Date: 2012-11-09
To: Tips- Food and Water Planning
Miles today: 0.0

Since I have had a question about how I planned a food and water, I thought that I'd enter the response here about what was helpful and worked for me. I did loose weight (8 lbs in the end and most likely 10 lbs at different times). Some resources, I purchased this book in advance which is a good reference: Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, Nancy Clark - I had the 4th edition.Also look at www.thru-hiker.com under diet. I found sample menus and hiker recipe ideas. I ended up keeping it very simple however.www.whiteblaze.com has Baltimore Jack's blog on resupplying along the 5 sections of the trail. Dated info but still good and very helpful for planning.First, my Food Planning:- Objective 1 - To maintain my weight and not deplete my muscle mass...good objective, didn't totally pan out but I guess I could have eaten more. If you feel that you could loose 10-15 lbs., I would suggest just 'banking' that weight and do not try to loose weight. Men can get away with it. They generally loose weight fairly quickly and want to. Women hold their weight longer due to their biology, females needing reserves for possible child bearing. You will loose weight eventually, so don't try to. Eating enough protein is needed to maintain/build the muscle mass.- Objective 2 - Not to do food drops. Get food along the way. Supplement some food that is not generally available in the gear drops (5 were planned). I had 'Basecamp' put a mix of NIDO whole milk powder and isolated whey powder in small snack single portion zip locks for me to add to oatmeal since I was most concerned about protein intake. These drops would not have more than 5 packs or days of this sort of thing - weight. Of course getting food 'along the way' mean that you are confined to what gas station convenience stores sell - no Trader Joe's and upscale health food stores with a few exceptions (Hiawassee Super Market just under a week into Georgia and the Hot Springs outfitter come to mind).- Food criteria - You have to be a particular so that what you have gives you the daily calorie and C/F/Protein mix; doesn't weigh more than 2 lbs a day; doesn't require too much fuel to prepare and won't spoil. Plus quick and easy with 'snacks' that can be eaten while hiking. You end up studying food labels constantly in the store and while eating it. The calorie to weight rule of thumb is 100 calories/ 1 oz. of the item. Then does it meet the carb/fat/protein objectives (below).I would add planning so that the meal fits in your pot. I used a 900ml titanium pot. The 600ml mark holds 2 1/4 cups of water. Basically I'd bring 600ml of water to a boil and add whatever (instant mashed potatoes and sardines in olive oil for example. I'd eat that and then heat some water for tea in the same pot and then clean out the pot w/the tea bag. Same w/oatmeal but divide the 600ml of boiling water into my tea pouch (reused a Mountain House dinner pouch w/zip lock for example for drinking tea...eventually throw it out...or for a while I had a small round plastic screw top food container) and use the remaining in the pot for the oatmeal. I never used products that wouldn't cook after adding them to the boiling water (fuel conservation). Sometimes they need to sit for 10 minutes or so. Dehydrated dinners (Mountain House brand for example) need to sit as do Knorr 'Pasta Sides'. The Knorr sides are readily available. I liked instant mashed potatoes - about 420 calories per pack (4 servings...but that's 1 for a hiker).- I would say that my food planning and then actual execution on the trail ended up different. ...... I started out planning 'scientifically':A rule of thumb number for calorie consumption per day for 'endurance' activity like this long distance hike is a range of 3,200 - 5,300 calories/day. I have figured that my basal metabolic rate (BMR) is about 1,500/day resting and 2,138 training. To maintain my weight and not deplete my muscle mass on the trail, I thought that I'd need 3,719 calories/day....I called it 4,000 for argument sake. I figured that the 4,000 calories would be made up of 50% carbohydrate, 35% fat and 15% protein.Weight wise:Carbs = 4 grams/calorieFat      = 9 grams/caloriesProtein= 4 grams/calorieCalorie intake for the day can be broken out as:1000 consumed at breakfast500   morning snack1000 lunch500   afternoon snack1000 dinner.....and ended up 'pragmatically opportunistic':The breakdown of carbs, fat and protein was a helpful objective to keep in mind. 'Junk' food can become the sole food - Honeybuns, candy (Snickers, Peanut M&Ms, dark chocolate/high coco content), sodas when you can get them. I don't really like any of this stuff but ate it (well, very few sodas). A steady diet of it won't work though. You'll see folks eating jars of frosting and marshmallow fluff. Now enters in the question of how much you want to spend on food. When entering towns whether to stay or pass through, eating fast food, but preferably restaurant food is a big help. Then take a sandwich/sub to go for dinner or lunch on the trail. Depending on the weather and your food load, take several 'meals' to go. I even bought a quiche in a Vermont farm store to eat over 3 meals or so. The pre-made dinners are expensive ranging from $6-10 per meal. They're a good supplement now and again and could be included in your post drops. Of course junk food isn't cheap either. My motto is - when in doubt, eat out and eat well. Don't forget milk shakes and pints of real (Ben and Jerry's) ice cream.The more 'exotic' things that I planned, like dried Pollock (fish strips from an Asian market) and seaweed sheets (nutrient supplement) just aren't available and I decided not even to start out with it. Other sports foods that are vegan (I am not vegan) and nutritious include vegan jerky strips which I like but didn't try to get. Halvah (sesame paste) bars come in different flavors and are a great protein/calorie per oz. snack...if you can find them.- Sample menu:Breakfast - 2 oatmeal packs (I prefer those w/more protein like Trader Joe's/look for natural organic type products...but whatever you can get)- with a box of raisins (they come in six packs) or Grapenuts (cold or cooked) best nutrition/weight ratio plus fiber.