Compact Calories

Ray Jardine’s PCT Hiker’s Handbook proclaims that the most important part of trail nourishment is the spiritual/psychological component (what’s appetizing), which is easy to agree with, but also makes some dubious fact-claims such as that that tomatoes have more energy than meat.

1. What do you think about the psychological vs calories question?
2. What are your favorite compact/lightweight sources of energy on the trail?

I’m a bean-freak at home and a voracious oatmeal-eater too. These both seem like good bets for the long-haul. Disagree?

peanut butter and pitas/tortillas to spread it on. calorie dense, delicious, packs well and requires no cooking.

nutela and fancy dense bread!

Here's some data on energy density (kCal/gram) that I compiled for a Denali trip a couple of years ago. For that sort of trip "spiritual nourishment" wasn't high on our priority list; our immediate concerns were practical ones like maximising calories, ease of preparation and ability to withstand crushing and freezing. We discovered that pita bread doesn't do well with crushing & freezing.

Instant soup powder 2.75
Pita bread 2.77
Gatorade powder 3.56
Hot chocolate powder 3.67
Instant oatmeal 3.71
Clif Builder bars 3.86
Mature cheddar 3.91
Freeze-dried dinners (Backpacker's Pantry) 3.93 (average across various flavors)
Dry salami 4.00
Margarine 4.67
Dark chocolate (70% cocoa) 5.50

Martin le Roux wrote:Here's some data on energy density (kCal/gram) that I compiled for a Denali trip a couple of years ago. For that sort of trip "spiritual nourishment" wasn't high on our priority list; our immediate concerns were practical ones like maximising calories, ease of preparation and ability to withstand crushing and freezing. We discovered that pita bread didn't do well with crushing & freezing. Instant soup powder 2.75 Pita bread 2.77 Gatorade powder 3.56 Hot chocolate powder 3.67 Instant oatmeal 3.71 Clif Builder bars 3.86 Mature cheddar 3.91 Freeze-dried dinners (Backpacker's Pantry) 3.93 (average across various flavors) Dry salami 4.00 Margarine 4.67 Dark chocolate (70% cocoa) 5.50

Something is off with those numbers. No way are freeze-dried dinners 80% the caloric density of margarine, which is essentially pure oil.

DannyUncanny wrote: Something is off with those numbers. No way are freeze-dried dinners 80% the caloric density of margarine, which is essentially pure oil.

Have you ever compared the weight of a stick of margarine to the weight of a freeze dried dinner?

Ryan Williams wrote: Have you ever compared the weight of a stick of margarine to the weight of a freeze dried dinner?

Ryan beat me to it. Here's my data:

1 packet freeze-dried dinner: 825 kCal, 210g, 3.93 kCal/g
8oz tub of margarine: 1,050 kCal, 225g, 4.67 kCal/g

Of course a freeze-dried dinner takes up more space than an 8oz tub of margarine.

Ryan Williams wrote: Have you ever compared the weight of a stick of margarine to the weight of a freeze dried dinner?

Science FAIL?

1 stick of margarine weighs 113 g. And contains 800 (kilo)calories. Find me a FD dinner under 4 oz with even half that much energy.

Edit - ah, you both beat me. TUB margarine has ca. 50% water. The stick stuff is the standard for high fat food.

nutritiondata.self.com/fact…
87 calories divided by 14 grams equals 6.2 kCal/g
caloriecount.about.com/calo…
70 calories divided by 10 grams equals 7 kCal/g

I think you must be carrying low fat margarine.

JLP wrote:If I ate a freeze dried dinner with margarine followed by dark chocolate, all the cliff bars clogging me up over the prior 12 hours would explode out of my ass within 10 mins. How does that factor in?

Holy sh*t, that was funny. No pun intended.

Halva, for calorie density.

(Ground nuts and honey; great recovery food)

Don't have info in front of me but I remember it having more calories per pound than ice cream.

I actually like Halva and according to the numbers I just found it is a 5.00

Margarine, on the other hand, is disgusting and an abomination of nature. If I can't have real butter, I'd rather have olive oil.

Oil is max density at 270 cals/oz. Butter is 20% less due to water content. Nuts are ballpark 160. Carbs are 100. when u factor in packaging, getting 110 cal/oz average for a trip is pretty good. JLPs points are *well* considered.

JLP wrote:If I ate a freeze dried dinner with margarine followed by dark chocolate, all the cliff bars clogging me up over the prior 12 hours would explode out of my ass within 10 mins. How does that factor in?

If you received upward propulsion from the explosion that would count as aid climbing.

I am a huge fan of simple nuts and fruit. almonds,dates, rasins, bananas, and cashews go along way with me. But i also like laura bars alot. i think that they do a pretty good job of hitting both the spiritual and caloric. that is for me at least, nice and simeple

JLP wrote:If I ate a freeze dried dinner with margarine followed by dark chocolate, all the cliff bars clogging me up over the prior 12 hours would explode out of my ass within 10 mins. How does that factor in?

This is reason why to carry an extra roll of TP on the trail.

Ziegler, what kinds of "fancy dense bread" do you use?

I really don't know what I'm talking about. I weigh 150 soaking wet and have to eat something every 2 hours or I'll pass out.

I guess I need to get this stuff figured out before I head into the mountains this fall...