Calories

[blazercoach]

For a 50 day section hike (Nobo from Springer), what is a recommended number of daily calories?

I'll be 40, a tiny bit overweight for my frame at 175 and plan to hike around 15 miles per day in the summer. Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

[BirdBrain]

Very few people actually calculate an accurate calorie count of the food they carry. Many will straight face the amounts and make exaggerated guesses of 4 or 5 thousand calories. I just plugged my diet into the my fitness pal app and got 3302 calories. I am a gram weenie with OCD. I choose foods for calories density not dining pleasure. My meal selection is very consistent. I would be surprised if people are carrying much more than my estimate because many carry for taste and do not stress over calorie densities like I do. I pig out at resupply locations.

I should note that I am not positive of the total. The app had trouble with one of my food items. I suspect it might be lower. I will check when I get home.

[Fredt4]

In my 2011 AT thru-hike I tried to carry 3200 calories per day. I lost one pound per week and averaged 18 miles per day with one zero day per week.

[Wolf - 23000]

Don't forget to include your pack-weight. A hiker carrying around 50 pounds on his/her back will eat more calories than a hiker carry around 20 pounds.

Also what stretch are you planning on hiking? Some parts of the trail are more difficult than others, requiring different calories intake.

Wolf

[MuddyWaters]

I m not hungry for more than 3500 or so of trail foos. I lose 3 lb/wk weight if i dont pig out in town.

[shelb]

My last hike, I was 5'3" and 190 pounds (more than a "tad bit" overweight). I had hiked for several years prior at lower weights.

My diet for hikes that lasted up to 12 days (NOTE: do not go with this for longer hikes!)
Breakfast - oatmeal (1-2 packets) OR Granola bar (Then - I chose cheap ones; now, I would choose high protein bars)
Snack - Granola bar, crackers, or jerkey (then - I chose cheap granola bar or cheese/cracker or PB/cracker) Now, I would look for higher protein items
Lunch: Tuna Fish in a packet with crackers
Snack: Trailmix
Dinner: Ramen or Lipton Soup mix plus a meat (beef stick, jerkey, tuna, or chicken)

[shelb]

Sorry, I didn't address you original question about calories...
I am guessing that question still applies to me....
I had bariatric surgery this year....
My focus on food for this June is not about calories...
It is about protein. I need to make sure I get 60-90 grams of protein in a day. The rest can be calories...

[colorado_rob]

Actual documented numbers (so I'd know how much to carry) I consume right at the mid-3000 calorie range, call it 3500, for no weight loss, for summer hiking 18-ish miles a day, weighing 175 pounds.

[garlic08]

I have a fairly active metabolism and have never been able to gain any extra weight. I start my hikes and bike tours with no extra body fat. I find I need a 4000 calorie a day diet to support my 20-mile days with lots of climbing, typically. With a good town meal or two every week, I can maintain that pace over a season and not lose any noticeable muscle mass. On the AT, I actually gained weight in the mid-Atlantic states, with less climbing and during what I called the "diner-a-day tour"--ten consecutive days of restaurants!

As mentioned above, there are many variables in energy needs. In addition to pack weight and the trail profile, there's the weather, your metabolism, your body fat content, your hiking experience (are you struggling on rocks or dancing over them confidently?), the phase of the moon, and how your part your hair.

[Marta]

For shorter hikes, I like to lay out my food day by day and package them in gallon bags. "Sunday" "Monday" "Tuesday" etc. It's always interesting to add up the calories in the piles of food. I aim for 3000. The totals of the original piles is almost always much less. 1500 is not unusual for a breakfast, a dinner, and an assortment of who looks like a lot of snacks. Especially these days when a lot of packaged snacks trumpet how few calories they contain--"only 90 calories!--getting to 3000 can be hard.

I also like to add up grams of protein in the daily pile. I want breakfast to have 30 and supper to have 30, with another 30 scattered throughout the day.

I rarely feel like carrying more than 3000 calories per day, and prefer to make up the difference in town.

[BirdBrain]

For shorter hikes, I like to lay out my food day by day and package them in gallon bags. "Sunday" "Monday" "Tuesday" etc. It's always interesting to add up the calories in the piles of food. I aim for 3000. The totals of the original piles is almost always much less. 1500 is not unusual for a breakfast, a dinner, and an assortment of who looks like a lot of snacks. Especially these days when a lot of packaged snacks trumpet how few calories they contain--"only 90 calories!--getting to 3000 can be hard.

I also like to add up grams of protein in the daily pile. I want breakfast to have 30 and supper to have 30, with another 30 scattered throughout the day.

I rarely feel like carrying more than 3000 calories per day, and prefer to make up the difference in town.

That is an honest take. I found it very difficult to get over 3000 calories at a reasonable carry weight. I am happy to see answers in that range. That tells me the guessing is diminishing and people are actually measuring. Look at calorie densities to get enough calories at a reasonable carry weight. You will be surprised at what you see. Things with water in them will disappear from your pack. There are many other nutritional needs that you should consider as you count those calories. However, that is outside the scope of your question.

