Basic food question

The basic answer –

Search this site for "caloric density food".
LOTS of threads and info.

What works for you. There is no all around "best" or "lightest". So explore the options available to you and decide for yourself.

Fats are the most caloric dense at 9 kcal per gram then protein and carbs at 4 kcal per gram.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_energy

Short answer as to why I don't just eat butter throughout the day, I find that I prefer to burn mostly carbs during the day for energy and then transition to more protein and fats later in the day for recovery and to get calories on board to fuel my furnace for sleeping.

What satisfies me on the trail may be different than what works for you.

On day three of the wonderland, I lost my appetite for the high calorie crap I brought with me, and began to retch when I ate it. I wasn't sick; my appetite just dramatically changed I couldn't force myself to eat another Little Debbie’s brownie or any of the other crap I brought.

We had some serious climbing and decent mileage on our last day. Because I couldn't force myself to eat the garbage I brought, I finished the last day with well under 1000 kcal consumed, a huge energy bonk, and a few lbs of uneaten food.

Not smart.

Do what you can to try and keep your food average above 100kcal per oz, but also make sure you bring food that you'll actually want to eat on the trail.

So yeah, top ramen, little Debbie’s, mashed potatoes, olive oil, all that stuff is great if you can eat it.

I always carry a good portion of my food that is edible without cooking. Also, I carry a good portion that is high on my list of favorites. It has to be something that I can eat even if I am not hungry. That is kind of a psychological thing. If you are starving and hungry enough, you will eat almost anything. But if you are just at zero appetite that day, you still need to eat something.

–B.G.–

There is no right answer to this one. Sure, there are studies, formulas etc. that show what you should eat to get the desired results but in the end its going to depend on your personal psyche/physiology of the moment. I've burned through a lot of "favorite" foods over the years. What worked well on one venture was unpalatable on next. My current favorite approach it to buy on the fly, but this only applies to longer hikes with occasional access to stores.
On short trips (less than 10 days or so) I don't put a lot of thought into and just pack whatever seems right at the moment. I always seem to end up with around 1.5lbs of food a day but the terrain I'm hiking in can greatly affect that. Heat, snow travel, elevation etc. can be game changers.
For what it's worth I recommend experimenting on short trips. Recognize that if you wouldn't eat something at home you're probably not going to eat it on the trail. Don't get too hung up on food weight. Try to keep keep things in balance.

yeah, no one "right" answer

I used to eat Mountain House dinners, but after I couldn't get the mass of lasagna off my spoon, it just seemed unappetizing

My theory is you want to eat healthy food. 5 servings of fruits/vegetables per day is good, although harder to do when backpacking. And nuts/whole grains/legumes. You want fiber for your intestines to work properly, and for general health.

So:
3 ounces oatmeal with brown sugar and dried powder milk
2 ounces raisins
2 ounces whole wheat crackers
2 ounces dates
2 ounces chocolate
2 ounces nuts
2 ounces string cheese
1 ounce pepperoni
3 ounces legume soup like Nile Spice black bean/pea/they have another bean version. add to this 1/3 ounce each dehydrated tomato, pepper, onion. Bring 1 cup water to boil, turn down low, add dry ingredients, stir, put on lid, turn off maybe 30 seconds after adding dry ingredients, wait 5 or 10 minutes.

This is much more satisfying than malto dextrin with olive oil : )

if 1 ounce of dehydrated = 4 ounce of rehydrated = 1 "serving", that's 5 servings

But seriously, as others have said, fats are over twice the caloric density of carbs and protein. However, a gallon of olive oil (30,000 calories at 7.5 pounds) would get a little boring after 10 days on the trail. Also, there are limits to what your gut will tolerate and what nutrients your body needs when you stray too far from an everyday mix of mostly carbs plus fats and some protein.

For really cheap, easy, and lightweight, Ramen is way up there. 380 calories for $0.20 on sale ($1.60/day). And, if you're on the move, in a no-fire zone, the stove breaks, or you're going stoveless, you can eat it straight from the package a lot easier than pasta, corn meal or FD food. It is, however, bulkier than many other options, and bulk costs some weight to the extent that you need a larger volume pack and bulk costs a lot of weight in bear-canister territory.

Before implementing any brilliant, new-to-you scheme to save food weight, test the concept on a weekend trip before you do it for a week. And then test it for a week or two before a thru-hike. Otherwise, stick with a more varied diet, and try to have some flexibility on your drop boxes (tell your support person, "NO MORE Beef sticks! but triple up on the cashews and quinoa!" or whatever your carvings are telling you.

Ian, "I lost my appetite for the high calorie crap I brought with me, and began to retch when I ate it. I wasn't sick; my appetite just dramatically changed I couldn't force myself to eat another Little Debbie’s brownie or any of the other crap I brought."

+1

Bob, "Also, I carry a good portion that is high on my list of favorites. It has to be something that I can eat even if I am not hungry. That is kind of a psychological thing. "

+1

Anecdote (true):

My doctor is more studly than your doctor. (So's his partner, my wife). Anyway, he was in great shape before his first Iditarod (a little 1,049-mile, 2-week-long sled dog race people do up here). He played a lot of soccer, had put in 3,000 trail miles on the team beforehand and he ran up all the hills on those runs. You wouldn't think he had any fat to lose. And he packed the tastiest-to-him, more caloric stuff he think of, hang the expense. Brownies, pizza (easy to keep frozen), etc. And he still lost 3 belt notches. He ate continuously for 3 weeks afterwards. Part of it was that he was going almost non-stop – the dogs run 12 hours a day, but he also has to melt snow, water the dogs, harness them, feed them, put on booties, make camp, etc. Plus running up the hills, standing on the sled, etc, I'd guess he was burning 7,000-8,000 calories a day for two weeks and only sleeping 2-4 hours a night. And many of us find our appetite doesn't keep up during extreme events. There's better data on the dogs than the mushers, but the more injury-free miles the dogs have in a season, the better they do. I suspect few people really get to their max daily exertion for a long period of time because we're too impatient to ramp up to it appropriately.

… test the concept on a weekend trip before you do it for a week.

David is right on with this.

However, you can get away with more junk on a weekend than on a week. Malnutrition may not be an issue for a night or two, but for a week you want to make sure to be healthy.

Instant rice with a meat packet.

instant rice is not food

is a "meat packet" food?

: )

Tx for all the great replies. Its interesting how many of you said its individualized. My own story, for yrs, for breakfast would have ramen or oatmeal. Then on a trip I trip mountainhouse eggs and ham, WAMMO, i was hooked!!! There is something about eggs in the morning that gives me so much energy in the day! I now dont eat much for lunch or dinner. But a large breakfast of eggs and ham is mandatory!!!

I've taken hard boiled eggs before

I went backpacking with family members that brought axes, saws, two white gas stoves,… They brought a Nalgene full of eggs and had scrambled eggs.

Somewhere I have a plastic container that holds eggs and protects them from breaking.

[…]

Dried refried beans and instant brown rice in a tortilla. That's my most recent go-to meal. Easy to cook, clean up, hot and filling.
Kelly