Thru-Hike FOOD

[Tyler Nelson]

I'll be starting a thru hike with 2 of my friends in early March. We have most of our gear ready, but the one area of preparation that we are most uncertain about is food. I'd like to get a general idea of the daily food intake/menu of other thru hikers, and how much food one may pack at any given time.

[swjohnsey]

You are planning to leave in a couple of weeks or so and you haven't thought about food?

I eat quick cooking oats, raisins, lotsa sugar and coffee, lotsa sugar for breakfast.

Several lunches during the day peanutbutter on flour tortilla

Several snacks, usually either peanuts or Snicker

Dinner, from stuff like instant mashed potatoes, Knorr rice sides, Spam singles, Tyson chicken in pouch, Ramen, mac & cheese.

I try to carry around three days to start but you may have to carry five or six on a couple of stretches, figure 2lbs/day.

[Tyler Nelson]

Lots of thought, purchasing no. Thanks for your advice. PB is atop our list, right alongside oats, couscous, Ramen, and pre-made dehydrated snack foods to be shipped by our support group along the way.

[swjohnsey]

Check out the Knorr sides, cheap, easy to cook and high in calories. My favorite is red beans and rice. Mac & Cheese is the best calorie bang for the buck. Instant mashed potatoes are a hiker staple. Poptarts are popular

[Sarcasm the elf]

This may sound odd, but Mac and cheese inside a tortilla is one of my favorite trail foods. Almost anything on flatbread is good, even peanut utter and trail mix wrapped up.

Eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables when in town and consider packing some out to eat the first day or two out of town. Lots of backpacking food is crap, so you need to get good stuff in when you can.

Also, many people lose their appetite the first week or two hiking. This is normal, but make sure to keep track of your intake, you might need to convince yourself to eat from time to time. Eventually your appetite will come back with a vengeance.

[JAK]

Classic article from Ryan Jordan and other's 2006 Arctic 1000 trek.
http://backpackinglight.typepad.com/...d_and_coo.html

Details from above article:
Starting body weight = 155 pounds
Ending body weight = 134 pounds (predicted)
Calories from body = 36,000 calories (predicted)
Calories from food = 94,000 calories (predicted)
Total Calories = 130,000 calories
Total Distance = 600 miles
Cummulative Elevation Gain = 10 miles
Duration = 24 miles

Assumptions:
Skin Out Weight = 15 pounds
Average Total Weight on Feet = 160 pounds
Total Effective Miles = 600 miles + 10 miles x 10 = 700 Flat Miles
Base Calories per day = 145 pounds x 10 = 1450 calories / day
Total Base Calories = 1450 x 24 = 34800 calories
Hiking Calories = 130,000 - 34,800 = 95,200 calories
Hiking Calories per mile = 95,200 / 600 = 159 calories per mile
= roughly 1 calorie per Pound of Average Total Weight per Flat Mile

So a rough estimate of total calories burned hiking hiking a trail:
Base Calories = Average Body Weight in Pounds x 10 = Base Calories per Day
Hiking Calories = Average Total Weight in Pounds x Flat Miles per Day = Hiking Calories per Day
Flat Miles = Actual Miles + Cummulative Gain in Miles x 10
Total Calories = Base Calories + Hiking Calories
( You will need more calories if you do extra activities beyond hiking and basic camping, i.e. town calories )

Appalachian Trail Calories:

Example 1:
180 pound average body weight, 30 pounds average skin out weight, 150 days
2184 miles + 98 miles cummulative elevation gain
Base Calories = 180 pounds x 10 x 150 days = 270,000 calories
Hiking Calories = 210 pounds x ( 2184 miles + 98 miles x 10 ) = 210 x 3164 = 664,440
Total Calories per Day = ( 270,000 + 664,440 ) / 150 = 6230 calories per day ( 14.6 miles per day )

Example 2:
140 pound average body weight, 20 pounds average skin out weight, 100 days
2184 miles + 98 miles cummulative elevation gain
Base Calories = 140 pounds x 10 x 100 days = 140,000 calories
Hiking Calories = 160 pounds x ( 2184 miles + 98 miles x 10 ) = 160 x 3164 = 506,240
Total Calories per Day = ( 140,000 + 506,240 ) / 100 = 6462 calories per day ( 21.9 miles per day )

Don't hold me to it.

[MJW155]

Also, many people lose their appetite the first week or two hiking. This is normal, but make sure to keep track of your intake, you might need to convince yourself to eat from time to time. Eventually your appetite will come back with a vengeance.

I've heard that. Why is that the case?

[JAK]

I think I made a mistake somewhere. The calories per pound per flat miles should be somewhat lower, like 0.8 or so.
Needs more work. Have at it.

[on_the_GOEZ]

This may sound odd, but Mac and cheese inside a tortilla is one of my favorite trail foods. Almost anything on flatbread is good, even peanut utter and trail mix wrapped up.

Eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables when in town and consider packing some out to eat the first day or two out of town. Lots of backpacking food is crap, so you need to get good stuff in when you can.
s

My staple all along the LT was Mac N Cheese is tortillas with a tuna package, maybe some duck or mustard sauces from chinese take out, and a freshly cut up red onion. Cant go wrong mac N Cheese and (most) anything!

I didnt carry a stove or pot for the first 1500 miles SOBO last year - my staples were instance mashed potatoes, ramen, avocados, hard cheese, fig newtons, honey buns, cookies, big bags of Malt-o-meal cereals (sold in the bag alone), mini carrots, individual ketchup and mustard packets (i would eat these by themselves sometimes) and tuna. When I picked my stove up for the last quarter of the trip, I started cooking "odd" stuff most reguarly, namely Quinoa (cooks best over open fires with sustained heat for simmer i found) CousCous, and egg noodles just for a warm meal.

Truthfully though, I ate everything all the time. Didnt really matter what it was. My favorite was Boy Scout stew

[jacob_springsteen]

I've heard that. Why is that the case?

I think hikers start burning their body fat more effectively those first few weeks.

[Tinker]

Ramen has more salt than all the oceans of the world in one serving. They forgot to leave room for the taste.

[Blissful]

I blog about food ideas for a long distance hike.

[Emily Harper]

The more you hike the more creative you get with food. Don't limit yourself the whole idea of eating 'hiker food' half way made my stomach turn sour.

Pancakes - these are fun add M&Ms - but you'll need a spatula and a frying pan. There was a hiker that introduced Pancakes to me on the trail. After I had them I just had to make my own.

Hummus - You can use carrots it dip in. Some people dehydrate since it's pretty heavy. Uhh it tastes so good.

Somersausage and barbecue sauce - Caution do not eat a lot of pepperoni. Unless you want heartburn and other unwanted feelings.

Hot dogs - I made money selling dogs - a word of caution don't eat then after more than three days.

Bacon - I started getting things partly because I wanted to make people jealous, since people are always talking about food, and Bacon smells so good.

[swjohnsey]

Lotsa foods you can get for the first day or two after a town stop, cheese, hard sausages, fried chicken, fruit and veggies. Onions will last a long time.

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


I eat Ramen with only half the water and half the flavor packet.

How come I've never heard anyone mention pemmican? I make mine with shredded beef jerkey, diced bacon and raisens. It's a fun food to experiment with...adding other or more items to it. I also usually carry a few tins of sardines or herring in mustard or tomato sauce. And some MRE crackers. Plus a baggie full of Jif smooth peannut butter, which has a high sugar content.

Does anyone else use these items?

[JAK]

I like the peanut butter that uses non-hydrogenated fat, or good old raisins and peanuts.

I know for a fact that peanut butter goes awesome with bacon. I would like to try peanut butter with bacon and oats some morning. Maybe pour in a little oil from the non-hydrogenated peanut butter, then fry up the diced bacon in my pot, then dump in some oats to brown them up a bit, and then finally drop in some spoonfuls of peanut butter to goop it all up. Not exactly sure how it would all come together but I'll bet you could hike some serious miles if you could choke it all down, chasing it with cowboy coffee.

[shelb]

I know for a fact that peanut butter goes awesome with bacon. I would like to try peanut butter with bacon and oats some morning. Maybe pour in a little oil from the non-hydrogenated peanut butter, then fry up the diced bacon in my pot, then dump in some oats to brown them up a bit, and then finally drop in some spoonfuls of peanut butter to goop it all up. Not exactly sure how it would all come together but I'll bet you could hike some serious miles if you could choke it all down, chasing it with cowboy coffee.

That actually sounds very good!

[yappy]

Lol ugh! Give me chocolate or give me death

[Derek81pci]

I've read a lot that "empty calories" can actually be beneficial for LDHiking. Honey buns have an absurd amount of calories, Clif bars have the most calories (choco/coconut) and 1 other kind I cant recall at the moment have 220 calories per bar, Powerbar "Protien" like have 330 calories per, but Clif bars are almost a dollar cheaper, and weigh a bit more. That's good for snacking. In town... find a Chili's or TGIFridays... great for hikers but probably the reason for America's obesity issues. Just the blooming onion alone has almost 3,000 calories, the chicken fajitas are 2,8000. I've found that OceanSpran dried cranberry things are delicious, and the tiny little individual packs are 100 calories. I'm sure I could eat a whole bag of them, 600 calories for $1.59.

[Serial 07]

You are planning to leave in a couple of weeks or so and you haven't thought about food?

HA! i left amicalola with 5 lbs. of quinoa and 2.5 lbs of not instant oatmeal...i had no idea what i was doing...