Erik the Black’s 5,000 Calorie Hiking Diet
17. Feb, 2010 
19 Comments
Hiking 10-12 hours a day for weeks or months at a time requires a tremendous amount of calories. Trying to keep up with a raging trail-metabolism can be a losing battle…
But, with the right foods you can blast up the hills and still enjoy your meals (forget choking down trail mix, granola and energy bars day after day).
The best hiking foods are high-calorie, lightweight, low volume, non-perishable, taste good and pack easily (don’t crumble, squish, melt or spoil).
Here are some guidelines I follow when choosing foods for for a long-distance hike…
Hiking Food Tips
- Select calorie-dense foods (foods that have a caloric density of 100+ calories per ounce)
- Pack 1.5 to 3 lbs of food per day (depending on your body weight and trail appetite)
- Eat 3,000 – 6,000 calories per day (this still isn’t enough, but close)
- Buy foods that taste good (that you don’t mind eating over and over again)
- Choose foods that are available everywhere (dehydrating and preparing mail drops is no fun)
- Avoid foods that are high in fiber, protein or water (too heavy, not enough calories)
- Embrace “junk food” (there is no better source of lightweight, great tasting calories)
- Catch up on “healthy food” in towns (fresh fruit, meat, dairy, vegetables, etc.)
- Supplement with multi-vitamins and minerals (to make up for nutritional deficiencies)
Here is an example of what I might eat in a typical day, on a long-distance hike:
(I am a 30 year old male, 6 feet tall and my pre-trail weight is about 200 lbs)
Erik the Black’s 5,000 Calorie Thru Hiking Diet |
|||||
| Food | Serving | Grams | Ounces | Calories | Cals/oz. |
| Breakfast | |||||
| Oatmeal (Maple & Brown Sugar) | 2 packs | 90.0 | 3.2 | 320 | 100.8 |
| Almonds | 1 oz | 28.0 | 1.0 | 170 | 172.1 |
| Dried Blueberries | 1 oz | 28.0 | 1.0 | 85 | 86.1 |
| Hostess Honey Bun | 1 bun | 75.6 | 2.7 | 308 | 115.5 |
| Carnation Instant Breakfast | 1 packet | 36.0 | 1.3 | 130 | 102.4 |
| Subtotal (Avg. cals/oz): | 257.6 | 9.1 | 1,013 | (115.4) | |
| Morning Snack | |||||
| Nilla wafers | 1/5 box | 66.0 | 2.3 | 280 | 120.3 |
| 10″ White Tortilla | 1 tortilla | 71.0 | 2.5 | 210 | 83.9 |
| Peanut Butter | 4 tbsp | 56 | 2.0 | 380 | 190.0 |
| Subtotal (Avg. cals/oz): | 193.0 | 6.8 | 870 | (131.4) | |
| Lunch | |||||
| 10″ White Tortilla | 2 tortillas | 142.0 | 5.0 | 420 | 83.9 |
| String Cheese | 2 sticks | 56.0 | 2.0 | 160 | 81.0 |
| Salami | 8 slices | 56.0 | 2.0 | 240 | 121.5 |
| Skittles | 1 pack | 61.5 | 2.2 | 240 | 110.6 |
| Koolaid Drink Mix | 1 packet | 17.0 | 0.6 | 60 | 100.1 |
| Subtotal (Avg. cals/oz): | 332.5 | 11.7 | 1,120 | (99.4) | |
| Afternoon Snack | |||||
| Wheat Thins | 1/5 box | 56.0 | 2.0 | 250 | 126.6 |
| Mike And Ike | 2 ounces | 56.0 | 2.0 | 220 | 110.0 |
| Peanut Butter | 4 tbsp | 56 | 2.0 | 380 | 190.0 |
| Subtotal (Avg. cals/oz): | 168.0 | 6.0 | 850 | (142.2) | |
| Dinner | |||||
| Kraft Macaroni & Cheese | 1 box | 212.6 | 7.5 | 780 | 104.0 |
| Tuna | 1 foil pack | 73.7 | 2.6 | 80 | 30.8 |
| Olive Oil | 1 ounce | 28.0 | 1.0 | 238 | 238.0 |
| Hot Chocolate | 2 packs | 33.6 | 1.2 | 118 | 99.6 |
| Subtotal (Avg. cals/oz): | 347.9 | 12.3 | 1,216 | (118.1) | |
| Total: |
2.8 lbs Per Day |
5,069 | (121.3) | ||
I too embrace the calories per ounce approach to Trail Foods. It is an easy way to cut weight. Interesting – but better to bring a package of Pop Tarts vs. a Bagel on a Calories per Ounce basis. The best value for Calories per ounce? Macadamia Nuts at 200 Calories per Ounce.
thinking bout trying the new catalina 37 mile trail to get ready next week..what do you think??
