Ultralight Food Optimization

Introduction to Backpacking Food and Nutrition

July 2023


For serious backcountry trips, your food is BY FAR the most important thing you’ll carry.

You could have the best gear, be in top-notch physical condition, and have the highest skillset, BUT, if you lack the skills to effectively provision, it’d be like running diesel through a Ferrari.

A lot of times it can go unrealized but your nutrition directly impacts: 

When I first started backpacking, I focused on 1 metric: 🔥/⚖️ calories per ounce. 

I wanted my food to be as light as possible. 

As you can probably imagine, this backfired on me big time. 

I found myself utterly exhausted during my trips. 

I was a lot tougher back then then I am now so I just powered through it, but looking back, it was so unnecessary. 

Ya see, back then, I didn't understand what it really meant to put together a load of lightweight provisions. 

When we’re putting together our lightweight food, the goal is NOT to put together the lightest food possible.

Actually, once you fully understand and internalize what not to bring, weight becomes almost irrelevant.

The actual goal with ultralight provisioning is to refine your food to fulfill your nutritional needs as effectively and efficiently as possible.


Macronutrients

Lets take a step back and talk about macronutrients, our energy sources.

There are 3 types of macronutrients: 🍞Carbohydrates, 🥩Protein, and 🧈Fat.

Carbohydrates and protein both weigh roughly 100 calories per ounce and fat weighs roughly 240 calories per ounce.

This means that by weight, fat is about 140% more calorically dense than carbs and protein.

Also, that caloric density by weight almost always translates pretty directly to caloric density by volume.

This is one of the main reasons why fat is king in the context of provisioning but unfortunately, we can’t eat only fat.



🥩 Protein is actually in a sense the most important nutrient.

In the most technical sense, you don’t need carbs, and you could probably go for quite a while without fat, but with protein, it’s a different story. 

Your body relies on a consistent protein intake for it’s growth, repair, and maintenance, especially when it comes to keeping your muscles healthy.

We want to make sure we’re keeping up with our bodies protein needs but we don’t want to eat too much of it.

It’s difficult for our bodies to digest protein and because of that, protein is not an efficient source of energy.

Luckily, with protein, consuming excessive amounts doesn’t do you any good (and it can actually be bad) so their is a sweet spot that we can shoot for.

An ideal protein intake isn’t a specific number or percentage, it’s more a a range that varies based on your specific needs. 

📊 In general though, if you’re not sure how much protein you need, a good number to aim for is to have protein make up at least 10-15 percent of your calories.



The 2 main sources of energy that our bodies use are carbohydrates and fat.

🍞 Like I said before, carbs are much heavier than fat and they take up a lot more space than fat does.

Carbohydrates are an extremely effective source of energy for high intensity activities over relatively short periods of time.

I’m not gonna bore you with the technicalities (because that would take all day) but for an endurance activity like hiking where we’re expending ⚡a lot of energy, 🚶at relatively low intensity, ⏱️for a very long period of time: carbohydrates are NOT the most effective energy source.

On the other hand, when fat is used properly as a fuel source, it can be digested very efficiently and will provide you with sustained energy over long periods of time.



Here’s the catch though: most people have trained their bodies to run mostly on carbs and are unable to efficiently digest large amounts of fat.

Most people require a large amount of carbs to function properly.

The ability to efficiently digest large amounts of fat is not inherent, it’s something that you need to train your body to do over a long period of time.

If you eat too much fat and not enough carbs, it will lead to a whole host of issues including: 

These effects will be especially noticeable from the 2nd or 3rd day to the 7th or 8th day of a big increase of fat in your diet.



📊 So, what is the magic proportion? How much fat can your body handle? What is the minimum amount of carbs that you need?

Well, I’ve got bad news. There is no magic proportion.

The macronutrient proportion that’s going to be most effective for your mental and physical performance is going to be your current one.

If you currently follow a strict no carb diet or you’re an Eskimo from 200 years ago, then that’s great! You’ll be able to effectively consume a proportion of macronutrients that is as lightweight as possible because you’ll be able to digest large amounts of fat.

For everyone else, it’s a different story.

The average person will probably benefit most by starting off their trips with a proportion of calories from fat that is about 5-10% higher than usual.

If you then slowly increase your proportion of fat each day, after 2 weeks, you should be able to increase your proportion of calories from fat by 15-20%.

After a month on a trip, you should be able to increase your proportion of calories from fat by 25-30%.

NOTE: When using this chart, you can swap a portion of protein for cabohydrates if needed (they both weigh the same)


To some people, these numbers might seem a bit conservative but it’s way better to be on the conservative side than it is to consume a proportion of macros that will hinder your performance.

📉 Bringing a proportion of macronutrients that is too lightweight will provide diminishing returns.

A lighter pack will provide no benefit to you if you don’t have the energy to carry it.


Calories

Now that you’ve figured out the proportions of your energy sources, you need to figure out the amount of energy that you need.

🔥 In other words, how many calories do you need per day?

