JMT thru hike -Nutrition

You can approximate your BMR (how many calories you burn with no activity) with a formula like this one:

BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age in year )
and then depending upon what sort of hiking you are planning on doing, go from there.

Without doing any of that, I would say 3000 should be a good starting point. You will want to increase your daily calories for the second week, as you'll start to work up an appetite by then.

"Thinking 3000 cals/day. More or Less?"

Unless you're carrying a lot more body fat that your description implies, you're going to need a lot more than that. I weigh ~137#, very lean, and use ~4200 cal/day with a pack weight of 26# for a 10 day trip, of which ~1500 calories are supplied by body fat and 2700 by carried food. A good way to start your calculations is to do a Google search with the search argument "calorie counter backpacking". Select several of the counters from the list and enter the required variables, making sure to include your pack weight in your body weight. The answers will vary, but you will find that a cluster that represents the "consensus" number of calories. This will give you an approximation of the calories you will need to plan your daily food requirement. If you are carrying a few extra pounds of body fat, factor those into your available calories at a rate of 3500 calories/pound of body fat.

Most importantly: bring what you like to eat, then bring something else for the other 7 days for when you get tired of the first thing.

On short trips, almost everyone eats about 15-20 calories per day per pound of body weight: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=35516 Here, "short trips" includes the JMT. The figure can be much higher if you're doing a long through hike (multiple months, where you can't go into calorie debt), if you're doing really high miles (30 mi/day or more), or if you're in cold weather (which you won't be). For your body weight, that works out to about 2800-3800 cal/day, so you're in the right ballpark, maybe a little low.

"I figured stashing some high calorie food in the resupply that I can eat there before packing up and heading on so if I'm deficient at all I can make up for it there."
I did the JMT this summer, and had sort of the same idea, but it didn't really work out well. When I resupplied at Red's Meadows, what I really wanted was the food at the cafe (tuna sandwich and milkshake!!!), not the canned peaches I'd mailed myself. When I resupplied at MTR, I tried to stuff down as much pork liver pate as I could stand, but basically there was only so much food I was hungry for.

"along with % of protein/carbs/fat/sodium, etc."
Standard advice is 50% carbohydrate, 35% fat, 15% protein. This is not totally crucial on a 2-week hike. The densest foods are heavy in fat. If you have too much fat and not enough carbs, your body can't metabolize the fat calories completely, and you'll be left with harmful waste products.

With hindsight, I wish I had oriented my own thinking a little less toward pack weight and nutrition and a little more toward enjoying the hike. Remember, you're doing this for fun. If you spend the last 5 days hating your diet and wishing you could be eating pizza, then you aren't having fun!

It's not really possible to calculate your calories exactly, because it depends completely on how many days you're going to take, and you really don't know that. Too much food is not the end of the world — you'll just have a little extra weight to carry. Too little food is not the end of the world — you'll just lose a little body weight. None of this is crucial on a 2-week hike. If you realize by the time you hit VVR that you're a little low on the calories, just take a zero day at VVR and gorge yourself on pancakes, sweet potatoes, pork chops, and beer.

Nate,

Are you intentionally taking extra time on the northern half? There is no right or wrong way of course, but giving yourself nine days to VVR and then going to Whitney in six days seems a little lopsided to me. I have a feeling you may find yourself at VVR faster than you anticipate and you will end up dumping a lot of the food from your 2 resupplies.

Do you know what kind of canister your going to carry? I think you could get by with one resupply at Reds even if you were taking your time and then a second resuply at MTR or VVR.

You may want to considering giving yourself additional time from VVR to Whitney if you have the capacity to store more than six days of food.

" "along with % of protein/carbs/fat/sodium, etc."
Standard advice is 50% carbohydrate, 35% fat, 15% protein. This is not totally crucial on a 2-week hike. The densest foods are heavy in fat. If you have too much fat and not enough carbs, your body can't metabolize the fat calories completely, and you'll be left with harmful waste products."

Ben, I agree with that in principle. However, some of us have a health issue so that we have to be careful with that 35% fat. Sure, it is a way to pack in more calories. However, I need to avoid saturated fats where I can. So, I try to substitute more monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. They are still fats, and they still have the calories, but they don't make problems for me.

So, I carry olive oil and oily nuts, but it is hard to eat that many calories in olive oil and oily nuts. I do carry some very lean dehydrated or freeze dried meat.

I have no-fat cheese that I would take, except that it requires refrigeration.

My physician wants me to eat more fish, but I am not a fisherman. Small sealed packets of salmon are good, but they are marginally heavy.

Any other suggestions for really good fats?

–B.G.–

I just go by bringing plenty of food. Stuff that I like to eat, and things that are calorie to weight efficient.

I started to prepare for a JMT hike last summer, but it fell through. However, I spent some time preparing my food drops.

If you are leaving from the valley floor, you can plan to buy food at the grocery there, for however many nights before your hike and for your first night getting over to TM. You will still need a bear canister, but your food weight will be pretty low. First pick-up at TM, that should get you to MTR, with maybe buying some food along the way at Reds and VVR (if you stop).

