Hiking Food Plan Calculator
Calculate how much food to pack for a backpacking trip.
Based on days, calorie needs, and food weight.
Never run low on the trail.
Hiking food planning balances caloric density, weight, and palatability. The goal is enough energy to maintain performance and warmth without carrying unnecessary pack weight.
What the calculator does:
Total food weight = (days × calories per day) ÷ calories per ounce
The daily calorie figures in the dropdown are presets rather than something you compute, and it is worth seeing where they come from.
Where the presets come from. Start with resting metabolism, then multiply for the activity:
BMR (men) = 66 + (6.23 × weight lbs) + (12.7 × height in) − (6.8 × age)
BMR (women) = 655 + (4.35 × weight lbs) + (4.7 × height in) − (4.7 × age)
A 180-lb, 6-foot, 40-year-old man comes to 66 + 1,121 + 914 − 272 = 1,829 cal/day at rest. Backpacking multipliers run 1.9 to 2.1, giving roughly 3,500 to 3,850 a day, which is why the moderate preset sits at 3,500. Thru-hikers deep into a long trail routinely exceed 5,500, and the well-documented “hiker hunger” is that gap catching up with them.
If you want the burn worked out for your own body and terrain rather than picked from a list, the hiking calorie calculator does that side.
Calorie-to-weight target: Most experienced backpackers aim for 100–125 calories per ounce (3.5–4.4 cal/g) of food.
Food weight per day: Standard target: 1.5–2 lbs of food per person per day (1.5 lbs ultralight, 2 lbs comfortable)
Worked example: 3-day trip Moderate backpacking at 3,500 cal/day, food averaging 125 cal/oz:
- Total calories: 3 × 3,500 = 10,500 kcal
- Weight: 10,500 ÷ 125 = 84 oz = 5.25 lbs (2.4 kg)
- Per day: 1.75 lbs, right in the standard range
Drop the density to 100 cal/oz and the same trip becomes 6.6 lbs. That 1.3 lb difference is entirely down to what you pack, not how much you eat.
High-density foods (cal/oz):
| Food | Cal/oz |
|---|---|
| Olive oil | 250 |
| Nuts/seeds | 160–185 |
| Peanut butter powder | 130 |
| Freeze-dried meals | 100–130 |
| Jerky | 80–100 |
| Energy bars | 100–130 |
| Instant oatmeal | 100 |
How we build and check this calculator
This calculator runs entirely in your browser, so the numbers you enter stay on your device. The math behind it is written by hand and tested against worked examples and standard references before the page goes live.
SuperGlobalCalculator is independently built and maintained. See how we build and verify our calculators.