You’re standing in front of a display of backpacking meals at your local outdoor store, deciding what to eat on your next trip. Chicken Alfredo sounds good. So does mushroom risotto. Maybe you’ll try lasagna for the third night. You toss a few pouches into your cart. After all, they’re designed for backpackers, so they should provide the fuel you need. Right?
But flip those packages over, and you’ll find some surprisingly large differences. Two meals that sound equally satisfying might provide vastly different amounts of calories, carbohydrates, protein, and sodium. And unless you check those numbers, you won’t know whether your dinner fits your nutritional needs.
As a registered dietitian and ultralight backpacker, I pay close attention to these numbers when developing recipes. The same principles apply whether you’re purchasing commercial meals or making your own. To illustrate, I compared three commercially packaged dinners with two of my DIY recipes.
How Five Backpacking Meals Compare
As you can see, not all backpacking meals are going to give you the same nutrients. All values represent the entire pouch or one complete DIY recipe serving, not the manufacturer’s suggested individual serving for multi-serving pouches.
| Meal | Calories | Calories per ounce | Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Sodium (mg) |
| Peak Refuel Chicken Alfredo Pasta | 830 | 168 | 46 | 48 | 1,030 |
| Mountain House Beef Lasagna | 440 | 122 | 60 | 22 | 1,180 |
| Good To-Go Mushroom Risotto | 410 | 120 | 64 | 13 | 420 |
| Homemade Basil Walnut Ziti | 894 | 149 | 74 | 24 | 324 |
| Homemade Spicy Hummus | 447 | 154 | 24 | 12 | 666 |
Calories per ounce are based on dry food weight before adding water. Nutrition values are from the provided product labels and DIY recipe calculations.
Start with total calories, not serving size.
Serving sizes can be misleading, especially when you’re burning thousands of calories hiking. Mountain House Beef Lasagna and Peak Refuel Chicken Alfredo both contain two servings per pouch, but the Alfredo contains nearly twice as many calories. Good To-Go’s Mushroom Risotto contains 410 calories in its single-serving pouch. That’s a substantial difference between three dinners you might choose simply because they sound good. If you don’t check the labels, you could end up carrying far fewer calories than you need.
I always look at the calories in the portion I plan to eat rather than relying on suggested serving sizes. The same applies to homemade meals. A recipe that claims to feed two people might not provide enough fuel for two hungry backpackers. How much you need at dinner depends on your daily energy requirements and what you’ve already eaten, not the number of servings printed on the package.
Calculate calories per ounce.
When you’re carrying several days of food, every ounce matters. That’s why I calculate calorie density by dividing a meal’s total calories by its dry weight in ounces. The five meals in the table range from approximately 120 to 168 calories per ounce. That difference can add up over a weeklong trip, especially if you’re struggling to carry enough calories without adding excessive pack weight.
Fat contains 9 calories per gram, compared with 4 for carbohydrates and protein, so meals containing more fat tend to provide more calories per ounce. When developing my own recipes, I use ingredients like nuts, oils, and full-fat dairy powders to increase calorie density without adding much weight or volume. But I don’t simply maximize fat, either. My goal is to provide enough carbohydrates to fuel hiking and enough protein to support recovery, then use calorie-dense ingredients to help meet energy needs without making the meal unnecessarily bulky.
Don’t overlook carbohydrates.
It’s easy to focus on calories and protein when comparing backpacking meals, but carbohydrates are especially important for fueling your miles. Your body stores carbohydrates as glycogen in your muscles and liver, providing an important energy source during hiking, especially when you’re climbing steep terrain or pushing the pace. Sports nutrition guidelines recommend approximately 5 to 7 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight daily for moderate exercise, with higher amounts for more demanding activity. For a 150-pound hiker, that’s roughly 340 to 475 grams per day, spread across meals and snacks.
Peak Refuel’s Chicken Alfredo provides 46 grams of carbohydrates, while Mountain House Beef Lasagna contains 60 grams. Despite providing nearly twice the calories of the lasagna, the Alfredo contains fewer carbohydrates. That doesn’t automatically make the lasagna a better choice, nor does a dinner containing 100 grams of carbohydrates necessarily provide better fuel. I consider how each meal contributes to my daily carbohydrate needs and account for any differences elsewhere in my menu. I also check fiber, since large amounts can cause digestive discomfort for some hikers during strenuous activity.
Check protein, but don’t chase the highest number.
Protein helps repair and rebuild muscle tissue after exercise, especially when you’re hiking long distances on consecutive days. Endurance athletes generally benefit from approximately 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. Sports nutrition research also suggests that approximately 20 to 40 grams of high-quality protein per meal can effectively stimulate muscle protein synthesis, although individual needs vary.
The meals listed above display a wide range of protein content, but remember that more is not always better. More protein in one sitting doesn’t necessarily translate into greater muscle recovery; a low-protein dinner can still fit into a menu that provides adequate protein throughout the day. When developing recipes, I consider protein alongside carbohydrates, fat, and total calories rather than trying to pack as much protein as possible into every serving.
Don’t automatically avoid sodium.
At home, we’re often encouraged to limit sodium. On trail, the picture is more complicated because we lose sodium through sweat, and those losses vary with temperature, exertion, and individual sweat composition. Mountain House Beef Lasagna contains 1,180 milligrams of sodium per pouch, while my Basil Walnut Ziti provides just 324 milligrams. That’s a substantial difference, but it doesn’t automatically mean one is better for every hiker.
I track sodium when developing recipes, so I know how much each meal contributes to my overall intake, including salty snacks and electrolyte drinks. A higher-sodium dinner might fit my needs on a hot, strenuous day, but I wouldn’t assume it replaces everything lost through sweat. I consider sodium alongside my overall hydration and fueling plan rather than automatically choosing the meal with the lowest number.
Putting the Numbers Together
So, how do you choose the right backpacking dinner? More calories, carbohydrates, or protein don’t automatically make one meal better than another. I look for a balance of carbohydrates to fuel hiking, protein to support recovery, and calorie-dense fats to help meet my energy needs without adding unnecessary weight or bulk. I also consider sodium and how dinner fits into my entire day’s food plan, including breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks, and dessert. If a meal falls short in one area, I can make up for it elsewhere in my menu. The goal isn’t to find a perfect dinner, but to pack food you’ll enjoy eating that provides the energy and nutrients you need to keep hiking strong.
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