Tramping Calorie Consumption
Calorie Consumption
When heading away for a multi day tramp food is always an important issue. How much do you need and what types of food are best?You can base the amount of food you carry on how many calories you are likely to burn in a day.
It can quickly get complicated to calculate your calorie expenditure and there are many varied opinions regarding the calculations.
Calculations
Base rate: The number of calories you burn per day just living; breathing, circulating blood, maintaining temperature.
Base rate = 11.5 x W + 880 (W =your body weight in kg)
if you are under 30 you can expect your base rate to be about 100 calories more that this.
General daily activities; things like getting up, preparing meals, cleaning use about 30% more calories than your base rate. Extra calories per hour of general activities = Your daily base rate : 80
Tramping for an hour will use about 6.3 calories per kg of your body weight. Extra calories per hour tramping = 6.3 x W
Gaining altitude will use more calories too. About 0.8 calories per kg of weight to climb 100m. Extra calories per 100m altitude gain = 0.8 x (W + P) (P =pack weight)
Calculations
- These calculations are only estimates, factors like sex, age, temperature, terrain, pack weight all have an influence on calorie expenditure.
- It is recommended your calorie sources are in the following proportions
45-55% Calories from carbohydrate
35-40% Calories from fat
10-15% Calories from protein
- Consider taking a multivitamin to compensate for your unusual diet when tramping, it's not likely you will eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables.
- Reduce your calories by up to 500/day if you want lose weight. Be aware this may affect performance and therefore enjoyment. The best thing to cut is sugars, not fats.
- To lighten your load, look for foods with a lot of calories per kg, like oil.
- It's wise to carry more food than you have calculated you will need for emergencies. Pick something with high calories per kg. You may be able to survive a few weeks without food but your performance and therefore chances of survival will be seriously affected.
