how do I eat and carry 4000 calories

[Walkie Talkie]

I have been trying to prepare my food drops and have purchased all the usual backpacking food and getting a little creative with a few. I plan on 500 calories foe breakfast with oatmeal or cereal bars, and 700 calories for dinner with Mac n Cheese or a lipton noodle. That leaves 2800 to get my 4000 calories in daily. That translates to about 12 candybars or 15 granola bars. Am I way off base with these numbers. Am I really going to have to carry the equivalent of 94 snacks for 7 days. I know I'm simplifying things and I'm not counting gorp or extra margarine but I need to know if people really do carry 4000 calories of food a day or should I try to camel up while in a town. It sames difficult to really camel up on any serious amount of food. I have already purchased the food and I am commited to mail drops so you don't have to recomend buying along the way. Please let me know if my numbers are off base.

Thank you
Walkie Talkie

[Virginian]

Just eat oatmeal, ceral,powdered milk, lipton noodles, cheese, tuna, bread some fruit,snickers bars, gummy bears, pepperoni (in the bag) and some other crap that you like . Then when you get to town load up on beer and maybe a drink of a good scotch (single malt) now and then. Youll be fine!!

[SGT Rock]

The secret to lots of calories and also good eating is olive oil. Shhhhh. Don't tell anyone. Well, on second thought, tell everyone.

Olive oil is a mono unsaturated fat so it actually reduces bad colesterol and chance of heart desease and may even reduce your chance of cancer if some of the new research is correct.

But besides all that, olive oil weighs .92 ounces in weight for each fluid ounce, and has 240 callories per ounce. Think of all that stuff like oatmeal grits, pastas, etc. Why do they taste like paste even after adding water? Because the oils are also dried out of them. Adding oil back in tastes great and gets the callories in. Imagine adding 1 ounce at breakfast, 1 ounce at lunch, and a couple at dinner - that is 3.7 ounces in weight, but almost 1000 callories. If you look at the rest of your food with a goal of about 100 callories per pack ounce - then you can hit 4000 calories with a pack weight of approximately 34 ounces every day. Because everything has nutrition lables, it isn't hard to figure out.

But besides being dense in calories, being good for you (even the Vegans love it), it tastes great. Try Spanish extra virgin olive oil.

[Sleepy the Arab]

My solution was simple. I cooked and ate hikers who were about to leave the trail. Yeah, you all thought they went home, didn't ya? Absolutely deee-licious and enough food for four Lehigh Gaps, two Mahoosuc Notches and an Albert Mountain! Vrooom!

[Peaks]

In addition to oatmeal for breakfast, add more calories with a bagel or granola bars or breakfast bars.

In addition of Mac & Cheese, add an oil or fat at 240 calories per ounce.

Do a lunch with peanut butter (Jiff Cholate Silk Smooth Sensations) on pita bread, bagels or pilot crackers. Or eat cheese.

Snack on Gorp or snickars bars whenever the urge hits you. Nuts are great.

That should get you 4000 calories per day. In addition, you will want to pig out in town to make up for any calorie defeciet.

[SGT Rock]

If you hate peanut butter like me, try Nutella. It is VERY calorie dense and tastes great.

[Redbeard]

I don't think I've heard anyone mention how some people lose their appetite on the first few day's of serious hiking. I've heard it explained as your body going into "fight or flight"response and living off it's own reserves, I had this happen last year. Appetite comes back with a vengence though.

[MileMonster]

Hey folks, MM here. I've been lurking for a while as I'm planning my own thru-hike beginning March next year. Great info here.

I've heard Doctors explain that dehydration is often the cause of lost appetite, especially early in a backpacking trip. Alot of body water has to be diverted to the stomach for digestion. If your low on water the body decides against making you feel hungry, you actually feel like you'd rather not eat. I guess after a week of calories debt, the need for food starts to outweigh dehydration. The moral - drink drink drink, it'll help you in many ways.

[Redbeard]

Good point MM, being a Greenhorn I think I carried more water than I drank!

