Hi all,

I'm about to embark on my first big two week trek and have always simply taken too much food and came with with the rest (often packing an extra day's worth!). I'll be at high'ish altitude (around 10k) doing 20 mile days. I'm 6'3" 215 and muscular'ish. I'm a furnace. I try to keep my calories to around 2k a day normally with some variation.

So my question is, given 125 cal/ounce food, how many pounds (or calories, I can convert) do you think I need a day?

Mike C.'s book tells me I should do 1.4ppppd to start, bumping to 1.7 for days 10-14. I guess my skepticism comes from a) being a big guy, b) doing a lot of miles.

What do you think?

@ 125kcal/ounce:
1.4=2800 calories
1.5=3000 calories
1.6=3200 calories
1.7=3400 calories
1.8=3600 calories
1.9=3800 calories
2.0=4000 calories

Edited by Trout on 07/18/2011 09:56:30 MDT.

"So my question is, given 125 cal/ounce food, how many pounds (or calories, I can convert) do you think I need a day?"

How much body fat are you carrying?

1.4 is a good starting point. I can't factor in the calories, it just makes me so confused. I stick only to the weight, easier for me.

Temper that with your own needs. You eat a lot, and you know it - take little bit more. Just be carful not to take too much.

But - most important - take food you like!

I have no idea about my body fat to be honest.

Mike, thanks. Any idea what bigger dudes usually take? pppd is fine, I can translate.

When I was hiking on my off days as a philmont ranger (6ft 210lbs), if I wasn't trying to loose weight, I was usually taking 3000-3500 kcals/day and doing 20-25 miles per day. That usually worked out pretty good for me.

Sometimes it was even tough to get that many calories in. I just wasn't that hungry some days, but knew I needed to eat or I would lose weight (my body fat % at the time was 10-12%).

Edited by coastalhiker on 07/17/2011 09:55:41 MDT.

Don't go over 1.6 PPPPD. Anything more and you'll have leftovers.

Make sure your diet is mostly high calorie stuff.

You'll be fine.

Thanks Josh, that personal recollection is what I was looking for.

Mike. Thanks so much for giving a number for reference. I'll stick to that for the first 10 days I think, and as per your books recommendation, bump it another .3 to 1.9 for the remainder. Thanks!

No problem Michael. I find that big guys have a tough time getting good info like this.

IMO it is the tall skinny guys you have to watch the most carefully. They often have freakish ramped up metabolisms, especially young ones. My husband at 6'4" (and is a brick wall) eats a lot less when hiking than the 6 foot 13 year old eating machine....who I have considered just hanging a freaking feed bag around his neck :-P