Protein on the trail

[Malto]

Speaking of ridiculous. I doubt anyone could eat 20 Snickers bars a day and not have adverse effects. This is about hiking for months on end, not a state fair competitive food eating competition. Plus at .99 cents a bar that's $19.80 a day on 2.6 pounds of food.

There were many days that I ate up to 6000 cal of pure junk and Maltodextrin plus another 2000 cal of other stuff.

The best advice I saw and adopted was "Carbs for hiking, protein for recovery!" That doesn't mean zero protein during the day because as others said there is some protein in most foods. As for why hikers are bonking? I hiked with a couple of hikers on my thruhike that were likely as strong or stronger hikers than I was. But they failed to meter enough calories into them during the day and they bonked often in the mid afternoon. I target about 280 calories per hour, mostly pure junk food and maltodextrin. At the day's end I will eat more nuts and other protein sources as well as a healthy shot of carbs for recovery. I only had one day that I bonked and that was a 40+ mile day with rationed food heading into a resupply.

Finally, don't overthink it. Take enough foods that you can actually eat and meter them in all day long.

[leaftye]

Speaking of ridiculous. I doubt anyone could eat 20 Snickers bars a day and not have adverse effects. This is about hiking for months on end, not a state fair competitive food eating competition. Plus at .99 cents a bar that's $19.80 a day on 2.6 pounds of food.

Of course. Those are just examples. 1, 3 & 4 would be a great recipe for getting diabetes because of the very high glycemic index of those foods. You should look up some of my other posts about my particular low glycemic / high calorie trail diet. That said, I'm about to start using either candy bars or peanut M&M's as my foul weather trail diet...M&M's would be packaged into smaller bags of known calories to down quickly like a shot of whiskey. Sometimes the need to get calories to avoid the very high short term risk of hypothermia is more important than the long term risk of getting diabetes.

You comparison about an eating competition is pretty much spot on. It's tough to eat that much and it can feel like an eating competition.

[hobby]

"there is a gent who's exploring pemmican....."

We had pemmican bars at Philmont years ago. It was said that pemmican "looked and tasted the same going in, as it did coming out!"

[garlic08]

On my AT thru, there were a couple of days I lost energy at the end of the day. On those days I ate extra fat and protein, like if I packed too much cheese or peanut butter. That would leave me feeling full and I wouldn't eat enough carbs for energy. That may not have been the whole reason, but it happened twice and that's what it felt like to me.

[Echraide]

I combine whey or soy protein powder with Carnation Instant Breakfast and powdered milk, and just add water. I mix them ahead of time and send them to myself in my mail drops.

[Feral Nature]

FWIW I lost 70 lbs on Atkins. Towards the end, I was looking pretty haggard. The diet does indeed work, and fast.

[Papa D]

+1 to Carnation instant breakfast
+1 to powdered milk (with granola and dried fruit) - just pre-mix a few zip locks, add water, shake, eat

[swjohnsey]

If you ate only Snickers you would almost get enough protein.

[JAK]

I think these are good, and fairly easy to remember guidelines...

For every 1000 kcal burned yesterday:
Protien: 25g
Carbs: 75g less 1g for every 2 pounds of body fat.
Fats: 75g less 1g for every 2 pounds of body fat.

So, for example, if you have 50 pounds of body fat and burned 3000 kcal yesterday...
Protien: 25g x 3 = 75g.
Carbs: (75g - 50/2) x 3 = 150g.
Fats: (75g - 50/2) x 3 = 150g.

Diet percentages, in this case, work out to be 13%, 27%, 60%, in this case, for 2250 kcal.
Weight loss would be 750kcal or about 0.21 pounds per day.

[q-tip]

Textured Vegitable Protein, 3.5 oz includes 48 grams of protein. Best weight to protein ratio I have found.

