[pct-l] food quantity?

[bmclaughlin at bigplanet.com (Brian McLaughlin)]

Mike Lilly wrote:
> Now that I am looking at 9  day segments, I decided that I need to pay
more
> attention to the amount of food to take along...
>
> I tend to eat low-fat/high fiber so the weight and volume of the 45,000
> calories worth of food needed for a 9 day trip seems impractical.  So what
> do you do?

For 9-day segments you should be able to get away with eating about
120% to 150% of the calories you 'normally' eat. Your body fat will
make up for any shortfall. With judicious choice of food (about 40% of
calorie content from fats and a very low percentage of water weight)
you can eat over 4000 calories a day bringing less than 2 lbs of food/day.

It takes about 6 weeks for your body to fully convert into the fat-burning,
calorie-devouring black-hole-for-food that is a thru-hiker. Unless, of
course,
your body-fat percentage is already very low and your daily exercise regimen
is already very strenuous - in which case, 'normal' amounts of food consist
of eating mayonaise with a soup spoon, so just  eat 'normally'. ;-)