Calories on the Trail

[partinj]

I was wonder how to you try to keep up your calories on the trail i was gone to bring a
bottle of butter and mabye some fatback to go in my noddles don't how long fatback will stay good.What do you guys do for calories

[garlic08]

Nuts and cheese for fat, otherwise lots of carbs. Tortillas have more fat than most breads. Greasy diner food and ice cream in town.

[bigcranky]

Bottle of liquid margarine is good for fat and calories, but maybe not so good for health. Not sure. But I often carry a bottle of olive oil and put a big squirt in my dinner.

Beyond that, I too eat a lot of nuts and cheese.

[PigNancy]

OLIVE OIL!! seriously, it's great. 120 calories per tablespoon

[DrRichardCranium]

Use moderation re. olive oil, or other oils

[BrianLe]

+1 on olive oil. All the foods that you stay away from at home --- candy bars, chips, cookies, whatever you like.
Then expect to lose some weight on the trail anyway, but pig out in trail towns.

I have an "edge" in that I'll be starting the trail next month overweight ... :-)
Seriously, some people don't mind having some excess body fat starting out on a long trail; for me the important bit is just being strong enough to do decent miles without injury or too much pain during the first couple of weeks.

[JAK]

Once you are down to a healthy %body fat, you should eat roughly what you burn.
Since hiking is done at a fairly low intensity, long duration, it should burn mostly fat.
Say 15% protien, 20-30% carbohydrates, 55-65% fat.
Fats should be no more than 1/3 saturated, and none hydrogenated.

So stuff like nuts and seeds and peanuts (a fatty legume) are good sources of fats.
Oatmeal is a somewhat fatty whole grain, that goes well with fruit and nuts.
Some cheese and fatty meats are ok, because 1/3 of fats can be saturated.
Olive oil is excellent, and can be added to bread or oatmeal.

If you still have a few pounds to lose though, you can reduce your fat intake, but keep the protien and carbohydrates the same. So perhaps 15% protien, 25% carbs, 25% fat from food, 35% fat from body.

[Blissful]

Well balanced nutrition is your best plan. And eat fresh fruits and veggies in town with plety of protein for muscle rebuilding.

[partinj]

Hi thank for all the help. Do you guys have a band name olive oil you like
i have been try a few brands but so far have not like the taste of the ones i try.
I also been thinking about bringing my own pasta instead of oddles of noodles
like the whole wheat kind. What do you think is worth the trouble or should i just use the oddlesi don't use the pack that come with them way to much salt.

[Compass]

Noodles or rice are good but try to avoid prepackaged food they will have hydrogenated oils to improve shelf life and rediculous sodium content. In a bind add more rice or pasta to a prepackage meal to try to minimize the bad stuff.

Whole grains (brown rice, oatmeal, barley, rye, quinoa, spelt...)are better but I have avoided whole wheat for about 9 years because it started causing me GI issues.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil does have a flavor. Make sure it is fresh(check date). It goes great with a little Parmesian.

[garlic08]

Use moderation re. olive oil, or other oils

Ditto this. I hiked the PCT with a very fit 40-year old who guzzled olive oil for calories. After the hike, he went home and had a coronary. He survived. Since then, we learned that the healthy Mediterranean cultures who consume olive oil do so in moderation, not as a large percentage of their calories.

[BrianLe]

"Do you guys have a band name olive oil you like
i have been try a few brands but so far have not like the taste of the ones i try."

Whatever I can buy cheap. Personally, I don't drink the stuff directly (!) or put it on my bread a la a fancy restaurant scenario, but just add about a fluid oz or so to whatever dinner meal I cook up that night. Adds some flavor, when body mass leans out and effort level is high, the body wants those fats and oils so it tastes really good. And of course, it's a calorically dense food to be carrying, so long as the container it's in isn't heavy.