Balancing the calorie/weight/healthiness formula is rather difficult. But I’ve found that Frito’s Corn Chips are the best trail food solution to this problem. At 160 Calories/oz and only 3 healthy ingredients (corn, oil, & salt… NO PRESERVATIVES) it’s this thru-hiker’s dream come true.
–Hiking Bare
Erik you say avoid high fiber foods but fiber helps make you feel full, & the High Fiber Oatmeal (Maple & Brown Sugar), has the same calories 160 per pack or 320 for your breakfast, should I buy the regular instead?
Thanks everyone for your comments. Scott, that new Catalina trail sounds like a good place for a shakedown hike. I’ll probably head out to the AT in March for a few days of hiking before the PCT. Cole, I’m not sure what the difference between the high fiber and regular Oatmeal is, but it’s probably minor. I’m sure either will work fine. I just try to avoid foods that are super high in fiber or water content (apples, rice cakes, shredded wheat) cuz they’re bulky and don’t provide many calories.
If this diet works for you, great. It’s certainly alot easier than home dehydrating all those beans and brown rice cereal and making hundreds of cereal bars etc.
Last year I overestimated my speed and had to supplement my homemade resupplies with typical buy as you go hikertrash food. There was never a storebought food product that I liked as much or that gave me as much energy as the food I prepared myself. Frankly it is demoralizing to think of trying to subsist on white flour, sugar, rice, and junkfood when I rarely touch it at home. I started my hike grossly underweight and gained 13 pounds while on the trail from Canadian border to Crater Lake (where I bailed for injury). Granted I’m a girl, but still very impressive.
Please forgive my trail ignorance but what the heck is Mike and Ike?
Mike and Ike Candies
http://www.justborn.com/mike-and-ike
Coconut Creme powder!! 180 calories per ounce! Nom!
When I’ve kept track, I eat about 3,000-5,000 calories a day NORMALLY… what outrageous numbers will I be burning when I’m hiking 25 miles a day?
I love food. I love pretty healthy food (did you say chard?) and avoid the highly processed food most people seem to rely upon along the trail out of disinterest rather than determination. My attempts at home dehydrating have been largely unpalatable though, and I much prefer the logistics of buying as I hike rather than the headaches of organizing mail drops.
Mike & Ike + Hot Tamales = Trail Bliss. Whole Foods pop tarts powered me through a fair amount of the JMT last summer. Really helps when hitting the repetative inclines. I call it stoking the furnace. You just gotta keep that fire burning, or you will lose that all valuable steam.
Erik, Thank you so much for taking the time to post this daily menu. It is very helpful to see how you’ve divided things up! One small note though–I believe you’ve calculated your overall average calories/ounce incorrectly. It looks like you just added the five meals together and divided by 5 to get 121.3 calories/ounce. This isn’t correct because the snacks are smaller (and since they have a higher calories/ounce that skews the result to appear higher than it really is).
To calculate the weighted average correctly it should be total daily calories divided by total daily ounces (5069/45.9) which yields 110.4 calories/ounce.
Thanks again for the helpful information.
I would just like to point out that food dehydrators make it really easy to dry your own food. All you have to do is slice the food (which can be easily done with a food processor), place it onto drying trays, set into the dehydrator and wait until it is dry. Then package as you like for your hiking trip. That’s it! It’s a healthy, lightweight snack that doesn’t contain all of the sugar and additives that commercially processed food usually has. You can check out http://www.dehydrating-food.com for more detailed step by step information on dehydrating food.
Boccalone Lardo is almost 220 cal./oz. Essentially like prosciutto but only the fatty portion. Very trail stable. Expensive. http://www.boccalone.com/Products/Cured-Meats. Dried hummus powder field-mixed with olive oil and water is more efficient than peanut butter if you mix it with enough oil (about 50-50 with the water). Homemade ghee (clarified butter) 240/oz. Rendered bacon fat (with or without the embedded bacon bits) 240/oz.
I am a Celiac hiker – I can’t eat any wheat. Mail drops might be a pain, but with my allergy they’re essential! Pasta, tortillas, couscous, many granola bars.. all off limits.
I have found dehydrating food to not only be fun (I like to cook) but also a great way to daydream about my thru-hike while also preparing for it. I used the book “Backpack Gourmet” by Linda Yaffe for most of my meals, and so far they’ve turned out delicious! I don’t eat many processed foods at home either, so preparing the food on my own gives me many more choices about the quality of food and allows for greater variety of meals. Food dehydrators are great, and you can even make fruit leather or your own jerky on them. Preparation is very time-intensive though, which is a downside.
Thanks for your great work, Eric! Sure has been a help.
Hello Abi — I’m also a celiac hiker and would love any input you might have for eating during a long distance hike. You can email me at rachel_dysart @ yahoo (dot) com
Thanks! – RACHELK
Hello From Austin, TX!
Eric, what kind of bag are you using? The Big blue one.
I think dehydrating is a great idea for shorter hikes. If I was a better cook I would definitely try it
My bag is a Marmot Helium 15 degree down bag. It weighs about two pounds and is super toasty!