Question on backcountry food

[Jim/Wa]

FWIW, I try to average about 125 calories/ounce final weight. That's about 2000cal/lb. Many Mountain House meals, for example, only provide ~100 cal/ounce before you add in the package wt. Pasta/tortillas can be even less. I generally offset weight from less calorie dense carbs with higher calorie fats like peanut butter, nutella, or trailmix. Packaging weight can really add up for a 7-10 day trip if you're not careful so I usually repackage into plastic baggies or similar.

 

[ImBillT]

FWIW, I try to average about 125 calories/ounce final weight. That's about 2000cal/lb. Many Mountain House meals, for example, only provide ~100 cal/ounce before you add in the package wt. Pasta/tortillas can be even less. I generally offset weight from less calorie dense carbs with higher calorie fats like peanut butter, nutella, or trailmix. Packaging weight can really add up for a 7-10 day trip if you're not careful so I usually repackage into plastic baggies or similar.

I totally agree for trips over seven days. You’re gonna have to get the calories and fat is the lightest way to do it. For shorter trips though, I refuse to carry fat in my pack when there is already fat on my back. That goes down to the 10% BF range for me. Fat cannot replenish muscle glycogen. I would much rather carry fewer calories and bring the same weight of low/non-sugar carbs. 1200-2000 calories will replace a very strenuous day’s muscle glycogen. 1lb of spaghetti noodles yields about 1600 calories(just as you suggested), almost all from carbs and 1.5lb of game meat drys down to about 1lbs and yields roughly 1000 calories including 175g of protein. If I’m at the truck I’d rather have more fiber and not just pasta. Whole grain pasta helps a little on that front.

All in all I still say for 4-6 day trips it’s not terribly important. Bring something convenient, light if you have to pack it, and MOST importantly something that agrees with your digestion.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

I personally just kinda pack stuff that I like and roll out. It's probably the part of backpacking I think least about. I'm not saying there's no benefit to digging into the details, I just don't care that much myself at this point.

 

[1_pointer]

I personally just kinda pack stuff that I like and roll out. It's probably the part of backpacking I think least about. I'm not saying there's no benefit to digging into the details, I just don't care that much myself at this point.

I'm in this camp. If I like the taste and it makes a turd I'll have no trouble taking it.

 

[sdkhunter]

I don't do as much backpacking in as I used to but as someone mentioned above, I had gotten away from bringing in a stove, pot, etc - was just too much of a pain. I'm an archery hunter though so the weather is milder so I'm not worried about a hot meal, melting snow, etc. I would normally put a days worth of food into like a quart type bag - try to bring a bag for each day. What I found was that I would still cherry pick through the bags and bring back plenty of food to the trail head vehicle when I was done hunting... I like granola bars, cliff bars, protein bars, trail mix, few candy bars, nuts like almonds and cashews, bagels, tortilla's, etc. One of my favorite things was bringing along a few small hill-shire farm type summer sausages - because you can bring them along without worrying about keeping refrigerated...