Maximizing Performance
Eating for Victory
by Amy Purdum
A key aspect of planning a successful backpacking trip is to correctly estimate the amount of food you need. Pack too much and you are carrying excess weight. Pack to little and you will not have enough energy to perform efficiently. We have all erred on one side or the other. The following steps will help guide you in future planning. The first step is to determine how many calories you will need each day of the trip. There is a one-step online tool that will provide you with all of the numbers you need. You will need to enter your Weight, Age, Sex and Height. You will then need to determine how many hours you will be backpacking. To estimate the time, determine how many miles per hour your backpack on average. Multiply that average by the number of miles you plan to hike each day. (For example: 2 mph x 8 miles = 4 hours) Next, go to "http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.html" and enter your weight, sex, age and height. Also enter the amount of time you will be backpacking. From the activity drop down menu, select Backpacking. Hit the CALCULATE button. (Important: Please see follow step 2! You must add in your BMR) At the top of the display, you will see the number of calories you will burn in the amount of time you specified. On the next line you will see your personal stats. This includes your sex, age, height and weight, BMI and BMR. (For example: List total: 1,651 calories in 4 hr / Female 27, 5' 8", 130 lb BMI=19.8 BMR=1,412 / Backpacking 1,651 calories in 4 hr) Your BMI is your Body Mass Index. Your BMI is used by the medical profession to asses your weight status compared to other adults. Your BMI can be an indicator of how your weight effects your chances of developing certain disease. To see where your BMI falls on the BMI Index, go to: "http://www.testamerica.com/BMI_Chart.html" Your BMR is you Basal Metabolic Rate. Your BMR tells you the level of energy (calories) your body needs to maintain normal bodily functions. This includes the beating of your heart, respiration, and the maintenance of body temperature. Basically, your BMR tells you how many calories you would need if you laid in bed all day with no activity. Important: In order to determine the TOTAL numbers of calories you need in a day, you need to add your BMR, plus the number of calories you will burn backpacking. This will give you the number of calories you should strive to pack.
For examples given above: Female 27, 5' 8", 130 lb: 4 hours backpacking BMR = 1,412 Calories burned backpacking = 1, 651 Total Calories Required = 1,412 + 1,651 = 3,063
Now that you know how many calories you need to bring each day, the next step is to plan out your meals. Think about what foods you enjoy that you can easily pack with you. If you must use a bear canister, think about bringing foods that give you the greatest amount of calories in the smallest amount of space. Try to bring a variety of protein, fats and carbohydrates that you can combine together in each meal. >>>>>
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Choosing foods you like is the easy part, meeting your caloric requirements is the challenge. Say you require 3,000 calories a day for a 5-day trip, equaling 6,000 calories for the week. Now let's say you only bring 2,000 calories a day. That means over a weeks time you will be missing 5,000 calories which equates to roughly a 1.5 pound weight loss. Sounds great right!? Well this loss could come from muscle which will effect your performance. A physical backpacking trip is not the right time to loose weight. Chances are your caloric intake will be less that your daily requirement, but try to get it as close as possible. Make sure you know the caloric value of everything you take. If you are brining pre-packaged foods this is easy to do ñ the package will tell you (don't forget to add up the servings.) For unpackaged foods, such as meats or vegetables, you can look up just about any food at "http://www.calorieking.com/" http://www.calorieking.com/ . You can search for the food you want by typing in the description on the item into the search filed on the right hand side of the page. Or, you can search through the food categories located at: "http://www.calorieking.com/foods/". Some examples of common backpacking foods and their values: Trail Mix: 1 cup = 693 calories Dried Apricots: 1 cup = 309 calories Dried Salami: 4 oz = 472 calories Instant White Rice (cooked): 1 cup = 162 calories Beef Jerky: 1 large piece: 81 calories
A well planned out daily menu will make your backpacking trip that much more enjoyable and successful. Take care of yourself by eating a variety of healthy and nourishing foods.
Additional resources: Backpacker.com Nutrition |