[thelowend]

Hi thank for all the help. Do you guys have a band name olive oil you like
i have been try a few brands but so far have not like the taste of the ones i try.
I also been thinking about bringing my own pasta instead of oddles of noodles
like the whole wheat kind. What do you think is worth the trouble or should i just use the oddlesi don't use the pack that come with them way to much salt.

take some extra virgin olive oil and soak some herbs in it or something (anything with a flavor can be soaked in it) and that would certainly help the taste. i would recommend oregano or basil; something that would be applicable in a lot of situations.

[cascader]

raisins have a very high calorie to weight ratio--there's a reason hikers have been carrying gorp (raisins plus nuts plus m&ms or whatever) for decades as a calorie + energy supplement.

[i'mthru]

Little Debbie Nutty Bars were a staple for me. they are light weight and pack like 310 or 320 calories a pack as welll as being pretty durable in my pack.

[Snowleopard]

There is something called 'light' olive oil that has less 'olive oil' flavor. A good quality extra virgin olive oil has more of that 'olive oil' taste.

Eating a high fat diet is not healthy in the long term. Probably the healthiest diet consists of whole grains, lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, beans, moderate amounts of fish, small amounts of lean meats, small amounts of non-hydrogenated vegetable oil and almost zero animal fat or red meat. Although fats are the most calorie dense (cals/oz) foods, it's not healthy to eat a large per cent of your calories as fat.

Fresh fruits and veggies are hard to manage on the trail, except on the first day or two after a town stop. Dehydrated, freeze dried or canned (heavy) fruits and veggies are not as good as fresh, but better than none. It's hard enough to eat a healthy diet on the trail that perhaps the best we can try for is to eat a healthier diet than most hikers.

Good nutrition is more important for thru-hikers than for weekend hikers. A couple days or a week of a poor diet doesn't do much damage compared to months of it.

[Ox97GaMe]

I found that Snickers bars were pound for pound one of the highest contents of fat in the candy bar family. I also loaded up on Ben and Jerry's ice cream whenever I could. That is about 2000 calories per pint.

The rest of the time, I would just stuff myself when I was in town. A lot of the trail towns have some sort of all you can eat buffet, or restraunts that have hiker specials to help you load up on calories.

[DrRichardCranium]

and almost zero animal fat or red meat

Depends on the person.

My ancestors lived on farms in the mountains, and one of their main staple protein sources was salt pork. They'd butcher a hog & salt it down in a barrel, & take pieces out as they needed. They tended to live into their 80s & 90s.

Humans are diverse in terms of diet. Some can handle animal meat just fine.

[Mags]

There is something called 'light' olive oil that has less 'olive oil' flavor.

Anathema!

EVO or nothing.

Being serious, you do need fat in the diet. Most people equate low fat with "no or minimal fat". Ain't good. I cook with a small amount of butter or ev olive oil (real aka "good" fats). The problem is that people get most of their fats from processed food (transfats) and that food, in turns, leaves you less full.

Interesting book I read a little bit ago...

Beware of fads and so-called "healthy" products....

I am not expert..but the in our heart of hearts, I think most people know Oreos, Big Macs, and no fruits/veggies while being a couch potato is not good!


On the trail? I am terrible with my diet, I admit it. But, I try to eat lots of fruits and veggies in town. Hell, I CRAVE a big salad and the non-processed food.

On the PCT, I knew of a couple who were a Phsy Asst and a Nurtrionist. They did a healthy trail diet. By the time they hit Cajon PAss (with McD's .5 miles off the trail) they were slurping down Big Macs.

[fredmugs]

I don't understand why people think it's OK to eat crap just because they are burning lots of calories. Lard? Fatback? That's what my grandparents ate during the Depression.

The worse think I eat on the trail is a Snickers bar. I eat cajun trail mix, granola bars, a dehydrated meal, and a MetRx meal replacement bar. And that's doing 20+ mile days.

Eat what you like. You don't need to eat fat for the sake of eating fat.