What kind of foods have a high calorie to weight ratio?
Jeff
High calorie foods
system
#2
is tough to beat for calories.Good on oatmeal,bagels,ramen,and everything else!
Pepperoni and cheese is also a favorite of mine in the cooler times.Still hiking after all these years.
Onlyone
system
#3
ziplock stick of butter
as many honeybuns as you can carry
butterfingers 
nutello!!!
pb/j mix
i knew a guy who drank chocolate syrup throughout the day.
jacelor
system
#4
With all the servings per container, calories per service, and weight, etc labels on food today; your question is very easy to answer by going to the store, looking at the labels and doing a little math.
If you hit 100 calories per ounce, you are doing good. Figure 2 pounds of food per day, and if it contains 100 calories per ounce than you have 3200 calories per day, which may or may not be enough, depending on your body weight, etc. In fact hiking and consuming 3200 calories per day, you may lose weight. So you will either gain (unlikely), lose (most likely), or maintain your current weight while hiking. Super active people in excellent physical condition tend to maintain their weight. While those with a little extra weight being carried around (or a lot) tend to lose some of it.
Back to the question: Canned meats are good (spam, vienna sausage, etc). tuna is excellent in cans or pouches. Dehydrated foods are great (the water removed means the calories are still there, but a lot of the weight has been removed, which is good because you don’t have to carry it.) Dehydrated fruits (apples, raisens, or whatever you can get) and beef jerky are great. Nuts are good. Cheese. Chocolate candy bars. Rice, beans, and all types of grains are good (oats, barley, corn, etc), but larger grains take a long time to cook (like beans), but small ones (like rice) cook quick. And ramen is a staple because it is so light and so cheap at around 10 cents a pack and so easy to fix (just add hot water).
Try to pack as many calories in an ounce as you can and also get a good selection of things. Hope all this helps.
See you out there. :cheers
Maintain
system
#5
Cake Frosting!!! It’s cheap and loaded with carbs (it’s mostly sugar and fat.) Peanut butter is a good one too, and it’s got a lot of protein. My personal favorite high Cal snack is Fritos, they pack fairly well, especially if you can strap them to the outside of your pack. All go well with M&Ms which are about the best packing candy out there if kept dry. As usual, eat what works for you.
-Skittles-
Skittles
system
#6
Maintain couldn’t of said it better!
Look for foods that have 100 calories per ounce, or more.
High calorie foods include squeeze parkay, olive oil, and peanut butter. I’d suggest staying clear of foods that get their calories from sugar, so cake frosting doesn’t do it.
Peaks
system
#7
macadamian nuts are best! heat factor as well. then flows the standards, brazil, cashews, almonds, hazel, walnuts…you will get over the fact that yer mixed nuts have peanuts…go large and use the bonus or premium nuts for a buck more, or do like me and mix the premium with yer favorite bulk premiums like macadamian and cashews.
nutrician is not my best skill. Fried chicken, chinese, southern breakfast fit for trail towns to fuel, but salads and fruit can be packed in as well for after trail town munchies. I am thinking in terms of keeping the mind healthy as well the body.
my method is, if it tastes good, it is good for you!
burn
system
#9
Lightweight, mixed with some powdered milk (actually I prefer some of that flavored coffeemate to powdered milk–YMMV) it makes a dessert that is delicious and calorie-packed. You don’t need to cook it, tho in cold weather you could heat it up. Makes a thick, goopy, drink. A trail milk shake kinda. Lots of flavors.
I think I’ll go make one now.
“Skyline”
system
#11
the foil pouch ham is pretty high calorie for meats and as Skittles said FRITOS…corn, salt, oil thats it except for great taste! BTW happy holidays Skittles
yo-yo
system
#12
I agree with Maintain’s list with one exception: tuna. Cook it with one of your standard noodle mixes and it makes a great dinner, but it’s not terribly weight-efficient. An envelope packet of Starkist chunk white albacore has a net weight of 7 ounces and 245 calories. The salmon packets are about the same. Not even close to the 100 calories per ounce hurdle (which is also what I aimed for in my planning). Tuna in cans is equally inefficient. For me, tuna and noodles was something I ate the first night out of town.
Peanut butter is a definite winner. According to the label, the PB in my kitchen right now comes in at 170 calories per ounce.
Most of the good ones that people talk about above are between 100 and 120 calories per ounce. With few exceptions, that should be your minimum expectation for something you carry. Once you get much over 120, you’re pretty much talking about oils or very oily foods (Parkay squeeze is about 140).
Snowbird
system
#13
Peanut Butter, Snickers, GORP, Hard Cheese. We made instant pudding in a ziplock bag. Mix dry milk, water and pudding mix in zip lock bag. Make sure all the air is out then just squeeze until it is well mixed. Set aside for about 10 minutes. Cut off lower corner and squeeze out the pudding into your mouth. Put ziplock in your trash bag and there is no clean up, no dirty cup, fast, easy, and very good at the end of the day or lunch. Flame and I had one about every other day on our thru hike. Happy Trails
Papa Smurf