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Posted by Bill S on April 14, 2008 at 11:40:23 am EDT
In reply to Ultralight backpacking...good foods to take? posted by gsdavis on April 13, 2008 at 10:05:07 pm EDT

As a friend who runs a guide service says, expeditions, major climbs, and long multiday hikes are no place to diet or cut back on calories. You will probably lose weight anyway. I have found that on major expeditions and climbs, even with shoving down 5000 calories per day, I lose weight (most I lost was 20 pounds on a 20 day Denali attempt, even sitting out storms in the tent for 8 of the 20 days, and eating over 5000 calories per day - I have never gained weight on a major expedition, though I came close with the super-sized, tasty, nourishing meals on Kilimanjaro and in Antarctica).

Basically what you want is the highest density of calories/pound of food, which means foods high in fats (abt 9 kcal/gram), with plenty of protein (abt 4 kcal/gram) to maintain muscles, with high carbohydrate snacks to nibble constantly to keep energy levels up (abt 4 kcal/gram). Many people tend to have meals of mostly carbo on the trail, because rice, pasta, dried potatoes, etc are easy to prepare. This is good at supper (replenish the day's calorie burn to get the glycogen back in the muscles for the next day), but the total of calories needs to be much higher than your daily sit-at-the-desk job (which for many people is in the 1500 kcal/day, well below the 5000 you need for the more challenging hikes).

So - energy bars are often high in fat (just read the labels), and easy to snack on during the day as Wildebeast says. Jerky gets the protein in and is about 1/3 the weight of the equivalent un-dehydrated meat. The starches I mentioned (rice, angelhair spaghetti, potato flakes, etc) are rehydrated with the water you get at the evening campsite and are pretty light for the calories (but you have to repackage them in ziplock bags to reduce the excessive amount of packaging they all come with). Freezedry meals often tend to have too much salt and many are too spicey for a lot of people (though I like things spicey), but they are light for the calories provided (you may have to repackage some of them and rehydrate in your cookpot - remember you have to pack all that aluminum foil packaging out with you).

There are some good books that review various types of backpacker and expedition meals. I like June Fleming's book for a starter, though it is now getting a bit dated in terms of the pre-packaged meals. Still, it is excellent for preparing your own food.

Oh, yeah, take your own spices, not just salt and pepper. It can really make a meal more tasty. And use a real, high-calorie sweetener - the backcountry is no place for artificial, zero-calorie sweeteners. You need the calories.

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