Finally got back to making some meals again – questions on calories, etc.

[Zack Freije]

I find that I don’t really like to take time to make a hot breakfast in the morning, and protein bars tend to be expensive and full of things I don’t love. Plus I like to get going in the morning and typically drink a protein shake at home rather than eat anything heavy.

I don’t think I’ve solved the price issue, but I do have this protein shake recipe:

Is 493 calories a good amount for breakfast?

I am close to my 40/30/30 ratio between carbs, protein and fat. And I get about half my fiber intake for the day. Total cost is $3, and my calories per oz is better than the target of 109.4 (3,500 calories for 2 lbs of food)

The idea is to pour the contents into my water bottle, fill with water, shake, and then drink as I go.

The next one is a dinner. It’s a Mexican meal. As you’ll soon realize, I’m vegetarian.

840 calories for dinner I think may be reasonable.

It’s not quite 40/30/30. However, the extra carbs may be good for muscle glycogen. This meal hits the total recommended minimum fiber intake for the day. Psyllium husk fiber contributes towards regulating the firmness of bowel movements which can be a benefit when backpacking.

This ~7oz dinner hits 125+ calories per ounce which beats the target of 109 cal/oz.

Obviously taste will play a big factor for both of these and the dinner pricing isn’t exactly amazing to be honest. But I do get to control exactly what goes into it.

 

What is your feeback?

[Zack Freije]

Sorry, I have no idea how to edit the original post.

I fixed the info on the beans:

[Zack Freije]

I don’t typically stop long for lunch which means I don’t typically cook lunch. However, I put together a possible hot lunch item that’s heavy on the carbs:

653 calories, 149 cal/oz which is pretty great. Still rather high in the fiber content.

If I were to combine the breakfast, lunch and dinner that I specified here, I would be looking at 2,046 calories for the day with ~ 1lb of food + any snacks I bring along.

I typically target around 2,500-3,000 calories per day. Quite frankly, I can afford to lose a little bit of fat, so I don’t mind going lite on the calories whenever possible.

 

[Matthew / BPL]

Those sound delicious.

Why are your beans so expensive? You can buy a huge #10 can of FD refried beans from Honeyville Farms for $13 iirc. I don’t know if they are vegan or not…

I can’t imagine adding a heavy dose of psyllium to a refried bean and corn dinner. I’d have to dig an urgent cathole in the middle of the night. I’m all for psyllium, I often pop a capsule of it AM and PM when on longer trips but not in the evening when I have beans for dinner!

[Rob P]

Not a vegetarian, but that shake looks tasty….might have to try it!

[Zack Freije]

psyllium is just fiber. It doesn’t cause you to go to the bathroom. What it can do is make you feel more full, and it can firm up soft stool.

The beans are just a box of something organic and vegetarian. This is more to try the recipe rather than to manufacture hundreds of dinners.

[Zack Freije]

It was very challenging and time consuming to get this amount of protein shake powder into the small mouth of the smartwater bottle. I tried to fashion a funnel out of my stove base plate. It was still challenging and time consuming. And I had some residue in my bottle for the rest of the trip.

Once I managed to get it in there and shaken up, it wasn’t bad though.

[Zack Freije]

I would skip the psyllium husk fiber in the mexican meal – for consistency reasons…makes it a bit more “slimy” than I would like.

[Lester Moore]

It’s good Zack that you are planning your food so well, as planning really paid off on a recent JMT hike my buddy and I did. Like you, we enjoyed getting up and hiking in the morning without cooking or fussing with food, often just eating a bar on the trail while hiking (much less than the 493 cal breakfast you mentioned).

Adding in some good fiber ingredients is a great idea, especially for folks with shy bowels as I have in the backcountry (I’d do this next time). However, I’ve tried protein drink mixes and electrolyte mixes before on trips but never seem to make the time to prepare them while on the trail, so mixing the fiber in with meals seems like a good idea.

A key thing we experienced on the JMT hike was that our calorie and food preferences changed over the trip, especially after the first week. We purposely carried less food during the first week but could have actually carried less, especially the first 3 days or so. At each resupply point we planned a little more calories per day. After a week, our hunger kicked in more and we found about 2500 cal per day to work well, with sufficient calories to perform well and lose only 10 lbs over 2 weeks.

I found myself craving more protein and things like chicken after the first week, even though I had jerky, sausage and dehydrated kale (good amino acid source). As a vegetarian, meat probably would not become a craving for you. But changing calorie and food needs over time is something rarely experienced on shorter trips and worth considering if you have longer trips planned.

 

[Zack Freije]

I definitely notice different hunger levels depending on weather. My biggest issue is that so much of the food is sweet or chocolate covered. That really turns my stomach…I prefer salty or sour or starchy. And I really miss fresh food/veggies.

[Matt Swider]

For me, I don’t think focusing on a certain number of calories for a meal is as important as having a certain number per day.   Have plenty of snacks so you can eat on the go.  eat big meals when you can, if not breakfast then lunch or dinner.  But if big meals don’t work for you then even more snacks.

My last 10 day trip I budget 2500-3000 calories a day.  I ended up eating even more than that, due to bringing “extra” food, and eating other’s food.   if you don’t mind loosing weight, bring a bit less.  If you hike farther than we did (a leisurely 7-10 miles a day) bring more.

[Author]

Posts