Nutritional composition

[Brad Rogers]

I am doing a two week trip this summer and have never done a trip this long so I am paying more attention to my food than ever before. I was going to see if you would critique one of my days food.

Myoplex mix
Grandmas choc chip cookies
Combos
Pistachios
Peanut M&M
Chocolate covered pretzels
Packit Gourmet big easy gumbo
Dark chocolate

Calories: 3097
Fat Grams 136.5
protein grams 107.6
Carb grams 328.5

By %
Fat 24%
protein 19%
Carbs 57%

That is a typical day so they are slightly different foods but about the same mix. What would you change? Am I taking too much fat?

One note: this has to all fit in a bear can so I need relatively compact foods.

Thanks

[Greg Mihalik]

How many miles per day, over how many hours?

[Brad Rogers]

Well that is the million dollar question. This will be all off trail in talus, tundra, and scree with some creek crossings so I am anticipating slow going. I predict about 10-12 miles per day and 8 hours hiking.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Too much fat? No
Not enough carbs? No

A severe lack of fruits and veggies?

Yep. Yes. You know there is like almost none.

Get some dried fruit in there for potassium :-P And fiber.

[Gary Dunckel]

Bradford, your % is by weight. Maybe the way to calculate the ratios is to do it by percentage of calories. In this case it comes out to this (using your listed grams, I came up with a slightly different total calorie amount):

Grams Cal/gram Calories % of total calories

Fat 136.5 9 1228.8 41.3%

Carbs 328.5 4 1314.0 44.2%

Protein 107.6 4 430.4 14.5%
_________________________________________________________________
Total: 572.6 2973.2 100.0%

The FDA recommendations for dietary caloric ratios is approximately 30% fat, 60% carbs, and 10% protein. But this is for the long term. For just 2 weeks, I expect that you can cheat a little and load up on the fats that you'll burn up on the trail. By including more fat, you have bumped the calories/ounce to a very efficient 147 cal/oz.

Greg should be able to help you with this, as he has done numerous long hikes. I only do short trips of 2-5 nights. I like to try to mimick my usual diet ratios of 25-30% fat, 50% carbs, and 20-25% protein, so that I won't mess up my metabolism or GI tract.

[Rick Reno]

Thanks for sharing. Nutritionally, what you're talking about looks fine for two weeks; that's not a long enough duration, IMO, to really have to worry about eating real food. Satiety and calories are the main thing.

Oh yeah, and being able to gag it down. Maybe it's just me, but after a week or so I think I'd have a real hard time with so little variety. And by the end I'd never want to look at another chocolate chip cookie, which would be a tragedy!

[Lori P]

Two things to help…

http://www.packitgourmet.com/trail-food-facts/fieldguide.html

Couple of food related articles here, one from a dietician. http://thru-hiker.com/articles/

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I ate way worse than that on my PCT hike and did fine.

[Anonymous]

"Grams Cal/gram Calories % of total calories

Fat 136.5 9 1228.8 41.3%

Carbs 328.5 4 1314.0 44.2%

Protein 107.6 4 430.4 14.5%
_________________________________________________________________
Total: 572.6 2973.2 100.0%"

From another perspective, this is a pretty good distribution of macro nutrients for a strenuous off trail backpacking trip. You will apparently be hiking slowly, but in conditions that will require a lot of energy. It is quite possible that your calorie requirements will exceed 2973/day, which means you will start metabolizing body fat for the remainder, at least until you run out of it-unlikely on a 14 day trip at 12 miles/day. This is where the amount of carbs in your food comes into play. Using a rule of thumb of ~30% of your calories coming from carbs at the pace you will be moving, the amount of carbs supplied by the food you list will be sufficient to support the efficient metabolism of ~4000 calories/day. So, if you exceed the food you are carrying and start to burn body fat, you will have adequate carbs to burn an additional 1000 calories of it without triggering the conversion of muscle protein to glucose for that purpose. The figures I have supplied are for the purpose of discussion only. The exact numbers will vary by individual characteristics, but will probably not be too far off. You also have a good amount of protein in your food, which should mitigate the normal breakdown of muscle protein that supplies ~5% of your energy under normal circumstances, or to support the metabolism of at least some body fat above the 4000 calories mentioned above, if you exceed that number. Sarah's comment regarding fruits and veggies is worth noting, but not critical, IMO, for a backpacking trip, with one exception. Fiber is pretty important to avoid constipation on any trip over 2-3 days, IME, so try to get at least 18-20 grams of it/day to spare yourself some discomfort.

[Scott S]

Some people way overthink diet issues on long hikes. I've done two thru-hikes and a 900-mile section on mostly junk food and was just fine. If you are eating a reasonably diverse diet (i.e. not all candy) and getting enough calories (like 4000 a day if you are doing 20-mile days), you should be fine.

The stress of worrying about your diet is likely to be more harmful than your actual diet. Just eat a lot and enjoy your trip.

[Bob Gross]

When I was thirty years old, I could eat virtually anything that I wanted and my body weight stayed constant.

Now that I've arrived at a certain age, it is not that simple. I don't need to worry about diet constantly, but I do need to give it some conscious thought a few times per day.

I won't start to worry about it until I get really old, like Roger.

–B.G.–

[Scott S]

I wasn't saying not to worry about nutrition generally. Heck, I'm a marathon runner, and if I didn't watch what I ate, I would be the size of a whale.

But I do think that when you're on a longer backpacking trip, where you're burning thousands of extra calories every day for many days in a row, you can and should eat whatever you want. It's one of the few times in life when you can eat more or less consequence-free.

[Author]

Posts