[at-l] Food!!! (revisited)-long

[KarenS62@aol.com]

 You may remember me posting this question about a month ago. 

>>I have a question regarding food portions. Specifically, how much food is 
"just right" for dinner? I know the typical thruhiker will eat anything and 
everything that is put in front of him/her, but how about you section hikers? 
If you use mac and cheese do you eat a half package, the whole package , a 
partial package? If you are more creative and use things like couscous, how 
much dry do you allow for each hiker? Even more importantly, how much pasta 
do you consider a "hiker's" portion. <<

I got a fair number of replies both on and off the list and since many of you 
mentioned you would like to know what I found out - here it is. This was a 
very unscientific study and your appetite(s) may not agree so I take no 
responsibility for hungry hikers!

1. Males, generally, eat approximately twice as much quantity wise than 
women, at least for the first week or two. Most men said that a whole 
Lipton's was a good supper for at least the first week, then they might add 
bread or jerky or something else to supplement.  Most, but not all, females 
said that half a Lipton's was enough for them, possibly supplementing with a 
cup-o-soup or something like that. Most of the men said that their hiker 
appetite had kicked in for good by the end of two weeks, some women said it 
never did on the trail but watch out when they hit a town.

2. Although counting calories is probably the most accurate way to calculate 
food content, most of the replies looked at quantity vs. quality(high 
caloric) especially with the prepackaged foods. If they were concerned about 
increasing the calorie count, they added extra butter/oils/or other types of 
fat vs more food.

3. Breakfast size appeared to be similar between both females and males - 
typically two packages of hot cereal, or a bagel and something else or two 
packages of portraits.

4. Most of the women stated their appetites actually decreased for the first 
three-five days of hiking, while the men did not seem to mention this 
phenomenon. But...not all women mentioned this and some said it varied with 
each hike - which doesn't help with meal planning at all! 

So, after sifting through the replies, my conclusions regarding meal planning 
for people you don't know too well (or aren't sure of their appetites) are:

1. Plan on one to one and 1/2 cups of cooked food for the typical female, two 
and a half to three cups for the average male. This should include the 
additions you may add to a packaged meal such as dried hamburg, veggies, etc. 

2.  Plan to cook a little less food (in the one cup range) for females for 
the first few nights but be prepared to supplement this with soup, cheese, 
jerky, or whatever if the appetite picks up. This way you don't end up with 
the "its cooked and I don't want to eat it now or for breakfast"  blues.

3. On a trip over a week or two, plan on wanting to eat either more at supper 
or heavier snacks during the day.

A lot of this is just repetition of what has been written elsewhere, but I 
really wanted to know, when you buy pasta and other ingredients in bulk, just 
how much to measure out for a typical serving. So, that is what I learned and 
I hope it is helpful to someone else!

POG


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