Food weight - Appalachian Trail

imported
#1

I’m packing my food now. Doing five mail drops. Looks like alot of food weight for each drop. How much food weight do you think is too much?

Palmetto Tar

#2

1.5-2 pounds of food per day is the general rule.
It depends on the caloric and nutritional value of the foods
you use.
Some people eat pop tarts all day and make it to Maine.
I like a more varied menu, and don’t mind cooking.
Thru hiking is not necessarily a ‘survival’ regime.
Ideally, you’ll eat 4000-6000 calories per day, about twice
what you normally eat at home.

Scamp

Scamp

#3

Good answer by Scamp. Thru-hiking requires 4000 to 6000 calories per day. So read the little labels on everything and figure out how to get that amount of calories every day. Your body needs it. Now, try to bring along food that has at least 100 calories per ounce.

People tend to worry about gear selection, and totally neglect food considerations. If everyone put as much thought and effort into food as they do gear, many many more hikers would not drop out because their bodies got worn down from not eating enough.

Peaks

#4

Hey, it’s tough to eat twice as much food as you normally do.
Try it some day.
Fortunately the exercise of backpacking makes it easier to
eat more.

Don’t forget your multivitamin, too. I used Wally World’s
Source One vitamins, which gove about 300% of everything.
Just cut 'em in half and eat well, to get your vitamins.

Pig out in town!-)

Scamp

Scamp

#5

Good point on the vitamins Scamp, though no real need to cut them in half if they bottle says 300%. Won’t get into the biochemical aspects of it, but with rare exception (A and E come to mind, D and K to a much lesser extent) your body will eliminate what it doesn’t need, unless you are MEGA-dosing, and I mean MEGA!!!. Those values are calculated for average, “sedentary” individuals, not active people, and certainly not the rigors of trail-life everyday. Find a quality vitamin, lots of vitamin C and all the B’s especially (immunity, metabolic functions, respectively).

Although the jury is out and debate rages (forget anything read in the health food store and especially anything from health magazines and Prevention/Women’s Day/etc), for older hikers, Glucosamine might not be bad in the long hall, though one pill does no good, it takes a short while to build up any real levels. Your call there, will be a few years before any real, credible scientific studies are published (refer to comment above).

A good, varied diet and a good multivitamin/mineral pill should do you fine, good luck on the trail. :nerd

airferret

#6

I carried to much food at first. I thought I would need 8 days worth. Then I figured out that I could stop in a town evry 3-4 days and resupply. At 2 lbs a day. I was leaving town with 12 to 18 lbs of food plus the moonshine and whiskey(2-3 more lbs)I thought I was going to eat alot but really only increased by 30-50% of my at home intake.

Virginian

#7

Well, I don’t know what airferret considers an “older hiker,” but I took glucosamine every day on the Trail last year once my knees started kicking up, and it’s good stuff. Jeff started taking it for the last 500 miles, or so, and also found it to be helpful. I was 31 and Jeff turned 30 on the trail. Are we “older?”

Average adult dose is 1500 mg glucosamine per day, +/- 1200 mg chondroiten. Usually that’s 3 tablets per day, depending on the formulation, and it takes 2-3 weeks to reach peak efficacy. That’s a lot of big horse pills to carry, but we thought it was worth it.

The jury is still out on how well chondroiten works, but glucosamine is becoming fairly well accepted as a beneficial supplement, although there haven’t been many studies. I’ve prescribed it for lots of dogs (I’m a veterinarian), and the difference it makes can be quite impressive, especially since there’s really not really a placebo efffect in animals… It was enough to make me interested, and I’m a big skeptic about the whole supplement market.

My 2 cents… Enjoy the Trail!!

-chipper

chipper & jeff '02

#8

Anyone have any experience with Sun Chlorella A? My parents take it and are both 81 and active and in great shape. My father still chops firewood and bowls on a team. I have been taking it, but have not noticed any real changes. It is basically algae (in pill form) which has been written up as having health benefits. One article talked about certain fish that feed on algae. When you eat the fish you get the nutriants/benefit from the algae. I’m still packing a multi-vitamin.

I learned from my hike last summer that if you do not eat properly, you lose your energy fast. The good thing was, as soon as I started eating right, the energy returned. I’m still trying to figure out how to add a 1# jar of peanut butter and keep my 3 day supply of food under 7#.

Skeemer

#9

Why carry a whole pound? Is it even possible to eat a pound
of peanut better in 3 days?
I carried 18 oz. jars last year and am going to use 10 oz. jars
this year, to save weight. 18 oz. was planned to last 2 weeks, or more.
I never used a whole jar before my next maildrop.

There are several dehydrated food vendors that sell ‘powdered
peanut butter’. Do you add peanut oil or water? LOL

Try walton feed, usaemergency, or bowmansbrigade for dehydrated food.

Scamp

Scamp

#10

I bought some Skippy peanut butter PACKETS for my maildrops - maybe they haven’t been discovered by hikers yet??? They come in a box of six; 0.9 oz each packet (enough for two bagel halves). Available in plain or chocolate flavored at Albertson’s down here in Florida. About $2-2.50 per box. Sure beats carrying a jar of PB, then running out of bagels to put it on. I could only find them at one certain store in the area. Save yourself some hassle and call around first before you go out to get some. Photo at TrailJournals.

special T

#11

as a lil tyke, i did some silly things, then years and years of kungfu, i have two popped knees. i can tell you glucosomine worked for me. here in england we get ‘jointace’ (glucosomine, omega-3, pure cod liver oil, vits c/d/e/b12, folate, trace mins)… this is fantastic stuff.

one thing to note about glucosomine, you have to double dosage to start with so your body can build up a supply, then after that its like 1 tablet ever other day. so if you are going to take glucosomine, you need to do it about 1 or 2 months in advance of the hike

i have found this has done wonders for my knees… that or its the old placebo affect hehehe :slight_smile:

Bloody Cactus