I spent a lot of time at several grocery stores, especially Trader Joe's (if you have access to one) with a calculator and focused on calories/ounce. This will help you get the most calorie dense foods for packing tight into the bear canister. Not surprisingly, looking at cal/oz, you will probably wind up with a lot of foods that we all already know are good for hiking: nuts and nut butters, chocolate, energy/trail bars, some cookies, granola, oatmeal, pesto, olive oil, etc.

"Any other suggestions for really good fats?"

Flax seed oil. Fish oil capsules, which contain the oils your physician is recommending you get in your diet. Chocolate. Sesame tahini, which is basically sesame seed butter-it is an ingredient in hummus, but can be used like any other nut butter on it own. Any of the nut butters, especially almond. They are great with a little honey or maple syrup mixed in.

Tom, thanks, I've put some of these items on my grocery store shopping list.

I've been taking fish oil capsules on doctor's orders for a year or two, and it really does have a beneficial effect (as seen in my lab test results).

The flax oil, I am just starting to read about.

Chocolate can be a problem, because typically I end up with the stuff made with lots of palm oil and saturated fats added. I will have to look for semisweet baking chocolate and throw pieces into my trail mix.

I already have peanut butter and almond butter, but again there some bad fats are often mixed in. Plus, I have to spread those nut butters on bread or crackers or something, and they don't pack well in a bear canister. Well, multigrain tortilla bread would.

Olive oil is easy. I just carry a tiny plastic bottle of it and splash a little in when I cook my evening meal, which is typically Quinoa, Couscous, and Rice, mixed with soup base.

It looks bad if I do a long week-long trip and come back heavier than when I started.

–B.G.–

"Chocolate can be a problem, because typically I end up with the stuff made with lots of palm oil and saturated fats added. I will have to look for semisweet baking chocolate and throw pieces into my trail mix."

Look for some of the high end chocolate. It should be made with no added oils other than cocoa butter. Some of it tastes pretty good, too, up to about 72%. Beyond that it gets too bitter for my taste. YTMV

"I already have peanut butter and almond butter, but again there some bad fats are often mixed in. Plus, I have to spread those nut butters on bread or crackers or something, and they don't pack well in a bear canister. Well, multigrain tortilla bread would."

You can eliminate the bad stuff by using the nut grinding machines in a Whole Foods or some of the coop groceries. Basically they consist of a hopper filled with either peanuts or almonds and a grinder that purees them into nut butter, which comes out of a spout at the bottom of the machine. What you end up with is a pure nut butter. You can also purchase these butters, and others, in the organic food sections at lots of stores. No bad stuff added. You can do it, Bob. It just takes a little reconnaissance and label checking. If you have access to a Whole Foods, that would be a good place to start, as they have an excellent selection of nut butters AND quality chocolates. Seeds of Change makes an excellent selection of chocolates with no harmful ingredients added. A little pricey, but quality stuff. Scharffenberger is another good brand. There are others. Good hunting. ;)

I'll have to leave behind a small tribute in chocolate at the top of Kearsarge Pass.

–B.G.–

"I'll have to leave behind a small tribute in chocolate at the top of Kearsarge Pass."

Uh, could you make that Shepherd Pass, so it has a chance of falling into the right hands?

Tom, I keep looking at that avatar photo and think that it is Kearsarge.

–B.G.–

all bodies are different and we all burn calories differently. Hike your own hike.

"Tom, I keep looking at that avatar photo and think that it is Kearsarge."

Close, but no cigar. That photo was taken just below Anvil Camp coming down from Shepherd Pass last September. I've never been over Kearsarge Pass. Is the resemblance really that close?

Tom, I don't know, as I've never been over Shepherd Pass.

–B.G.–

"Tom, I don't know, as I've never been over Shepherd Pass."

No matter. To paraphrase The Gipper, "If you've seen one Sierra Pass, you've seen 'em all". ;-)

“I already have peanut butter and almond butter, but again there some bad fats are often mixed in. Plus, I have to spread those nut butters on bread or crackers or something, and they don’t pack well in a bear canister.”

Not if you mix them into something wholesome and tasty!

Trader Joe's also sells sardines and anchovies in olive oil. Dump them in a soup or a rice/quinoa/couscous dish and its a good meal with Omega-3s and protein. Catching fresh trout is of course the best if your bringing a pole.

Dave – Have you seen sardines in a foil wrap package?

Hey Dave,

Unfortunately, I haven't seen them in foil. The tins are really thin and I find the weight is insignificant.

We plan to be at VVR by day 5 and spend the night, eat, etc and be back on the trail the next day. Of course we've factored in a zero day if we need it but doubtful that early and if we'll even use at all, depends on how our bodies are feeling and if the fish are biting!

Plan is to pack as minimal as possible with just a day's food and make it to Lower Catherdral the first night, get our first resupply at Tulomne (sp?) and goal to hit 1000 Island Lake for night 2 (lofty goal but my hiking partner and I are in pretty good shape and been training for this since last summer). I think the longest lag between resupplies is the end to Whiteny. But that ZERO day could come in handy if needed.

Thanks for the post!

Great info, thanks!