PDA

View Full Version : How many snacks per day?



Todd Kirkendol
02-22-2005, 02:10
I have been playing around with my food weight and was wondering what is a "reasonable" amount of snacks to alot per day? I am figuring 4 per day...1 snack for midmorning, 1 for lunch, 1 for midafternoon, and 1 after dinner (for desert). What I am running into is a weight issue. The weight of that many candy bars really adds up. Any suggestions on how to lighten the load and not go hungry? Is 4 candy bars a day a typical amount for other thru hikers? How many Snickers do you guys pack per day? Should I look at other "lighter" snacks like bags of chips, etc... Thanks for any input.

baseballswthrt
02-22-2005, 07:36
That sounds like a reasonable amount of snacks to me. One thing that we have found is that Bakers premium white chocolate is very calorie dense and packs small and easily. It won't crush and is 160 cal/oz. Snickers are 140 cal/oz and will get squished. We often eat a block of white chocolate for a snack on the trail or before going to bed at night on the trail when it's really cold.
I usually carry a large bag of Wise potatoe chips with me on the very top of my pack so they don't get too crushed. They are 150 cal/oz and quite a tasty alternative to most of our other backpacking food. It makes me feel like I'm getting a treat on the trail. And I can make it last 4-5 days.
Most of the time, we snack on trail mix on breaks that contains dried fruit, nuts and M&M's.

SGT Rock
02-22-2005, 08:02
I guess it depends on you and your mileage. I like 2 snickers a day for snacks, plus I ration in about an ounce of jery and an ounce of dried fruits/nuts per day and on higher milage trips I even ration in a second cold lunch.

Lobo
02-22-2005, 08:20
The amount of snacks also depends on the temperature and the terrain. A cold day of hiking up and down mountains in Georgia in February with a heavy pack would be a 4 Snickers day, while a warm day in spring hiking along an old level dirt road in the woods in Virginia would be a 2 Snickers day.

MileMonster
02-22-2005, 08:42
Does "snacks" mean lunch? It does to me. I generally take a break every 2-3 hours and eat something, 400-600 calories.

Capt Chaos
02-22-2005, 08:43
I tend to eat those snickers minatures. Then I will break for lunch and fix some ramen or something meal like. That works great for me. Plus if you break for lunch, you will force yourself to take a nice break.

Youngblood
02-22-2005, 09:37
The amount of snacks and food you carry will vary. Early on you probably won't have the legendary hiker appetite unless you are pretty thin (the hiker appetite usually kicks in after you have burnt up most of your stored body fat). At some point you need to figure how many calories a day you need to maintain energy while on the trail. I tried to get in at least 2500 calories a day on the trail and pig out in towns but I figure the only thing that kept me from starving was getting to Katahdin. I think I tried to simplify snacks as basically 250 calorie increments and also got about 500 calories at breakfast (typically oatmill with powdered milk), 500 calories at lunch (typically something with peanut butter) and 500 calories at dinner (typically Ramens or Liptons with powdered milk, olive oil and/or cheese). I think that adds up to 4 snacks to get to 2500 calories... it wasn't enough later on and I would just add more candy bars or crackers or whatever I could get and felt like eating at the time.

Trust me, you will figure out something as you go. I remember in Maine that I packed a bag of marshmellows since I had not had any roasted marshmellows on my hike-- my hiking buddy and I ate those in about 10 minutes before we every thought about starting a fire and roasting them. Pure sugar and we couldn't get enough.

Youngblood

Footslogger
02-22-2005, 09:40
During my thru I found myself wanting/needing a snack about every 2 - 3 hours on average. I carried an assortment of things to snack on. There were of course the Snicker Bars (generally 2/day) and I also carried the plastic tubes of nuts (my personal favorite were the Honey Roasted variety). The tubes of nuts are generally at the check outs in grocery/convenient stores along the trail. Last but not least was licorice, my hard candy (personal favorite were the lemon drops) and gummi bears. Basically just sugar and fast energy but a nice break from the monotony. I typcially carried some of the mini Snickers too and ate a few for dessert after dinner.

'Slogger
AT 2003

Peaks
02-26-2005, 18:49
I guess it depends on you and your mileage. I like 2 snickers a day for snacks, plus I ration in about an ounce of jery and an ounce of dried fruits/nuts per day and on higher milage trips I even ration in a second cold lunch.

Like the Rock says, it all depends. At the start of a long distance hike, I didn't snack too much. However, when the appetite kicks in, then I was snacking all day long. So, I'm sure the quantity of daily snacks depends on what else you are eating. Your body demands 4000 calories per day. So, either provide that with meals or with snacks.

Fiddleback
02-26-2005, 19:49
PayDays are nearly indestructable and come in @ about 140c/oz. Peanut butter and honey (or brown sugar...try it, you'll like it!) sandwichs (cut in fourths) come in at about 125c/oz and who cares if they get smushed a bit. I also spray Pam on walnut/pecan/cashew pieces, salt them down (try various flavorings) and roast for a few minutes. Good calorie-to-weight ratio there, too. I like to take a 10 minute break from hiking every 50 minutes and have one of the above snacks.

I find when I fix trail snax/gorp I end up carrying way too much. Both ingress and egress...:(

FB

Mouse
02-26-2005, 21:31
Starting about 2 hours after breakfast I snacked once an hour. My favorites were Balance Bars, Semisweet baking chocolate squares, snickers bars and string cheese.

I started with Gorp in the morning and the other things in the afternoon because they were easier to eat in afternoon thunderstorms than Gorp. But Gorp turned out to be the one food I truly got tired of, perhaps because of all the chewing.

jackiebolen
02-26-2005, 21:38
After a few hundred miles I got rid of my stove and just went with cold food. Then everything basically became a snack and I had no real set meal times. I ate pretty much every hour or so and it was delightful. I found that eating less food more often worked better for me.

grrickar
02-26-2005, 21:50
Try carrying some small packs of sunflower seeds (or just the kernels), chex mix (doesn't get busted up like chips would), Slim Jims, and Zone Perfect bars. The Zone Perfect bars are lighter than Snickers, and taste almost as good to me, plus they have some extra vitamins and protein. Fruit leather, froot by the foot, or fruit rollups are light and make nice snacks. As another post indicated Payday candy bars won't melt and won't get broken up in your pack. Neither will one of my favorites: Bit o' Honeys

neo
02-27-2005, 00:16
i gotta have plenty snacks on 25 mile days:jump neo

fatmatt
02-27-2005, 01:01
I tend to eat many snacks, I could eat at every break I take if I wanted. Hence my name. :D