Thru-hike diet questions

[rafe]

Proteins are for the body's internal self-maintenance, especially when it's being used hard or abused, as on a thru-hike. You can't rebuild or reinforce bones or muscles with pure carbs. Carbs are for energy. Oddly enough, it's not just your aching legs that need the energy, your brain accounts for about 25% of your body's energy budget.

When you get back to town craving milk or ice cream -- that's your body wanting protein.

[lemon b]

Everyone is different. I'm over 60, live close to trail. About 200 miles before or after Whites. Have meet and know lots of people who do and have done long hikes. Have done a lot myself. Food is always a topic of discussion usually as in what they want to eat next and when. No getting around it.

[Spirit Walker]

I never worried about calories etc. when hiking. I just bought food that appealed, and if it wasn't enough to fill me up, the next time I went to town, I bought more or different. Your body will tell you what it needs. You'll see what others are carrying, try it, and if you like it you'll buy it the next time around. (i.e. Fritos.) You will also get a lot of your calories in town. On the AT, that is extremely easy, since you pass near towns on a very frequent basis. I only lost about 5-10 pounds on any of my 5 LD hikes. My husband lost 40+. He had more to lose, plus he's male, plus he won't eat when he's really tired. What we found was that eating more protein helped make us feel more full. I eat nuts, he doesn't, so protein came in the form of tuna, salmon, ham, chicken, sausage, spam, cheese, etc.

I carried a multi-vitamin because we were very low on fruits and vegetables during our hikes. Even in town, it was hard to get much of value to fill the gap. It also turned out I wasn't getting enough calcium. Most multis aren't much help there.

[Harrison Bergeron]

I planned the section I did last year for years, and thought I had figured it all out -- how I was going to use grocery store food (mostly Knorrs sides pepperoni and olive oil and tuna packets and Peanut Butter) the whole way. When I got on the trail, nothing I'd planned worked. Dried grocery store food generally needs more boiling time at 4000 ft than I was willing to give it. The pepperoni and olive oil was a mess. PBJ worked OK, but it was heavy. I suffered for the first week until I made it to Neels, where I switched to Mountain House.

I can't imagine trying to use drop-boxes. It's just too hard to plan your stops. Who wants to keep a schedule anyway? You're on vacation!

I was concerned about the cost an availability of prepackaged trail food, but it turned out to not be a factor. Nearly all the trail towns have an outfitter or Walmart where you can get Mountain House. And until your appetite really kicks in and you find yourself eating the whole 2.5 servings at one sitting, it's actually not even that much more expensive. My only complaint was sometimes I couldn't get my beloved Chili-mac.

It's tough to keep up with the 4-5000 calories a day, no matter what you do. You're going to lose weight.

But my advice is skip all the heavy planning and just surrender to the Mountain House diet.

[Venchka]

I have serious concerns about the sodium content in all of the add boiling water and eat food. Knoor, freeze dried, and all the rest.
I may try to live on hot instant grains and carefully selected Boone, Kind, Lara and Cliff bars. Krave jerky and dried fruit.

Wayne


Sent from somewhere around here.

[Dogwood]

Hello WB! This is my first post;

My other question was about vitamins. I've been doing a lot of searching about the pros/cons, and I think based on the fact that I'm anemic it would make sense for me to take a multi + iron, and a fish oil as well. I'm only planning on having maybe three maildrops if possible, so I guess the only option is to just buy a bottle and carry the whole thing, for both? I could do a bounce box, but starting out I'd like to be as un-teathered to going to post offices/having to work out those logistics as possible...

Willkommen.

Sounds like taking a multi + iron and quality fish oil could be a good idea for you. Personally, I take a rather large dose of a high quality fish oil(Nordic Naturals) and Krill oil supplements every day both on and off trail. It is important to consume high quality fish oil if you are going to supplement with it. No need to bounce these as they are both common supplements you will find along the way at least every 30 days on the AT to buy inexpensively in small bottles of about 30 days supply per bottle in med-large grocery stores. Since a multi+Fe and Fish Oil gels normally look very different and supplements are often packaged in much larger bottles than the pill's volume you could condense them all into one bottle or safely double Ziploc them into individual bags to save even more volume. Storing liquid fish oils separately from the multis isn't a bad idea in case one of the fish oil gels leak. Put all the moisture absorbing packets in one bottle w/ the pills. BTW, fish oil is basically fat - good fats - contributing calories to your diet. I'd guess about 10-40 cals per day depending on the dosage.

