calorie dense but light food

hunnymonster

Mod's, I wasn't quite sure where to post this, please bounce if I've gotten it wrong.


I'm hoping to do the marathon des sables at the end of march. This is a self sufficient 8 day "jaunt" in the Sahara desert with rationed water. Temperatures will definitely be in the 40's C and may reach 50. The air will be dry and we will be running roughly a marathon per day for 6 days.

I'm currently trying to assemble my nutrition needs for the week. As I have to carry the supplies, I want them as light as possible. Rationed amounts of water are given out each day but we carry all food from day 1. There is a minimum requirement of 2000 kCal per day.

Of course the easiest thing to do, would be to carry 2000 kcal of oil, but that's hardly tasty or easy to digest for a week.

I was thinking along the lines of

• porridge in the morning,
• freeze dried meal in the evening (e.g. http://www.expeditionfoods.com/shop/index.php?cPath=23&osCsid=c6935fdc6321f1bbda179752a1c3ec1d)
• recovery powder of some sort after running

The main thing still needed therefore is something to eat while running. In other races of similar length, I would tend to eat things like energy bars, fig rolls, gels, sandwiches but these are either not calorie dense enough or non-perishable enough for the desert trip.

In previous years, people have taken things like banana chips, peanut M&M's (melt in your mouth not in your hand!), peperami (salty foods are mana from heaven after hot marathons).

I was just wondering if the experts here might have additional ideas. I guess I'm looking to eat about 500-600 kcal while on the move.

Khannie

The calorie density of a food for a given weight is related to a few things:

fat content (9 calories per gram)
protein / carb content (4 calories per gram)
water content (0 calories per gram, but 1 gram per millilitre)

In short; you'll want to avoid foods that contain any water, which is most food. Not sure if that helps at all.

edit: Things I'd suggest bringing:
Post-run recovery stuff: whey and dextrose. Maybe some cocoa for flavouring. Zero water weight there. I'd be aiming to get most of my protein requirements from whey if I had to carry it over long distances. Purely because of the low weight per gram of protein.
Oats. Total win.
Dried fruit.
Baked stuff (e.g. biscuits)
Nuts (calorie dense per gram, another source of protein)

Things I'd avoid bringing:
Fruit (too much water)

I'd strongly suggest bringing more than 2000 calories per day of course. Maybe front-load your eating to reduce the total distance you're carrying food.

edit: Oh, and the reason salty gear tastes so great is that you'll have ruined your electrolyte levels during the day. That's another thing I'd bring: Dioralite or equivalent.

hunnymonster

Sorry Khannie, I wasn't very clear in my post. I do know a little about sports nutrition (;)) The question, I actually wanted to ask was if people had alternative suggestions to the peanuts and banana chips type "on the run" foods as both are very dry and bland after a couple of days in the arid heat. Biscuits are a bit hit and miss in the heat but as someone said, I can always lick the wrappers! They are also quite bulky, another consideration when carrying all the kit.

The electrolytes are covered via nuun and lavasalts (in my own patented mix). Front loading the race is aa DQ offence, need 14000kCal at start of day 1, 12000 day 2 etc... I'll probably use a combo of SISrego and nocte for post-run and nighttime each day but powders are not allowed to count towards the 2000 daily limit. That's fine as I'll be using about 3000-2500 running per day, while I know I'm going to lose weight in the desert, I don't want to become weaker than necessary so will be carrying more than the minimum. The freeze dried meals are excellent as they are about 500-600 kCal per dry weight and filling when rehydrated. Taste like sawdust though.

Khannie

hunnymonster wrote: »

Sorry Khannie, I wasn't very clear in my post. I do know a little about sports nutrition (;))

Ah sure I knew that. Sure I see you on fitness all the time. I know I was stating the obvious with the calories per gram thing, but I was only trying to highlight the "avoid water weight" part. Obvious with hindsight.

I'd say dried fruit would be good. Syrup is more or less pure carbs AFAIK (i.e. I think there's very little water weight in it). Nutella (sans jar) would be win too. Basically just fat and sugar and great for dipping larger nuts into (like brasils or maybe breadsticks....mmm.....nutella and breadsticks). Also spreads on biscuits to make them extra super delicious.

Sure as s*** though, I'd be taking whey along with me. My god. The beating your poor muscles are gonna take.

hunnymonster

good points on the whey. The only reason I'm reluctant is that I know the SIS stuff tastes ok and apart from serious GI issues the biggest problem I hear people complaining about with food and endurance hot weather racing is that they can't stomach anything that tastes bland. I've heard of guys adding chilli to their porridge after a couple of days. I find plain powder bland in Ireland... Would you have any suggestions of (not chilli flakes) stuff to flavour it with... mind you nutella flavoured shakes, mmm, I think we could sell it :-)

eclectichoney

Also nut butters (cashew butter ftw!) might be good, you could decant them into plastic tubs rather than the glass jars they come in to make it lighter?

Khannie

I stick cocoa in my own shakes. about 5-7g per shake and it's nyom. With the whey, dextrose and cocoa it tastes like a chocolate milk shake (ish). Some of the online shops sell "flavouring systems" for whey which I'm sure you could use in anything. They're very potent in flavour for very little weight. myprotein.co.uk and bulkpowders.co.uk both have their own variations. I can imaging porridge tasting like muck in hot weather alright. *shudder*

neuro-praxis

If you have time to get your hands on them, Reece's Pieces are peanut-butter filled sweets that do well in heat and are calorific, approximately 500kcals per 100g. They are an American product and can be hard to find in Ireland but you can have them delivered.

You could also buy dark chocolate chips to stir into your porridge in the morning - adds a bit of intense flavour and some calories.

You could also make up a supply of Trail Mix for yourself, which is basically crackers, nuts, sweets, dried berries and sometimes cereal mixed together into a snack pack - there are lots of recipes online. Coconuts are also ridiculously high in calories so a bag of sliced, dried coconut mixed in with this might help.

If I think of anything else I'll post it!

hunnymonster

I don't know if it's a case of great minds or fools NP, but I had already ordered some of the Reece pieces (and their m&m equivalent). The M&M's did slightly better in the oven melt-proof test so they'll defiantly be coming with me.

I had one of the freezedried meals last night. Horrid tasting, but for 800 kcal per 100g dry weight, I'm not complaining too much.

I know I'm going to be seriously craving fresh food by the time this thing is over.

Carawaystick

A book by Rannulf(sp) Fiennes reckoned stoned dates were his secret treat - high in sugars
ground almonds should have a bit of fat and protein,

some extra virgin olive oil would be the most energy dense food alright, 9 kcal per gram and add a bit of flavour - infact a wee drop of trufle oil would add flavour if yer budget stretched. might go off in the heat though.

saussion sec or chorizo should be dense too and add a bit of taste from a few slivers. Shouldn't perish in the heat to much.

some msg powder to add flavour and electrolytes?

really dried sultanas/grapes/raisins are like dates - lots of sugar - add to porridge for taste




right - actually read the request -
dates, nuts, dried meat would be my ideas.