[blazercoach]

Thank you all for the feedback! Looks like 3000+ will be about right. Shelb, thanks for the breakdown. I have planned something along those lines. Wolf, I'm hoping to make it as far as Waynesboro, with Damascus as an absolute minimum. I'll be hiking with my 12 year old son as well.

[peakbagger]

I think most long distance hikers undereat during the week and overeat in town. I found that it took about two to three weeks sectioning before the metabolism really kicked in.

[RockDoc]

You'll never eat enough to equal your daily calorie burn, but you don't have to because part of long distance hiking is training your body to burn fat for energy. In fact, it's arguable that fat is a superior fuel. However, if you eat high carb you are turning off your body's fat burning system.
There's a lot to read about the subject; look for LCHF for endurance athletes. Last year's winner of the Western States 100 mile ultramarathon ate mostly fat, very few carbs. We were sold a barge of poop about the high carb diet being preferable (it is not, and has made many of us fat and sick); read what running author Tim Noakes has to say about it.

[Malto]

1 calorie per lb of total weight per mile. If your total all in weight is 200 and you're doing 15mpd it would total about 3000. Many of the answers above fall very close to that range. You very likely will eat less at the beginning.

[Malto]

You'll never eat enough to equal your daily calorie burn, but you don't have to because part of long distance hiking is training your body to burn fat for energy. In fact, it's arguable that fat is a superior fuel. However, if you eat high carb you are turning off your body's fat burning system.
There's a lot to read about the subject; look for LCHF for endurance athletes. Last year's winner of the Western States 100 mile ultramarathon ate mostly fat, very few carbs. We were sold a barge of poop about the high carb diet being preferable (it is not, and has made many of us fat and sick); read what running author Tim Noakes has to say about it.

And you can find a hundred writers that would contradict everything you just said.

[colorado_rob]

Thank you all for the feedback! Looks like 3000+ will be about right. Shelb, thanks for the breakdown. I have planned something along those lines. Wolf, I'm hoping to make it as far as Waynesboro, with Damascus as an absolute minimum. I'll be hiking with my 12 year old son as well.

Wait!!!! You didn't mention the 12 yo son before... that would be, if anything my son when he was 12, about 9000 calories per day for him alone..... :-)

I beg to differ RockDoc; my 3500 number is without any weight loss, though I suppose if you burn fat and replace with muscle, slightly denser than fat I think, you may be partially right. BTW: my 3500 number is actually more like in the low 3000's when on trail, 4004-5000 in town once a week, averaging the 3500 or so.

[blazercoach]

Again, thank you. I hadn't really figured in the in-town meals (figuring we'd gorge at those opportunities) but I suppose I should and get a weekly average. I guess it's not too bad to fluctuate intake with in-town meals?

As for the 12 year old, I am happy for any insight. I figured that I would treat him like me in terms of calories needs. He has lean muscle, like his daddy and his metabolism is still on over-drive. I figured on adding 20-30% on top of my calorie load for his needs.

[Marta]

12-year-olds can be almost anything, from fairly light eaters to amazing chow hounds. I remember my youngest son rolling on the floor, crying, when he was about that age. I asked him what the matter was. He said, "I'm always hungry. Even when I've just eaten I'm still hungry."

When my older son was in college and we'd go hiking in the NC mountains, we talked about making him a helmet like those beer-dispensing helmets, that would feed a steady stream of Peanut M&Ms into his mouth to keep his strength up.

Unfortunately with kids they get very cranky without even realizing that the real problem is that they're hungry. If I were you, I'd definitely plan an hourly rest break in which you offer up at least 150-200 calories in snacks to your son. It's not a bad plan for you, too, to keep your strength, energy, and mental attitude up.

[map man]

I'm 6'0", 165 pounds, and hiking 15 miles per day in the southern Appalachians (where you will be) it takes 4200 calories per day for me to maintain the same weight. If I do 3700 calories/day I lose a pound or two per week. I do no gorging in town but keep up the same regimented diet each day whether on the trail or in town.

Consider two hypothetical hikers who both cover 80 miles in 5 days:

Hiker A hikes twenty miles per day for 4 days and then takes a zero day. Hiker A consumes 3000 calories/day on the four hiking days and gorges 8000 calories during the one zero day -- this is not unusual behavior for a long distance hiker. That makes 20,000 calories total.

Hiker B hikes 16 miles per day for 5 days. Hiker B consumes 4000 calories each of the 5 days for the same 20,000 calorie total.

I am convinced that hiker A will lose more weight than hiker B, even though hiker B has to carry more food weight in his backpack. Running up a calorie deficit on the trail and then gorging in town will make less efficient use of the calories consumed. That's my gut feeling anyway. I understand why people do it but it's not efficient.

I'm also convinced that using the slow-drip method, eating throughout the day, is more efficient than eating on a breakfast, lunch, dinner schedule.