Low carb trail snacks

[Siestita]

"...The long term data clearly shows an increase in heart disease, atherosclerosis, diabetes, high blood pressure, and others that parallels the move to low-fat diets.

Bottom line: the low fat diet hype and scare is the greatest health epidemic of the last 50 years."


During the past seventy years or so four things have simultaneously happened here in the USA::

1. Increases in the aforesaid diseases.

2. Greatly increased rates of obesity in both adults and children.

3. Reduced physical activity by many people.

4. Increased consumption of food generally, including both lots more sugar than was previously consumed ("Don't you want to supersize that shake?") and also much more fat ("Fries come with that combo meal.").

Evidence is strong that increased obesity has brought with it lots of diabetes and other serious health problems. Inactivity, over consumption of carbohydrates, and over consumption of fats have apparently each separately contributed to our population's obesity epidemic.

Long distance hikers usually lose weight rather than gain it so, yes, there is much wisdom in the statement that "Fats and oils are extremely compatible with long distance hiking and provide greater energy to weight and energy to volume ratios than carbs." But, those of us who need to limit our weight while at home need to be wary of consuming too many calories from any source, including fats. At home its healthy for us to sometimes eat nuts, meat, and eggs, but not to excess.

I am wary of simplistic diet schemes that exalt or demonize "carbs" or "fats" or any other foods.

[OCDave]

Fasting while hiking would end my hiking real fast. I refuel frequently on the trail. My hiking cadence drops considerably once I have burned through my most recent snack. To maintain a reasonable hiking pace, I need frequent sustenance including readily available calories. With that perspective in mind, is continuing a low carbohydrate diet on a hiking adventure really the best idea?

[franky]

Chef - I try to keep my feeding window to 2 hours per day. I drink black coffee, black tea, herbal tea, water, seltzer all day and eat one meal per day at home with my family. Sometimes on Sundays I will have eggs/bacon at 1 PM and then dinner later on, giving that day an 8-hour window.

If I was by myself, I would probably eat that one meal mid-day.

Occasionally I will do multiple day fasts, with my longest being 4 days in duration.

I try to stay away from pasta, potatoes, rice, and bread. A typical meal is grilled chicken (with skin) and some broccoli with butter. I'll also have some mixed nuts, pork rinds (delicious and carb-free) and maybe an apple. Beer is my major weakness, but once I go without for a couple of days I can generally stay on track.

Jason Fung is a physician from Canada who advocates for intermittent fasting. He has written o couple of related books, and has put out a lot of free resources on the internet. He has changed my life.

[franky]

OCD - if you train your body to burn fat for energy instead of sugar, you won't be constantly needing to snack.

[Hikingchef]

Franky, 8 hours is pretty normal for us, my wife’s a Nurse and might each a “real lunch” once a week, and I’m (surprise) a chef, and eat a full lunch less than that, our biggest issue starts on our days off when we aren’t hiking and can snack and eat regularly. We cut pasta and bread out totally, with the exception of Home made, lower carb replacements. Once we get closer to our goal weights we plan on adding more fruits which will help on trail with quick sugars.
OCDave, the first month of low carb would have been impossible for us to hike anything more than a couple miles, having adjusted to it we have had more energy than before, even if we do fast. While it may not be ideal for a thru-hike, sticking to our diet, I think, won’t have any ill effects on a weekend trip, or even a week long trip as long as we regulate our calorie intake to match what we burn, regardless of when those calories are consumed.

[Riocielo]

Hikingchef,
I’m so glad you asked this question. I have been on a ketogenic diet since May (and have lost 62lbs) in order to deal with my impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistance.

I have been thinking of food to take on our next hike and wanted to avoid the high carb selections that turn my blood sugar into a roller coaster. There have been so many good suggestions!


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[RockDoc]

Low carb living and hiking is ancestral and works well. You will be the only hikers on the trail without the horrible "hiker hunger" caused by chronic carb addiction (sorry, Little Debbie). We've been doing it for three years, mostly in ketosis. The last month we went total carnivore, and had more energy, less joint pain, and lost about 10 lbs. See Facebook World Carnivore Tribe.

We hike with meat, avocado, eggs, jerky (homemade without sugar), nuts, cheese, 90% chocolate and certain types of meat bars (Epic bison bacon are our favorite). We eat only two meals/day because frankly we're not hungry. Lots of power for hiking because we are fat adapted.

There's no reason that you have to eat the number of calories that you theoretically are burning, you were designed to burn fat during endurance exercise. Think about it, we were hunter/gathers for hundreds of thousands of years prior to the melting of the glaciers, which made agriculture possible only 8,000 years ago. You don't need carbs, at all, in fact 97% of plants are poisonous and the remaining 3% have defensive chemicals that can make us quite ill. We do best in our Ice Age ancestral paradigm. Humans got shorter, sicker, and had smaller brains when they became grain eaters. Just look around at all the fat, sick sugar/grain eaters. Sickening. That's not natural. Humans are naturally very lean on their ancestral diet.

