Backpacking Nutrition Questions

[MattC]

Does anyone know about how many calories one should take in for a day of backpacking? Obviously, there's a bunch of factors involved in this, so is there some way to estimate based on different factors?
For instance, I'm a 5'6", 140 lb. male; if I go out w/ 25-30 lbs in my pack and walk 10 miles a day, w/ say, 2500' elevation gain, about how many calories for each day would be appropriate? I know the season in which one is out would factor in as well, so for my example, we'll say it's a typical three-season outing.

I've also seen a breakdown for the percentages of calorie intake for fat/carbs/protein. Anyone recall what that is? Any opinions on all this crap? Myth-shattering facts? Wild, outlandish theories?

Matt

 

[rhihn]

Does anyone know about how many calories one should take in for a day of backpacking? Obviously, there's a bunch of factors involved in this, so is there some way to estimate based on different factors?
For instance, I'm a 5'6", 140 lb. male; if I go out w/ 25-30 lbs in my pack and walk 10 miles a day, w/ say, 2500' elevation gain, about how many calories for each day would be appropriate? I know the season in which one is out would factor in as well, so for my example, we'll say it's a typical three-season outing.

I've also seen a breakdown for the percentages of calorie intake for fat/carbs/protein. Anyone recall what that is? Any opinions on all this crap? Myth-shattering facts? Wild, outlandish theories?

Matt

Hi Matt,

These don't exactly answer your questions, but I thought they might prove interesting/wild/outlandish, etc.:

http://www.fitwatch.com/phpscripts/searchexcategories.php?category_id=06
http://www.oc.edu/staff/phil.heffington/backpackingcaloriesII.htm
http://www.oc.edu/staff/phil.heffington/FoodCalories.htm
http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist.htm
http://world.std.com/~bostonhb/docs/winterfood.htm
http://www.thru-hiker.com/articles.asp?subcat=12&cid=35

 

[MattC]

Good links. Thanks, Dick!

Matt

 

[skidoc22]

I should really be a lot thinner...

I am surprised by some of the numbers for cals per hour, especially the cycling numbers. I have always felt like I expended a boat load of energy but rarely have I seen numbers over 1000kcal per hour. I should weigh about 30# less after a summer of riding and hiking! So now we can express the hikes to our friends and others who are non hikers in terms they can understand. Instead of a 12 miler with 4500ft of vertical, I'll just say I did a 8460 calorie day in the dax

 

[DougPaul]

Freedom of the Hills, 3rd Ed (1976) has a good section on food and calorie consumption, but it has been greatly shortened in the later editions.

The Complete Walker has a good section on both topics.

Also, from a hiking nutritionist:
http://www.thru-hiker.com/articles.asp?subcat=12&cid=39

Doug

 

[Dugan]

I have a faint memory of an excellent calorie thread on AMC from a couple of years ago... some searching turned it up:

http://appalachia.outdoors.org/bbs/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=1983

I can't say how applicable to your situation, since it discusses calories in terms of peakbagging rather than backpacking.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

I've found that I need many fewer calories on a typical dayhike than I did when I was just getting into "serious" peakbagging a dozen or more years ago. Back then it was easy to put away 5 or 6K calories or more. Now, I eat only slightly more than on a non-hiking day. It's a very slow, gradual process, but seeing this progression in myself, and noticing something similar in others, I've come to the conclusion that some of these tables and formulas apply at a certain point in our fitness cycles, and at a certain point in our metabolism cycles as these (metobolic cycles) change with age.

YMMV.

 

[DougPaul]

I've found that I need many fewer calories on a typical dayhike than I did when I was just getting into "serious" peakbagging a dozen or more years ago.

There is also the issue of how often one hikes. A weekend hiker shouldn't expect to suddenly jump from, say 2000 cal/day during the week to 5000/day on the weekend. It takes a while for most people to ramp up. The weekend hiker can replace the weekend losses by eating a little more during the week.

On the other hand, if one hikes every day, then one's input will probably ramp up to match the daily losses.

Doug

 

[Pete_Hickey]

On the other hand, if one hikes every day, then one's input will probably ramp up to match the daily losses.

This is very important to relize. For example, when I have one of my cycle/climb weekends, on the first day, I'll cycle 160 miles, on the second day, I'll do about 10 hours of hiking, then cycle 40 miles, and on the third day, I cycle 120 miles. On those three days, I eat WAY less than I normally do.

When I get home, on the other hand...

The body is one hell of a calorie buffer.

 

[jfb]

Here's one guy's opinion: Eating for Endurance

 

[erugs]

Woopie pies and ice cream aside, I try to eat balanced and healthy meals (have you ever tried Quinoa?) on a regular basis. When day hiking, I mostly nibble, but find I am ravenous about two days later. (Friends at work have even noticed!) It always amazes me to see others out on a hike sit down with a full-fledged sandwich, and eat all of it.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Matt, is this is reference to the upcoming JBL trip?

Laurie and I are planning to bring the kinds of foods we usually have for breakfast and the trail. But for dinner, we're bringing 1 freeze dried dinner per person per night. The bag says it feeds 2, but we're assuming that it's more like 1, since we're usually very hungry after a hike! We're also bringing 2 desserts, just in case!

Like others have said, some of those web page numbers can be misleading. For instance, if you hiked 5 miles with no food, you might be tired and hungry, but your body would probably adjust to your exertion just fine. Your reserves would be adequate for this exertion. But if you keep hiking farther and farther, every day, the equation will start to change.