The Mc Donald Cheeseburger Diet

[Miner]

I often carry fast food for short backpacking trips (usuallly 2-3 days, but occasionally a 4 day hike); Usually McDoubles (or any hamburger without mayo) and Beef Burritos (without sour cream) with the occasional deli sandwich. I prefer to mix up my fast food on a trip to avoid getting sick of the same thing. Stopping at a drive thru or two makes it easy to buy your food for a trip while on the road to the trailhead. The amount or preservatives and spices (in the case of burritos) insures they will last several days. Even cold they taste better than most backpacking food. But for longer trips or stretches between resupply, I may carry out something for the 1st day, but the rest of my food is more typical backpacking food.

There is no way I'd want to hike for several months eating the same thing all the time. As an American, it would likely take longer to get sick of a cheeseburger than other things, but there is more to eating than just calories. Long term, I have to question the lack of nutrition which effects how well your body can utilize those calories and the lack of fiber on your GI.

When I saw that PCT Youtube video of the Mcdouble challenge years ago, I could relate somewhat to what he did given I've often carry the same thing on hikes, though with slightly more variety. His follow up video eating nothing but McNuggets on another section didn't even sound good to me and sure enough didn't work out so well.

[zelph]

download.jpegBigMac with all the trimmings = lettuce tomato pickle for daily veggies

[Time Zone]

You can put one of them McDonald's cheeseburgers on a shelf and come back a year later and it won't change whatsoever. Just a little stiff.

IIRC a couple reasons are that they're not that moist (they dry out before spoiling) and with what moisture they have, they are pretty salty (salt - preservative). There's no magic to it. Whether nutritious or not - IDK. A hot sweaty hike you're going to crave salty food, and beef burgers do have a fair bit of protein. So there's that. But lots of saturated fat in beef, too. Well, hiker diets aren't exactly ideal anyway - way too light on fresh fruits and veggies.

[gpburdelljr]

I never eat anything at a McDonalds, because the food is so lousy. I’m amazed at how many people like McDonalds.

[gpburdelljr]

Duplicate post

[JNI64]

IIRC a couple reasons are that they're not that moist (they dry out before spoiling) and with what moisture they have, they are pretty salty (salt - preservative). There's no magic to it. Whether nutritious or not - IDK. A hot sweaty hike you're going to crave salty food, and beef burgers do have a fair bit of protein. So there's that. But lots of saturated fat in beef, too. Well, hiker diets aren't exactly ideal anyway - way too light on fresh fruits and veggies.

Yeah yuck that's why I stopped eating there a long time ago. I find alot of fast food disgusting and not satisfying at all.
I buy all my meat from a butcher a half beaf at a time. Which reminds me I have to go pull my 6 hours pecan smoked chuck roast

[JNI64]

IIRC a couple reasons are that they're not that moist (they dry out before spoiling) and with what moisture they have, they are pretty salty (salt - preservative). There's no magic to it. Whether nutritious or not - IDK. A hot sweaty hike you're going to crave salty food, and beef burgers do have a fair bit of protein. So there's that. But lots of saturated fat in beef, too. Well, hiker diets aren't exactly ideal anyway - way too light on fresh fruits and veggies.

Yeah yuck that's why I stopped eating there a long time ago. I find alot of fast food disgusting and not satisfying at all.
I buy all my meat from a butcher a half beaf at a time. Which reminds me I have to go pull my 6 hours pecan smoked chuck roast

[Birthright]

If you hiked 30 miles and stopped in town that had a McDonalds, used your credit card, you could have a nice juicy Big Mack and other goodies. You could do that every day

So you are combining two quotes from two opposite post that don't go together at all. The question posed in the Cheeseburger posting wasn't asked as a literal question but more like an inquiry from other hikers. The quote about my credit card was from a different post not to be confused with the posting about the cheeseburger experience. The two quotes are unrelated and were written in different postings in reference to different situations. One post being a story and the other being a reference to an opinion.

[JNI64]

They offer lots of variety these days so if one chose this as an option why not pack out more than just cheese burgers? You would have to transfer to bags but you could hike with fries,hash browns,egg burrito, salad, apple pie, etc. And heat up toasty over a fire.

[zelph]

See there.....lots of variety

[Miner]

...You would have to transfer to bags but you could hike with fries,hash browns,egg burrito, salad, apple pie, etc. And heat up toasty over a fire.

From experience, fries and hash browns, like the before mentioned mcNuggets seem to lose their taste and seem just like a pile of grease over time. If you are carrying them out of town for just your next meal, sure, no issue. If you are going to eat them the next day, trust me, they aren't gong to be as appetizing as they were the day before. May not be an issue for hikers with hiker hunger, but you aren't going to want to make a couple of meals in a row out of them. And salad doesn't keep well if you are hiking in really hot weather for very long. If the days are cool, than that is a valid option.

[Grampie]

i doubt that any thru-hiker ever completed the trail by eating just one type meal.

during my 2001 thru i met a couple of guys hiking together. They only ate corn pasta and caned tuna fish. One of them, trail name, tuna made it all the way. His partner left the trail somewhere along the way. At meal they would cook a pot of pasta and add a can of tuna fish. That is all they would eat.

[BillyGr]

Well Birthright said:


I suspect a burger of some kind would be available in the smaller towns. The almighty credit card

Except my reply was to your post about stopping in a town with a McDonalds. That is the part I was thinking is not always possible - they are in quite a few places but not everywhere, even if it seems like it some times.

[zelph]

Every town should have a mini McDonald's

[gpburdelljr]

Every town should have a place that makes hamburgers from scratch.

[peakbagger]

Unfortunately the hiker business from Monson could not save this McDonalds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3B5THXF6Vs

[HankIV]

I am not religious about it, but their food isn’t that good, isn’t that good for you and isn’t that good for the planet.

He says, crunching into his eighth Oreo of the night….

[JNI64]

during my 2001 thru i met a couple of guys hiking together. They only ate corn pasta and caned tuna fish. One of them, trail name, tuna made it all the way. His partner left the trail somewhere along the way. At meal they would cook a pot of pasta and add a can of tuna fish. That is all they would eat.

I guess when you're young and healthy you can get through just about anything. But man that would be tough to get the calories even in olive oil there's only 200 calories per can and a box of corn pasta is 850 calories. Besides being gross and obnoxious.

[JNI64]

Gross and monotonous would be a better word.

[Seatbelt]

I guess when you're young and healthy you can get through just about anything. But man that would be tough to get the calories even in olive oil there's only 200 calories per can and a box of corn pasta is 850 calories. Besides being gross and obnoxious.

I would be willing to bet that they did not continue this for several months without ANY OTHER food.