[Kerosene]

MM, interesting point about dehydration, although a little at odds with the beliefs that people tend to eat/snack when they're really thirsty and having a stomach full of water reduces your overall appetite. For me as a once-a-year section hiker, I think it just has a lot to do with the sudden spurt in prolonged activity combined with a change in menu, although it's a constant battle to keep fully hydrated even though I'm taking in much more water than usual.

[Colter]

I think few thru-hikers eat 4,000 calories when they are actually on the trail. Myself, I ate as much as I reasonably wanted to carry, then pigged out when I was getting more supplies in town. I think that can make a big difference.

One way or another, most thru-hikers lose a lot of weight.

[MedicineMan]

Just last week showed some thru's the magical olive oil...dumped it into the spanish beans/rice to keep me warm through the night....but an added benefit...say you are to drink (beer,liquor,wine) and you dont want to loose your ability,,,drink a tablespoon of olive oil (or wesson oil), it will coat the stomach and drastically reduce the amount of alcohol that is absorbed through the stomach, alcohol is metabolised via first order kinetics by alcohol dehydrogenase and if you can prevent the mass abs. from the stomach where 90 percent of it is absorbed you can also drastically reduce its effects...important if on a date!

[RagingHampster]

I'm thru-hiking the Metacomet-Monadnock trail (about 120mi) in massachusetts/new hampshire (in 20days I can't wait!), and I purchased the following for food.

Breakfast:
- Pack of Cream of Wheat w/Spices
- Little Debbie Chemical Brownie
- 1oz Dried Fruit
- Centrum Vitamin

Snack:
- King Size Snickers or King Size Almond Symphony Bar

Lunch:
- Slice of real whole grain bread
- 2oz Teddy Bear Extra Chunky Peanut Butter
- Half Box (Bagged) Crackers (or as many as I can eat)
- 1oz Dried Fruit
- 1oz Smoked Almonds

Snack:
- Crunchy Granola Bar

Dinner:
- Liptons/Pasta with Knorr Sauce/Instant taters with stuffing & gravy
- 2fl oz Sicilian Cold Pressed Olive Oil
- 3oz Foil Pack of Sweet Sue Chicken
- Little Debbie Chemical Cake w/Chemical Frosting

In addition, I carry parmesean cheese & real maple syrup when available. First day out obviously consists of grinders/pizza/chicken fingers/etc., and some fruit. Sometimes I bring extra olive oil and a head of garlic in stead of the Knorr Sauce. I also have chili flakes, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, salt, garlic & onion powder.

[tlbj6142]

Just a thought...

You might want to take your vitamin with Dinner. You are eating many more fats for dinner, so the goodies in the pill should be absorbed better.

[chris]

For those of you who think that you can't carry enough food to maintain body weight during a thruhike, recall that Brian Robinson started and ended his trip at 155 pounds. He evidently was able to carry enough food to maintain weight, despite averaging a little over 30 miles a day for 10 months.

[Blue Jay]

Yes, but Brian is a robot. A little WD40 and he's good to go.

[chris]

I don't think robots can grow a beard, though.

[RagingHampster]

I believe I read somewhere that brian lived on Ramen Noodles, Mac & Cheese, & Snicker Bars.
Personally, I hate Mac & Cheese and I overdosed on Ramen before the age of 12. I do like Snicker Bras though

Oh, I guess he constantly took FLintstone Vitamins too, I go for the Centrum brand.

[chris]

The Flintstone vitamins story is true. However, he did say during his Gathering 02 seminar on how to average 30 miles a day that he ate good dinners and had junk food for lunches, although he did have some good stuff mixed in. With dinners he added 1/4 cup of olive oil for a caloric boost. Apparently, he would load up the pockets in his jacket or pants or shorts with all the food they could carry and just eat as he went.

[Dirty_Wabbit]

I know this may sound wierd but, do you guys know of those little food things that suck the air out of food? Well if you do...I am wondering...if say I bought some can food...speghetti o's let say an didnt heat them just stuck em in one of those bags an sucked the air out of them...shouldnt they be good to go same as in the can? And what else seems like it would be ok if sealed in one of these bags? My mother has one an I want her to send me food... I just dont want to carry around a heavy can...