Something else to consider. Since you are just starting out you will not have the hiker hunger and will not eat as much food as you would if you had been hiking a month or two.
Assuming you do not have heavy low calorie food like fresh fruit or vegs that have water weight in them, I think you will find that 1.5 to 2 pounds of dry (dehydrated or freeze dried) foods will be enough to keep you from being hungry on trail, especially if some of the dry food is high in fat (cheese, nuts, nut butters, oils, etc). If you are not overweight and do not have body fat to help fuel your furnace (or you do but lose the excess fat along the trail), you may need to go to 2 to 2.5 pounds of food per day.
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1) Did you eat all you took last time?Originally Posted by TSWisla
2) We all carry our fears and the fear of running out of food is one of the most ubiquitous fears we have on the trail.
3) If you didn't eat all your food last time, plan on shorting yourself a day's food the next time and see how it works out. What you will likely discover is that you will finish eating the snacks and meals that you managed to get by not eating last time and still don't run out of food. If you run out of food, the goal of this exercise, you will discover how freeing and powerful feeling it is to know that, even if a bit uncomfortable, running out of food is no more a big deal that running into a rain storm when you have the gear and the experience to manage it well. Sure, it's uncomfortable, and taken to the extreme can be dangerous, but a day or two without food isn't particularly dangerous.
4) If you are uncomfortable going to a day without food on the trail, start at home. Pull a 24 hr fast on your next day off and go hiking and have fun with just water to fill your stomach. It's really not to horribly bad. Heck, it can be downright religious.
5) Of course, if you know you are a day short on food, you can always plan ahead a bit and save a bit of food from your previous days to help hold you through your fasting day. But, don't cheat and bring more than you think is the right amount for each day just so you have some left over.
Finally, if your current trip is not one you want to use for personal food training, don't get all worked up about a couple extra pounds and bring the food you want, promising yourself that you will plan some overnight trips in the future with the specific goal of training yourself for minimalist food carrying and consumption.
Go have fun.
I'm not lost. I'm exploring.
All great info, thank you. I did calculate that I had about 3200 cal/day. I am trying to force myself to eat because I have been cold at night and I felt that it was due in most part to poor nutrition.
Good idea. Also, a quick way to warm up your bag is to do pushups in it.
Without knowing the particulars, and please tell us the details, my money is on your sleeping system or you are a cold sleeper. It’s a vicious cycle. You sleep cold. You need a better sleeping system. You need hot food at bedtime. You need a stove.
I could go on.
Back to your food bag. Were you able to eat all 3,200 calories in a day? Another guess on my part: You’re getting too much “teaching” from the internet. Learn by doing for yourself. We are all different. Find out what works for you.
Cheers!
Wayne
You say you're struggling with the food weight, but nowhere did you tell us how much your food weighs! If that's your daily food, and it satisfies you and keeps you moving, that's the main objective. How much does it weigh?
Ditto on the "you need a better sleep system if your cold, not more food". If you have to force yourself to eat, then you don't need it. It could actually be counter productive, having to digest that food. Unless it's mostly pure sugar. I like to have a couple of cookies before bed.
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I did not weigh my food bag, but it is bulky and heavy as hell. There is a lot of good information here for me to ponder. Thank you again.
Were you?... I found it difficult to keep up with a 3,000 calorie diet hiking the JMT where I was averaging 13 miles and 2,500' climb per day (but I also lost about 1/3 pound of body weight per day).
Am I reading this right that this is a food per day list? I didn't make it past the 4.5 cups of gorp per day. This just seems way too much to me. Even during my worst hiker hunger I don't think I could have eaten that much gorp.
2 1/4 cups of gorp per day. That does seem like a lot.
So what’s the fallacy?
I dehydrated all my dinners for the entire AT. No nutrition lost and reduced my daily food weight considerably.
So what’s the fallacy?
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My two cents.
1) way too much fat. Unless you are in single digit body fat % you have plenty of fat to burn. Your body needs carbs not fat, it has plenty for a short hike like the GSMNP?
2) you have said if you ate all that food. If you didn't, then cut out what you didn't eat. When your body is stressed you generally don't eat as much. It takes long distance hikers a couple weeks for hiker hunger to kick in.
3) you didn't say anything about your energy level when you hiked. If everything was good then why change. If it's just to go lighter than cut out the fat per 1 above.
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I am 5'10", 150 lbs. I have very little fat. Previously, I took very lean foods, no carbs, mostly high protein. I was a little gassed. This last time, with the about daily food, I had plenty of energy. Where is there too much fat in what I brought? I will certainly ditch the Jelly Bellies, but the rest was nuts and lean foods in general, I thought...
I will certainly cut down on the Gorp, maybe that was my problem.
Chocolate
Very informative and helpful thread. Thanks.
I am wondering about chocolate selection -- thinking of trying out a chocolate high in flavanols, which is supposed to help with blood flow. Has anyone tried these guys out? https://flavanaturals.com/ The bars look to have about the same calories per gram as M&M and are super high in flavanols.
Just to throw it out there. The other issue I have had/seen with GORP is that the mice/rats/squirrels really seem to like nuts and they destroyed multiple bags to get to them. This was with bags hung correctly and on bear cables as well. I started carrying pringles and have since swapped to fritos scoops as they are a bit more dense and I don't seem to tire of them. They double as a fire starter if needed as well.
AT: 695.7 mi
Benton MacKaye Trail '20
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It is amazing how mice can zero in on exactly where the nuts are in a food bag and chew a hole directly to them.
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Other than the insane amount of GORP you are carrying I don't see too many places to cut back.
Eat when you are hungry, not to force it down. Improve your sleep system. I have to carry a 10* bag because I get cold, even at 30*.
My daily food this year:
Breakfast: Two 180 calorie granola bars
Snack: Peanut M&Ms
Lunch: Jerky, cheese sticks x2, cookies
Snack: Nuts/chips
Dinner: FD or dehydrated meal, pack of cookies
This weighed in at about 7lbs for 7 days in the Wind River Range
I learned a lot last year that I was taking too much food. I struggle to eat in the first day or two and want something in my pack that is actually yummy, not good for me so I actually ingest SOME calories. I am certainly in a place I can't really afford to lose any weight at all and I still lost some in the WRR somehow. But I also won't force myself to eat.
Every word is true.
OP: If you don’t have a kitchen scale get one.
One thing I have found that makes filling my food bag quick and easy is buying food in single serving packaging. It may cost more, but makes my life easier.
Clif, Lara & Kind bars, 2/day
Krave Jerky, Various flavors. ~ 2 ounces/day
Summer Sausage, 1.75 ounces each, every other day
String cheese. 1-2/day
Planter’s Nuts, 1.75 ounce package, 1/day
70% Cocoa, Lindt brand 1 bar.
Mountain House & Good To-Go individual meals.
One more thing:
Food for a week is actually food for 6 days. 5 full days and two half days.
Wayne
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