Protein-intake on extended minimal-weight treks

I do a lot of strength training when not backpacking, and try to keep my protein up around ~140 grams per day, on average. I asked a related question over on the fitness.stackexchange.com site, and at this point make all my own meals (usually with my dehydrator) because I find pre-made-hiker-food to be junk.

The lightest protein source I know of is simply powered whey. It's nearly gram-for-gram protein, meaning that you're not going to find much that's more efficient in terms of weight. If you really want to get efficient, you can spend big money for the whey supplements designed for patients with parts of their digestive track removed (typically from cancer treatments).

I usually eat oatmeal in the mornings, and I drop a scoop of chocolate whey protein powder in, mix it up cold with my oats, add some cinnamon and chow down while on the move. It sticks like concrete, so I like to mix it in a ziplock and eat out of that.

In the evenings, I like to do quinoa and/or whole wheat noodles, re-hydrated pasta sauce, and some re-hydrated ground beef. I don't get to my ideal protein load for the day, but I'm miles better than I would be otherwise. My daily intake looks something like:

• 24 grams breakfast in the morning
• 20-ish grams throughout the day eating lunch and snacks
• 40-ish grams at dinner

Protein bars tend to be heavy for the amount of protein in them. They're tastier than a scoop of whey, but they also tend to melt (and freeze), so I leave them home.

Regarding calcium and bone leaching (and the need for calcium), I'd raise two points. First, most whey protein has calcium included. Second, the Mayo Clinic has a write up which addresses this issue as well.

posted about 9 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Eric‭

31 reputation 4 16 4 0

Protein powder. Add it to your food. Add it to water. Add it to hot-water+powdered milk.

posted about 9 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Michael Martinez‭

106 reputation 1 43 11 0

Assuming that you have easy access to drinkable water and some time when cooking, lentils can be soaked in cold water for an hour or two to reduce the cooking time. Soaked, red lentils should easily be done in about 10 minutes and not take much more time than most sorts of pasta.

I would also reconsider if hard cheese is too heavy. A ripe hard cheese can have water content as low as 20% or less (less than many protein bars) and the rest is mostly a pure nutrition bomb built of protein, fat, minerals, vitamins and trace elements.

posted about 9 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

jarnbjo‭

11 reputation 1 1 1 0

I don't understand why you're so centric around protein. There are protein bars, some of which contain over 20g of protein. There are also freeze dried meats which is actually more protein dense(higher protien-weight ratio) than protein bars.

Freeze dried foods generally offer the best weight to calorie ratio, because they have almost no water weight. Even a dry nut or beef jerky will still retain water weight. Freeze drying would likely be the best route when trying to find high protein meals for the very same reason.

If you can't find enough protein in these meals, and can't carry something like jerky, peanut butter, nuts, etc because of weight. You should probably supplement protein with whey powder or something similar, which is literally straight protein, and about double the amount of protein density as a standard protein bar. Spirulina is a bit higher than protein bars in protein density.

Thru-hikers usually don't even supplement protein like this, and get it from eating a standard healthy diet. I can't imagine why you'd need so much protein, unless your traveling a very long distance without possibility of resupply. Even people who do long distance hiking without resupply focus on calorie density, and tend to carry up to(possibly more) 30lbs of food. You might just have to accept the fact that you're going to consume less than optimal amounts of protein for muscle recovery and just power threw the aches for the duration of your trip.

But to answer your question, the 3 highest protein density foods:

1. Pure Whey Protein powder
2. Freeze-dried beef
3. Protein Bars

posted about 9 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

tsturzl‭

29 reputation 1 5 2 0

For breakfast I bring freezer-bag-cooking porridge with powdered Scottish oats and chocolate protein powder, mixed with nuts and honey. Each portion is in its own bag. You add warm water, stir, and you have your proteins served along with carbs. And it tastes great.

Pros:

• easy to do once you have a bulk of the ingredients (I may point out to my source if anybody's interested)
• you don't have to clean anything as with any freezer bag cooking food

Cons:

• you have to lick the sticky bags inside out if you don't want to waste food - and you don't want to, since you carried all its weight and are going to carry any leftovers
• morning theoretically isn't the best time of the day when to assume proteins; but personally I never had any issues (digestion ones nor any other) with it

posted about 9 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Dakatine‭

156 reputation 28 25 23 0