List what you eat per day. Weight/calories? Type of hiking?

Bob,

As a rough guide:

Things like gatorade, or gummy bears (nearly pure glucose) hit the bloodstream in 15-20 minutes
Simple carbs are typically digested in less than 1 hour. In the cheeseburger context, the refined white flour in the bun would be in this category
Complex carbs are digested in 3-4 hours.
Fat takes 5-6 hours.
Protein takes 8-10 hours (although you should probably be thinking protein in terms of the raw materials for repairs to your body, rather than as fuel).

(In reality, food is digested progressively, so you will get some of the benefit in the first couple of hours).

But food that is digested too quickly (glucose and simple carbs) spikes the blood sugars, causing the body to flood insulin, then leaving the you with a low trough afterwards.

Complex carbs are probably the ideal fuel for hikers – carbs are the body's preferred fuel, and the slow release provides energy throughout the day.

But the weight factor (fat is 9 calories per gram, while protein and carbs are only 4) pushes most backers towards more fat. However, fat can only be converted to energy slowly (it needs to be processed by the liver as well as the gut), so you need a mix of carbs in there as well to burn fat effectively.

The body stores about 2000 calories in usable energy – hikers will easily burn about 4000 (2000-2500 through hiking, and 1500-2000 through metabolism). And a long day with substantial elevation gain with a heavy pack could push the total burn to 5000-6000. So most of the fuel for your hike will come from this 'tank' of energy, but you need to keep 'topping off' the tank throughout the day to avoid running dry.

Andrew, I think those time periods are reasonable, and that was what I was looking for. Thanks.

Many years ago several of us were getting ready to hike a big peak, and one guy was busy wolfing down an entire salami. Another guy said, "There is no sense in eating that salami now since you will be on the summit before the energy of that salami will be ready for use."

There are some of us with a problem with saturated fats. So, I can still go for the fats as a source of high calories, but they should not be saturated fats. Therefore, I have to focus more on unsaturated fats. They still have the calories, fortunately.

I try to load up more with nuts, monounsaturated.

–B.G.–

One thing to not forget is that eating while heading uphill is harder on the body – so pick foods that digest easily, not gut logs. I am sure most of us know of a friend or partner who hurled after eating a sausage fest or 6 ounces of tuna or whatever…..with 1K of hard gain to make in a short distance. It isn't pretty. The food just sits there and barfing it up makes your body feel better.

So consider that as well. Save the heavy foods for the way down.

"My lean weight is about 145, though these days I mostly hang in the 150-155 range. I get up to about 158 before a trip. Not surprisingly, by day 7, I need to carry more food."

Makes sense, given the mileage you're doing.

Wow, can't believe this is still going. Great discussion guys! Thanks for all the contribution, I'm getting more out of this thread than I expected.

Nice lists guys, thanks for the inspiration. But I was missing one thing though:
Noone has mentioned the mashed potatoes yet. I love the Idahoans – they come in so many different flavors, it never gets boring =)

Just packed out for a 5 day, 150 mile trip, that I bailed on today. I did about 6000 calories per day with about 125 cal/oz average, so that about 3lb. per day. This was going to be a fast pace, no cook, virtually no stop trip. The food was:

1) First hour – poptarts -410 calories
2) Alternate hours – solid vs liquid (maltodextrin)
3) 1500 calories – 5 hours worth of Malto.
4) The solid food was 4 candy bars, 2 packs of Oreos, 2 packs of nuts, 3 bags of chips (All were about 280 calorie packs.)
5) Dinner and snacks – 600 calories of peanut butter filled pretzels and 400 calories of chocolate covered almonds.

I have done a number of high mileage trips fueling with foods like this. Easy to eat and drips in the fuel over the day. Works well for me, YMMV

So how long have you been on this health food kick?

Congrats on your PCT finish by the way- really enjoyed keeping up with your trail journal.

1500 cal over 5 hours = 300 cal/hr

6000 cal/day = four 1500 cal or 5 hr segments = hiking for 20 hr/day (4 hr sleep)