- milk supplement mixed in like NIDO if you have it.- some dark chocolate (about 200 calories worth)- A 1/4 apple- Hot tea - I used Yerba-Mate all of the time.2 Snacks/day made up of:- box of raisins (over the two snacks for the day)- Snickers Bar- Cliff 'Mojo' bar - low weigh, high in good stuff (or Peanut M&Ms)- a New Balance Protein Bar - 'Gold label' - I liked the 'Lemon Meringue' (or beef jerky, or pepperoni)The night before, I would take the stuff out of their packaging and make a snack bag in a zip lock for one of my hip belt pouches. I liked how the candy bars would stick to each other with raisins stuck on too. Pepperoni always in it's own bag. There a huge number of products out there. These types suited me the best and were the most available. Snickers bars are a mainstay and less costly than Cliff bars. The New Balance Protein Bars were more palatable and digestible. Others tend to be gummy.- Sunflower Seeds 1/4 cup = 150 calories. They best 'nut' and found at gas station/convenience checkouts.Lunch (I make this up for the next day while dinner water is heating or dinner hydrating too)If the weather is cool:- one bagel with bologna, mustard, a slice of cheese, 1/4 red pepper. Round bologna in one of those hanging plastic vacuum containers = 3 sandwiches. You'll get the protein into you and there's enough preservative to make it last. - some of your snack candyIf the weather is hot - same thing but peanut (or other nut butter like almond or cashew if you can get it) and jelly. You can get jars of mixed peanut putter and jelly. Or Nutella and peanut butter....or a large/couple of tunas in the foil pack. Then I eat the bread separate and tuna out of the pouch...keep it simple.Dinner- Instant mashed potatoes or pasta side- can of sardines in olive oil (always olive oil) - I get sardines in the 3.75 oz. cans or so over tuna and salmon in packages.- a pad of butter if the weather is cool, if hot try to get individual little squeeze packs of olive oil. You will find that eating fat at night is a big help. Coconut oil is excellent. I would have used it more, but it is a solid at temps lower than 70F and I had trouble getting it out of the squeeze tube that I carried it in.- about 1/4 cup of TVP - textured Vegetable Protein - dried tofu - very good source of protein for the weight. Red Mill sells it. Frequently in groceries.- Tea - Yerba-Mate- some of your dark chocolate for dessert. ...or a dehydrated freeze dried dinner - look for the most carb/fat/protein ratio - Mountain House Lasagna is a good one.If you are not able to share food purchases or find a hiker who wants it, you will just need to break down and throw out extra food in the package - like 3 of the 6 bagels. I dislike doing this but sometimes it is necessary. Some stores don't sell singles in their bakery sections. I prefer bagels for the calorie/weight ration but you may not find them in the south. Then I look for whole grain bread 'sandwich rounds'). I'm not big on tortillas since I don't think that you get enough calories. Go to the area where the grocery store makes up sandwiches and get little packs of mustard/mayo. Otherwise, get mustard, x-fer some to a zip lock and throw the remaining out.- Water/liquid management - tried to keep it at 3-4 lbs max carry weightI don't have a pack with a camel bladder option. I carried two Nalgene quart bottles and a 24 oz. water bottle w/a pull up mouth piece (some sort of bottled water like Danzi that I had) for constant drinking and a 2 liter bladder. I treated the water with Aqua Mira. Since I didn't use a camel, I can't help a lot here. Maybe only fill it at the end of the day just as I use my 2 liter bladder for untreated water (below). Then use your 2 qt. Nalgene as I use my 2 individual quart bottles.At the end of the day when preparing to get to or at camp with the water source, I filled the 2 quarts if needed and the 2 liter bladder. I always treated the quart bottles and would then use the bladder at an additional source for cooking and refilling/treatment for the next day. One trip for water for dinner/breakfast and to start out. Needless to say, you are always tuned into water sources, e.g. is there one along the way to the shelter/targeted camp that you need to use so as not to back track; how far is the next source in the morning? I did not treat my cooking water unless I thought that there was a real risk. I just brought it to a boil and used it. I always treated my drinking water with few exceptions like where a strong flowing spring was piped or flowing in a way that I didn't need to share a dipping pool with dogs and other people hands reaching to scoop the water or unfortunately wash things in the pool.When I start off in the morning, I'll use the 2 liter bladder to rinse my hands/face perhaps but always dump it and put it away for the day.During the day, depending upon the heat/humidity situation and water source outlook, I would start with 1 full quart and my drinking 24 oz. bottle. When the full quart was getting low, I'd get water at the next source. Stopping for lunch at a source is good since I drink a lot while eating and can take the time to treat water while eating. If the weather was hot however, I'd carry 2 full quarts and the 24 oz bottle to start and make an effort to drink more. Always have water. How much to carry depends upon availability and your rate of consumption. The AT overall has plenty of water - a great thing!Power Drinks - I normally don't use them...but I think that I would have benefitted especially in hot humid weather. I started to use NUUN Electrolyte Tablets - no sugar. You can purchase Gatorade in powder small packs to add to quarts...or make your own mix. Recipes exist. Supplements - I like 'Emergen-C' packets. They come in various formulations and can be found in groceries (but then you're carrying like 30 of them or a month's worth). It makes a refreshing fizzy drink at the end of the day. I like to mix it with about 1 Tbl. of unflavored Knox gelatin (sold in boxes in the Jello section in individual packs). Gelatin is protein and helps cartilage. FYI, in cold weather, Jello can be drunk instead of hot tea - makes a good emergency drink. I did not drink it.