[rgarling]

JAK
Try to change the way you think about protein consumption. The amount of protein you need depends on your lean body mass and your activity level, rather than the number of calories you consume. In other words, if you are inactive, 1/2 gram per pound of lean body mass is sufficient. If you are very active, 1 gram per pound of lean body mass is sufficient; however, the body can deal with an overage without difficulty. People have 'over eaten' protein to the level of 5 or 6 grams per pound of lean body mass without difficulty.

[Sarcasm the elf]

After reading this thread, I fell that Mags may need to add a trail food section to his HMHDI web page.

[JAK]

JAK
Try to change the way you think about protein consumption. The amount of protein you need depends on your lean body mass and your activity level, rather than the number of calories you consume. In other words, if you are inactive, 1/2 gram per pound of lean body mass is sufficient. If you are very active, 1 gram per pound of lean body mass is sufficient; however, the body can deal with an overage without difficulty. People have 'over eaten' protein to the level of 5 or 6 grams per pound of lean body mass without difficulty.

Thanks. Maybe I could pump up my protien a bit. My lean mass is about 150 pounds, so that would indicate 150g, when active, and 75g when inactive. I will assume 4000 kcal per day when active and 2000 kcal per day when inactive, so I think I can still tie it in with calories burned but again I will base it on the previous days activity.

So now I think I will try the following...

For every 1000 kcal burned yesterday:
Protien: 40g
Carbs: 65g less 1g for every 2 pounds of body fat.
Fats: 65g less 1g for every 2 pounds of body fat.

So, for example, if you have 50 pounds of body fat and burned 3000 kcal yesterday...
Protien: 40g x 3 = 120g.
Carbs: (65g - 50/2) x 3 = 120g.
Fats: (65g - 50/2) x 3 = 120g.

Diet percentages, in this case, work out to be roughly 24%, 24%, 52% for 2040 kcal.
Weight loss would be 960 kcal/day or about 2 pounds per week.

[hikingshoes]

+1 to Carnation instant breakfast
+1 to powdered milk (with granola and dried fruit) - just pre-mix a few zip locks, add water, shake, eat

I'll second that on the Carnation instant breakfast but i add NEO powdered milk(thanks EL Flaco).

[Tinker]

"there is a gent who's exploring pemmican....."

We had pemmican bars at Philmont years ago. It was said that pemmican "looked and tasted the same going in, as it did coming out!"

UH..................................who, exactly, was in charge of the tasting coming out...............

[Pedaling Fool]

Some interesting info concerning vegetarian diet and protien http://www.bicycling.com/training-nu...2011-_-veg_out

[Pedaling Fool]

More protein stuff... http://www.bicycling.com/training-nu...wer_of_protein

[TWTP]

Why not use whey protein supplementation added to a portion of your water? It's extremely lightweight, efficient, can be stored for months in a dropbox, and comes in a variety of flavors to mask whatever purification method you're using. They also sell "gainer" mixes which contain malodextrin and fat sources. Bodybuilding.com is a good resource for this stuff.

The thru-hikers I've met while hiking parts of the AT all used whey protein in their water.

[leaftye]

Why not use whey protein supplementation added to a portion of your water? It's extremely lightweight, efficient, can be stored for months in a dropbox, and comes in a variety of flavors to mask whatever purification method you're using. They also sell "gainer" mixes which contain malodextrin and fat sources. Bodybuilding.com is a good resource for this stuff.

The thru-hikers I've met while hiking parts of the AT all used whey protein in their water.

Two reasons:
1. There's no need to supplement with protein while on the trail if you're eating enough calories.
2. Maltodextrin is a terrible thing to eat in the large quantities that a thru hiker is likely to consume.

[brian039]

Protein, while important, shouldn't be your main concern. Hiking being a low-intensity aerobic exercise will cause your body to metabolize fat as its main fuel source. So a focus on getting plenty of high-quality fats into your diet should be a main concern. Peanut butter and olive oil are 2 examples of easily obtained high-quality fat products that you can carry in your food bag.