There are so many different factors that contribute to your calorie requirements that it’s impossible to figure this out with a simple calculation.

For me personally, I can burn up to about 7,000 calories per day but for a full day of hiking, I average about 5,000 calories per day

Because of the huge variability, your calorie needs are something that you’ll have to figure out through your own experimentation.

For shorter trips, it’s not always efficient, realistic, or possible to consume a high calorie diet but for long trips, the rule of thumb is: when in doubt eat more.

It is very easy to undereat on a hike and most of the time this can go unrealized.

The impact that a caloric deficit has on you can often be something that easy to overlook but it really does have a big impact on your performance.

On a caloric deficit, you’ll experience:

It is so easy for a hiker to be in a significant calorie deficit and not even realize it because the symptoms of a deficit can be mistaken for a million other things.



On the other hand though, once you’re able to accurately estimate your caloric needs, you’ll be able to use that information to your advantage.

On your big backcountry trips, you’ll be able to put your body through a calculated slight deficit in order to reduce the weight of your food. 

In other words, you’ll learn how to effectively carry a portion of calories on your belly instead of on your back.


Micronutrients

Ok, now we know how to fuel ourselves, but we need more than just macros to stay healthy and perform at our best.

We need micronutrients.



🧂 The micronutrient that is most important for us to manage is sodium. 

☀️ Sodium is especially important in hot environments.

💧 Sodium does a lot for us but most importantly, we need it to retain water and stay hydrated.

A sodium deficiency can cause a whole bunch of symptoms but it will probably first manifest as symptoms of dehydration.



🥦 Next we have fiber, which is technically a carbohydrate but it’s a carbohydrate that your body can’t digest.

Fiber slows down the time it takes for your body to absorb carbohydrates which can help to control your blood sugar levels.

Fiber can also help with your bodies process of digestion.

The specific amount of fiber that you need is debatable and it’s very much dependant on your personal needs but fiber is essentially dead weight so the amount of fiber that you carry while hiking should be minimized as much as possible.

Also keep in mind that if you’re consuming a high calorie diet, eating too much fiber may make it difficult for you to take in enough calories.

I personally take very little fiber on my trips, but that’s just me.



💊💎 Next we have all of the other micronutrients. All of the vitamins and minerals.

On a trip that’s less than a week long, most of these micronutrients don’t matter that much, but on a long trip they are very important.

I do not believe that it is important to manage all of these individually.

Even if you tried to manage these individually, the chances that you’ll slip up and get something wrong are extremely high.

The best way to make sure that you’re getting all of your micronutrients is by diversifying your diet as much as as possible.

Picking up some fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat once in a while goes a long way.

Also if you have cravings for a certain type of food, listen to your cravings because you have them for a reason.


Eating Strategies

Lets now talk about the way in which you eat your food because how you eat can be very important.

For me personally, I don’t have a consistent eating routine and I switch up how I eat a lot but I definitely notice that I’m affected a lot by how I eat.



Here are a few tips:


Preparation

Before we figure out what types of food we’re going to bring, we need to figure out how we’re going to prepare our food.

There are 3 ways you can prepare your food: 



If you’re going to cook your food, you basically have 4 good options:

  1. You can use a white gas stove like something similar to an MSR Whisperlite.

These are kinda heavy but they are very reliable and if they do happen to break, they’re repairable.

They’re probably going to be the best option if you’re going to be running a lot of fuel through your stove.

If you’re in an extremely cold environment and are relying on your stove to melt your water, something like this might be the only reasonable option.



  1. The most popular stove with backpackers is a canister stove.

These are extremely user friendly and they get the job done but they really don't have any significant advantages aside from the ease of use.



  1. The simplest and lightest stove is an alcohol stove.

In the context of backpacking, an alcohol stove is a non-pressurized stove that just burns straight alcohol.

You can build an alcohol stove in just a few minutes with materials that you can get from a gas station for just a couple dollars.

Alcohol stoves are cool because they’re extremely simple and they don't have any mechanical parts that can break BUT, they’re more dangerous, they don't burn that hot, and they can be difficult to use.



  1. The fourth option for cooking is just to cook over a wood fire, which in my opinion is the most fun.

BUT, I think it goes without saying,

Regardless of how you cook your food, cooking food in general is extremely inefficient compared to just simply not cooking your food.

On my hiking trips, I never cook.

I don’t want to carry fuel, a stove, and a pot, and most importantly, I don't want to spend the time and energy that it takes to cook food.

The most efficient way to prepare your food is to either cold soak it or just not prepare it and have food that you can eat dry.



For my short trips I like to do my cold soaking in ziploc freezer bags but for longer trips I like to use a large peanut butter jar.

For my trips, most of my food is food that I can either eat dry or food that I can drink.

By bringing these types of food, I save a crazy amount of time, I save a crazy amount of energy, and it makes it easy for me to eat consistently throughout the day and take in enough calories.

On a deep wilderness trip, there are so many things that you need to be constantly doing and thinking about. You don’t need to let food preparation slow you down.


