITA for hiking “too slowly”?

“I (28M) am on a week-long vacation to Washington state with my girlfriend (28F) of 7 years.

This is our first big trip in a couple years and we are here for a little over a week to explore the Pacific Northwest (for me, the first time). The goals of the trip were to see Seattle for a couple days, then take a rental car and explore the Olympic peninsula (Olympic National park) and then Mt. Rainier national park.

There’s an issue…

We both enjoy hiking and have been on many long hikes together before. The problem has never been that we both enjoy hiking but that I do not hike at the same pace as she does.

My girlfriend has always been in great shape; she’s skinny, eats very light (rarely has sugar or fast food) and exercises regularly, even completing a marathon last year.

I, on the other hand, am not in shape and I have never been in truly great shape my entire life. I love to eat and thus I have gained about 40 pounds since high school. I have maintained at 200 pounds for the past couple years and luckily haven’t gained more.

I exercise and go to the gym and on walks a few times a week, but I counteract it by over-eating and eating processed foods. Because of this, I’m not a fast person and hiking takes a lot out of me, despite enjoying it.

These two are having some problems…

Sure I’m not happy with my weight, but I don’t dwell on it a ton. My girlfriend is a different story. She constantly reminds me that I’m too big, that I have a belly and that it makes me look unattractive. She points out when my clothes are too tight and looks at me in disgust.

To bring it back to hiking, it has always been an issue that I go slower on hikes than she does. When it comes to heavy incline, I struggle and I’m out of breath, and I tend to need multiple breaks.

This ****** off my girlfriend to the point where she will yell at me, stop talking to me the rest of the hike and sometimes ditch me all together. On a hike this week, she even got mad at me because I was “stomping my feet too hard” and gave me the silent treatment.

On this latest trip to Washington, she has planned mostly moderate hikes because of me but has one hike rated “hard” for a couple days from now at Mt. Rainier.

He’s worried about what’s next.

Over dinner she brought it up and I said that I would gladly do the hike but I asked her to please not get mad at me if I take it slow during the strenuous portions (this hike we are doing is 5 miles and the first 2 miles are very difficult incline hiking).

I’m nervous to do the hike but I want to do it for her and the both of us.

When I told her this she blew up at me, saying that she has been planning this for months and that she expected me to be in better shape and that I should just “be faster”. We are currently in other rooms of the rental house and she won’t talk to me.

I understand it is wrong of me to not be in better shape, but it hurts my feelings to constantly be ridiculed like this for reasons that seem minor in the grand scheme.”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person spoke up.