Food weight question

[Train Wreck 2]

So I finished bagging and weighing my food for mail drop. I'm afraid that I may be packing too much food though. Everything that I have for the trail is a dehydrated fruit, veggie, nut, legume, a few grains (quinoa and barley) or meat.
Should I go by the dehydrated weight of the veggies or the the hydrated weight?

[Alligator]

Are you asking so that you can estimate weight amount per day?

I just lay out my food by day: breakfast, lunch, pre-dinner, dinner, post-dinner snack, and daily snacks.

[Train Wreck 2]

I understand that it should be about 1.5 to 2lbs of food a day. Dehydrated foods are dense calorically and nutritionaly though and I was wondering if I should plan by approximating the wet weight of the food. A lb of assorted dried veggies is a lot of veggies that's why I ask.

[_terrapin_]

There's no hard/fast rule. You'll learn as you go. Your appetite and tastes will change as you go. This is only an "issue" for folks trying to plan out food drops for a complete thru-hike... one of the reasons I've given up on food drops. But I can see where someone unfamiliar with the trail would be worried... I'm planning a week or so on the PCT this summer and find myself back to "old" concerns that no longer bother me on the AT.

[Train Wreck 2]

I'm planning drops for the entire AT so the boxes can be altered before they are mailed out I suppose, I just figure that the closer I get to accurate the less hassle it will be for basecamp. I'm not worried about starving or anything because I'll eat out of a dumpster if it comes to that. I'm lying... I'll eat out of a dumpster if the fare is decent. Just trying to minimize the calls back home.

[Appalachian Tater]

If all of your food is dehydrated, two pounds will kill you if you try to eat that much. Go by hydrated weight. A pound of dehydrated broccoli probably doesn't weigh three ounces. I do it the way Alligator does but lump lunch and snacks into one category of the same foods, plus breakfast and dinner, and always at least one extra meal, even if it's just a pack of ramen.

There are always bags of unidentifiable legumes and grains spilling their contents in hiker boxes. I'm not sure why.

[Alligator]

I would say that what people are estimating as their food weight per day is the actual weight of the food. Most people have selected hiker foods and are not upping their weights based on hydration.

[Train Wreck 2]

That's what I was hoping. Thanks for your helps.

[Alligator]

If all of your food is dehydrated, two pounds will kill you if you try to eat that much...I agree with that, I plan on 4 oz of a dehydrated meal as dinner. 2lbs would be 8 dinners:eek:. But I also only eat one per day usually, rarely two. If one is a lunch, I go with 3 oz. I don't actually know how much a dinner would weigh hydrated.

[Christopher Robin]

I'm planing on the some way, & what I have been doing is getting ideas from dehydrated recipes for amounts needed for different meals. This way I have some way to make sure I have a good meal or two. I looked up "backpacking & recipes on a search engine for ideas.

[Mrs Baggins]

I was concerned about my food bag weight but maybe it's okay. I don't eat anywhere near the variety of foods I see other people talk about so I can't imagine I'm carrying too much. I'll be out for 6 days. The NOC, my 1/2 way, apparently doesn't have the kind of stuff I'd resupply and I don't want to bother with a mail drop. So here's my menu for each day:

Breakfast every day:
1 pkt instant oats topped with dried fruit and nuts
1 coffee tea bag

Lunch every day:
tortilla wrap
Chunk tuna from the little foil pkts
cheese slices cut from single block of Irish Cheddar

Dinner:
Lipton Side (all repacked into baggies)
Cooked seasoned chicken from foil pkt

Snack:
2 Snicker Charged bars each day.

That's it. No extra seasonings, butter, oil, etc. I'll eat a big meal at the NOC with veggies and all.

[budforester]

I was concerned about my food bag weight but maybe it's okay. I don't eat anywhere near the variety of foods I see other people talk about so I can't imagine I'm carrying too much. I'll be out for 6 days. The NOC, my 1/2 way, apparently doesn't have the kind of stuff I'd resupply and I don't want to bother with a mail drop. So here's my menu for each day:

Breakfast every day:
1 pkt instant oats topped with dried fruit and nuts
1 coffee tea bag

Lunch every day:
tortilla wrap
Chunk tuna from the little foil pkts
cheese slices cut from single block of Irish Cheddar

Dinner:
Lipton Side (all repacked into baggies)
Cooked seasoned chicken from foil pkt

Snack:
2 Snicker Charged bars each day.

That's it. No extra seasonings, butter, oil, etc. I'll eat a big meal at the NOC with veggies and all.


Too lean for me, Mrs Baggins. I'd eat everything in sight at NOC and, as appetite increases, would be absolutely dangerous by day 6. But with more coffee and a big sack of GORP, I might get by.

[Compass]

I always figure based on dehydrated weight. The only thing I carry hydrated is water.

Dry foods with some pasta or rice, dry vegtables, frieze dried meat, and some oil will have a weight to calorie ratio of 110 calories per ounce (110 cal/oz). Example the average Mountain House meal is similar to 560 calories and weigh 5.1 oz = (109.8 cal/oz).

Therefore 1.5 pounds is 24 ounces and has approximately (24 x 110) 2640 calories. A starvation diet for a hiker. If I work at eating 4000 calories a day for a week with about 140 miles I only loose a couple of pounds.

I have seen some hikers eat like birds on the trail and do fine but that requires often zeroes in town to refuel.