Food

Finally, we can get into what eat. What food to bring.

I am a huge proponent of keeping food as simple as possible.

A lot of people like to bring fancy complicated food.

They’ll bring food that’s specifically made for backpacking, or specifically made for convenience, or specifically made for sports, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, BUT, what you need to understand is there is absolutely nothing special about that food. 

Most of the ingredients that you’ll find in specialty hiking food are ingredients that your can find in any supermarket. 

The ingredients in those things that are a bit more difficult to source can easily be substituted without sacrificing nutritional value or flavor.

When you buy specialty food, what you’re doing is paying a premium to have someone else determine your nutrition.

For most people this works fine.

If you want to optimize your food, this probably isn’t the way to do that.

The easiest way to develop the skill of being able to optimize your food is to become intimately familiar with the nutritional value of the basic foods and ingredients that are readily available wherever you go.

Personally, I can walk down say, the baking isle of any grocery store and without reading labels know the macros, micros, calories per ounce, all of that of every item.

That skill allows me to provision extremely quickly and efficiently in any place, with any budget, and in any period of time.



So, what are my favorite simple foods and ingredients?

  1. 🥛 Powdered whole milk is by far my favorite of the favorites. On a hike it is so good and it’s nutritional value for both macros and micronutrients is spot on. With some creativity, you could incorporate powdered milk into most of your meals, if you wanted to.
  1. 🥜 Peanut butter. It’s super calorie dense, it’s proportion of macros makes it easy to incorporate into your diet, and it’s a surprisingly versatile ingredient if you get creative with it.
  1. 🛢️ Oil. Olive oil, vegetable oil, whatever can be added to most meals in order to easily boost their caloric density. And when I say most, I really do mean most.
  1. 🥣 Granola, especially a real fatty granola or a granola that you’ve added oil to is a food that has a good balance of macros and for what it is, it’s very calorically dense and volumetrically dense.
  1. 🍕 Pepperoni is both extremely calorie dense (from fat) and very high in protein. I personally always include at least a little bit of meat into my diet.
  1. 🌭 Summer sausage is less calorie dense compared to pepperoni but usually more protein dense.
  1. 🍫 Chocolate, especially a dark chocolate that has a lot of fat and protein and not a lot of sugar is a great snack with a surprising amount of nutritional value.
  1. 🍜 Ramen noodles are cheap, accessible, easy and can be eaten dry if needed. They’re also a good way to incorporate salt into your diet.
  1. 🥜 Nuts like peanuts, sunflower seeds, and almonds are super calorie dense and have pretty balanced macros. They’re another good way to incorporate salt.
  1. 🍪 Cheese-its, Fritos, and Cheetos are some of the chips with the highest calorie density.
  1. 🍬 Peanut M&Ms are super calorie dense for a candy.
  1. 🧅 Fried onions are very calorie dense and a delicious topping.
  1. 🌰 Cocoa powder has by far the least amount of nutritional value on this list but it’s definitely a big staple in my diet.
  1. 🍚 Sugar and flour is cheap, accessible, and can be added to a lot of different meals to boost carbs, boost flavor, and save you money.



On a long hike, I’ll switch it up of course and add as much diversity to my diet as I can but those foods are just my go-tos.

With those ingredients and ones similar to them, I can create meals that tick off all the boxes.

I can make meals that are:



A lot people would consider most of that food to be “junk food” but I don't look at all of that food that way.

Most people would define junk food as high calorie, heavily processed foods.

On a hike though, eating high calorie, heavily processed foods is unavoidable.

Eating large amounts of “healthy” food (like fruits and vegetables) on a long hike would not only be extremely impractical but it would be extremely unhealthy because you simply would not be able to take in enough calories on a traditionally “healthy” diet.

Personally, I eat a lot of “junk food” but I try to minimize to amount of actual junk that I eat in my food.

🧪 Junk being anything artificial: preservatives, fillers, flavoring, sweeteners. Anything that doesn’t belong.

Most artificial additives won’t give you any problems but if you can avoid them, you absolutely should because there are no good reasons to bring them along with you on a hike.

Also, obviously, some of them can cause some serious problems when consumed in large quantities.


Packaging

Now that we have our food, we need to talk about packaging.

Repackaging all of your food into Ziploc bags will reduce it’s weight and volume.

It’s a quick and easy thing to do so there’s no reason not to.

While you’re doing this you can combine any ingredients that you want to combine to make things easier for yourself while you’re out hiking.



Unless there’s a law that says I have to keep my food in a bear resistant container, I always keep my food in a simple waterproof sack. 

A waterproof sack will keep in leaks, keep out moisture, and most importantly, reduce the smell of your food. It can also be hung from a tree if needed.

If you’re on a real tight budget, you can quickly make a cheap and relatively durable food bag using a contractor bag and some tape.


Simplification

Once you’ve grasped the basic concepts of provisioning you should focus on simplifying your provisions as much as possible.

Simplification is the ultimate goal of every aspect of our backcountry logistics.

Simplifying your provisions means:


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