For those of you that take olive oil along for multiple uses, I am wondering how much do you take?

I would use it for cooking and various other uses as I have read about on the forum.

I am thnking that a 4 ounce container would be a good starting point. But if that is too much or too little I would like to know.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,

Because my style is menu-based over staple-based, I take whatever the menu dictates but on average it works out between half and three-quarters of a cup for a 12 day trip for two to three people. It also depends on the time of year, ruggedness of the trip, and such. I really gear my menu towards what terrain we will be on, length and difficulty of the day, and taste.

I agree with Laurie Anne. About a half to one fluid ounce per day is about right for two people. For a couple nights, 4oz is quite a bit, but not really out of line. Mostly, this is simply mixed in with soups, pot pies, or the like at supper. It can add a lot of calories. I alternate between olive oil and parified butter. Both are high in calories.

In most cases I take packets. Each one is 1/2 an ounce, or 1 Tablespoon. 1 per person, per dinner and some at lunch. The oil is always fresh and easy to use (no worrying about measuring or spills).
Not all agree with me, it works for us though.

See www.minimus.biz for packets.

Thanks I will lookfor the packets.

I think you cannot say like "eat X amount a day and you are fine" if the aim is to make food weight less. It just depends on so many variables. Like:

-what is the intended total calorie amount per day?
-how much there is fat in the daily meals without adding anything?
-how well does your body adapt to using fat as energy ?
-how well does your body perform under fat heavy diet?

If I remember correctly, Poppis Suomela was eating 60% of calories from fat while going to North and South pole. I have seen even figures like 79% on some polar discussions. Eating those figures starts to sound like a work! They do not begin with those amounts right away, but increase gradually at home before the trip to avoid fat diarrhea. They could also start with somewhat lower amount and add more fat when the body starts to crave more calories. Those amounts of fat could give big downgrade in performance unless you still eat quite a lot of carbohydrates, so make only sense if your total calorie amount per day is high enough. Also, without enough carbohydrates, you could end up in ketosis like in Atkins-diet, which would beat the idea of making daily food weight smaller.

Regardless of the fat amount, I think the safe way is to eat the same meals before the trip at home already so that the body does not need to adapt to anything while walking.

If it's just a weekend trip, I don't bother changing anything. The difference in pack weight is not significant for me - unless I'm training for a longer trip.
For 7 days or longer trip, I take some extra fat on top of all the fat that is already in the foods. I have been eating 40-45% of the total calories from fat, but I think I could go higher.

Not all of that extra fat is olive oil, I take some clarified butter / regular butter for variety. I feel the taste of olive oil is good with pasta and rice etc but oatmeal and mashed potatoes taste better with butter. One good, tasty way of digesting olive oil is pesto sauce. Great with pasta but unfortunately not multipurpose. Also a little less calories than pure fat.

I usually take 1-2 oz per day. Generally, I use it for breakfast and dinner. I add it to dehydrated meals which by design have next to no fat. Some olive oil in dehydrated scrambled eggs or a dinner really improves the taste.

For a typical overnight or weekend trip (2 nights) I just take a small nalgene 2 oz container full of olive oil.

Edited by dag4643 on 03/14/2011 08:18:04 MDT.