Quote Originally Posted by HankIV View Post
I thought the part on one of the Gear Skeptic vides where he compare the weight cost of low cal density food to a tent was pretty thought provoking. It makes sense what Big Dog says about you can’t just snap into a high fat diet either.
Aside from wearing out your deuce of spades, your body won't assimilate a 70% fat diet immediately but the one point to mention would be a more critical importance of electrolytes on a high fat diet.

Gear Skeptic wrote or said somewhere (on his spreadsheet?) that he carries 15-20 oz of food per day or 2400-3000 calories....or something like 150-160 calories per oz. A key and subtle point that is lost? People adept at burning fat can "under consume" during longer carries. For instance, if someone goes from NOC or to Standing Bear Hostel on the other side of GSMNP, a distance of 105 miles. 2-2.5 pounds per day of food on this back would kill it. 1-1.25 pounds per day is doable. The downside is a loss of 3-5 pounds of fat from my old carcass to be replaced with ample eating of bacon double cheeseburgers layered with cheese in the future (cardiac calcium CT score = 0.....no worries). If I am properly fit and adapted, I will feel no power or energy loss and actually would likely feel really great. People who mostly burn sugar at low intensity of exercise would feel like absolute crap and would bonk, so, getting the maximum calories per ounce isn't a simple panacea if your body hasn't gotten used to burning it. Often recommended are shakedown hikes, probably a good idea for big food changes. There is one "energy" bar that I like but for some reason if I eat it during exercise, it gives me diarrhea....100% always...pretty sure it is garbage oil they use. I tend to think of food functionally as gear. Fuel. A little maltodextrin, table sugar, or highly branched cyclic dextirn (for the spendy crowd) with minerals added into the water bottle isn;t ultralight but is ultra easy to maintain energy levels.....I am surprised hikers do not add carbs of some sort to their water.

Now that I understand Fontana commercial facilities are back in business (?), I could and should change my plan.