[Puddlefish]

Apologies if my information is outdated. There's a lot of conflicting ideas out there. The way I understand it is many vitamins require additional compounds/chemicals to be absorbed properly by the body. In short, taking a multi vitamin alone is rather useless, unless accompanied by the proper nutrients. Pills taken alone tend to largely wash right through you.

Vitamins on the trail might be better than nothing, but if you're subsisting exclusively on pop tarts and twinkies, the vitamins probably won't help much. It's worth it to learn about just eating generally healthy foods. This will differ a bit when on the trail and off the trail.

[Miel]

Don't forget Vitamin C! Scurvy has become the stealth illness of college students and others who should know better, and it's on the rise. Of course, dried fruit, dried other things etc. will take care of a lot of that.

[q-tip]

I have a number of food/nutrition spreadsheets, if interested send me a pm with your email

[Trance]

Try as you may..... you'll end up losing weight unless you zero too often.

[CamelMan]

Proteins burn kinda "dirty" in the body when relied on for energy, producing all sorts of by-products. Simple sugars are what our muscles need to operate and later to replace their depleted glycogens.

People will say that eating lots of sugars give them a energy jolt, then a quick crash.

Excess protein is converted into glucose in the gluconeogenesis process, and just like any other glucose either used or stored. But this is not efficient and any source of lean protein will still leave you starving for energy. ("Rabbit starvation".) I cringe every time I see somebody on one of those outdoor survival shows (Naked & Afraid comes to mind) complaining about the lack of protein, when in reality only carbs or fat (and preferably carbs) will give them energy and halt the starvation. Nitrogen balance studies agree with WHO recommendations about 0.8 g/kg lean mass for sedentary people, more like 1.2-1.4 for endurance athletes like long-distance hikers.

I power myself with starch and sugar. Oatmeal for breakfast, dried fruit for snacks, instant mashed potatoes for lunch, rice and lentils for dinner. I eat the thermogenic protein heavy stuff before bed. During the day, instant mashed potatoes are rocket fuel. There's even amylase right in the box so they're pre-digested. I remember stopping at shelters just to cook, then 1/2 hr later I would feel them taking effect and could move on, feeling renewed.

My first bonk experience was on the LHHT. I just wasn't hungry enough to make up the glycogen loss by eating whole foods.

[dudeijuststarted]

I came back far too underweight. What I did not do is carry enough fats, so I suggest always having a fatty cheese, nuts, and some olive oil to add to your meals. I also came back anemic. This can be a side effect of long-term endurance activities. A nutritionist has since advised that I take high fat foods when I hike, as well as taking a multivitamin with iron. Trust me, it is worth the extra grams in your pack.

Moving forward I will be using a bouncebox containing:

* Green vibrance: micronutrients and probiotics which can be added to a smoothie or fruit juice on recovery / zero days.
* Glucosamine / chondroitin: a little joint recovery for rest / zero days. These nutrients help hydrate your ligaments and connective tissues when taken with lots of water.
* Multivitamins w/ iron: restocking my pack between maildrops. These are not an option for me to skip anymore.
* Dehydrated meats
* Dehydrated fruits
* Dehydrated veggies

I must also be mindful to not resort to sugars too much for carbohydrates, and cook appropriate meals every time possible. If this requires waking up earlier and hiking a little later to make daily miles, so be it. You can use requestatest.com during a long-distance / thru hike to have your vitamin levels and comprehensive metabolic panel done. This should be available from any town that has a labcorp nearby. Take care of your body.

[atstudy16]

Hi! Seeing how this is a post on diet I thought it would be appropriate to mention a research project I am working with as a student researcher at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire.

We are going to be looking at changes in hiker's body and diet over their course of thru-hiking the AT. We will be flying down to Hot Springs, NC in early May to test hikers and then have them retested in Hanover, NH when they pass by again near Colby-Sawyer.

Please e-mail me privately on here or at [email protected] if you have any questions or advice on how to get thru-hiker participants! Thanks!

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