[Hikingchef]

Rio and rock, I’m glad to hear that we aren’t the only people in the world taking on the crazy venture of hiking while doing Keto! Rio, congrats!! Hopefully it’s helping everything else! We haven’t lost that much, we’ve been doing it since September, with the exception of December, and are down about 25# a piece.

[Riocielo]

Rio and rock, I’m glad to hear that we aren’t the only people in the world taking on the crazy venture of hiking while doing Keto! Rio, congrats!! Hopefully it’s helping everything else! We haven’t lost that much, we’ve been doing it since September, with the exception of December, and are down about 25# a piece.

I have my labs repeated Friday and hope to be taken off my meds then. I feel so much better on keto and plan for this to be my lifestyle from now on. Plus, no cravings and hunger...what’s not to love?


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[DrL]

I've been rocking a modified Atkins diet for a while now. See no reason to go back to the "Western Diet".

On bigger days (running or hiking) I definitely benefit from higher carb snacks. Banana chips are about 50/50 fat/carbs and have a high caloric density. So do those sesame stick snacks.

[OCDave]

.... Think about it, we were hunter/gathers for hundreds of thousands of years prior to the melting of the glaciers...

... Humans are naturally very lean on their ancestral diet.

I'd just point out that they lived on average about 25 years. (Not defending carbs but, I take the whole cave man diet thing with a bit of skepticism)

[TX Aggie]

I'd just point out that they lived on average about 25 years. (Not defending carbs but, I take the whole cave man diet thing with a bit of skepticism)

That was due more to predators that diet.


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[OCDave]

That was due more to predators that diet.

Sorry to OP as we stray temporarily from original topic: The point is that death at 25 precludes the diseases of aging. Arteriosclerotic vascular diseases, many malignacies, degenerative diseases and such are clearly impacted by nutrition. Again, I am not a nutritionalist nor am I defending carbs. I am simply pointing out it is reasonable to be sceptical.

[Gnomad]

Powdered butter with powdered coffee, powdered butter with cocoa powder and stevia, dried crackers made of cheese, single serve meats and cheese food packs from word market, walnuts, pecans, fresh cheeses for several days

[Hikingchef]

@gnomad powdered butter? That’s a new one to me.

[Gnomad]

https://www.amazon.com/Hoosier-Hill-.../dp/B00DC5ZKQE

[Dogwood]

Nuts and seeds and their butters as Mapman posted. Low carb doesn't have to entail gorging on even greater amounts of animal products than the typical U.S. public consumes.

Be careful that you don't look at your dietary and exercising changes as temporary. Think of your approach as long lasting lifestyle changes. I too am weary of diets that generally demonize fats, carbs, or proteins or promote one at the exclusion of the others as this has created so much nutritional confusion that always is changing and leads to a dedicated section at Barnes & Noble involving the latest greatest dietary fads.


BTW, any low carb diet that doesn't absolutely make it clear up front that there are more desirable complex carbs such as in vegetables verse simple carbs such as simple highly processed sugar and refined grains should be avoided as it's likely an unsustainable dietary proposition.

[JJ505]

@gnomad powdered butter? That’s a new one to me.

Not a fan due to taste. It's low in fat, which might be a factor if you are a LASH. However it might be good for adding protein. You can throw in oatmeal, etc. It mixed better than peanut butter.

[egilbe]

That was due more to predators that diet.


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Average age was so low due to high infant mortality. People were still living till their 80’s and 90’s, its just that there were fewer people living to be 2 or 3. Childhood diabetes was a death sentence. Now, that young dead person lives to 60 or 70 years of age.

When you are starving, there is no such thing as a bad calorie. Most long distance hikers are in starvation mode after several weeks. Its the reason so many nobos struggle with Maine and NH. Their bodies are breaking down. Very few people need to be extremely carb deficient while doing extreme exercises. As omnivores, we can eat a large range of foods, and seem to thrive if we do so. We need a varied diet for peak efficiency. Keep your diet as close to natural and fresh as possible. I’m a big fan of dried fruit. Never have experienced the crashes that rockdoc experiences after eating high carb foods. I tend to think he may be more intolerant to insulin spikes.

[Hikingchef]

Egilbe, we get crashes after carb heavy meals, but I didn’t use to when carbs were a larger portion of my calorie intake. It’s very possible it is an insulin, and blood sugar, spike. Doing a lower carb diet we don’t eat as much sugar, so, I’ve noticed, I’m more sensitive to it, both in flavor and energy levels. Dried fruit is wonderful, I still eat it, my wife is waiting until she’s closer to her goal weight because of the high sugar content.