Calories

[shawn.foor@gmail.com]

So going on my first elk hunt in September southern Colorado. I have dropped almost 70 lbs and am still working on getting into better shape. My question is as follows:  How many calories do you think you burn during the day?  We are backpacking in and will be there for 7 days

 

[elk sicario]

in 2018 i had the opportunity to participate in a stone ram hunt that a friend was doing. i say participate in this sense to mean that i was the gear pig!!! we planned meal weights into our sheep packs before we flew in. for a five day hunt, we planned 10lbs. of food per person. food consisted of home made granola with freeze dried fruit, home made trail mix (high protein nuts, seeds, berries, and fruit, with a little bit of chocolate chips.), a protein bar, 2 ramen noodles packs, and 1 2-serving mountain house meal. personally i gravitated towards anything that contained chicken and rice. they were easy on the stomach and provided protein and carbs. (should your buddies choose to follow other classic menu items from said freeze dried meals, be sure that you are in your own tent and upwind! otherwise you may hear your buddies telling ben in your tent to give you both barrels and hit you again as they cry themselves to sleep while laughing.) i know elk hunts are not nearly as strenuous as sheep generally, but i can tell you that we were hungry at the end of the day. calorie wise, i cant give an accurate number. everyone is a little different. i can eat a 2000 calorie/day diet and lose weight. guys in NSW seal/swcc can eat 15000 calories a day and be starving.  when im working hard in elk season, i will eat a double serving mountain house at every meal. then it will be immediately followed by a large "snack" of some kind. i usually eat 2 more snacks or so between meals at minimum. track your daily caloric intake and then multiply it by 2.5 and you should at least have a general platform to work off of. i know i can run somewhere in the 5-6000 range and still be foraging on the trails. the big thing is to eat high protein foods to build muscle and aid in recovery while eating carbs to give instant energy. also use mtn  ops ignite in the morning-afternoon, and drink mtn ops bcaa at night after you get back to camp. if you really want a secret to success, here it is: drink your morning coffee...then follow it up with mtn ops ignite! ignite has long term energy curves with a 200 dose of caffiene. coffee has an unknown amount of caffeine to me, but it doesnt last very long and you get a energy crash when it wears off. by combining the 2, you get an extreme amount of caffeine that also gives longer lasting energy. i discovered this little trick by accident one morning rolling towards the trailhead. i dont know what your health effects are, but i know that when its in your system you probably could "kill a bar at the age of 3" my dad said i should just go get a hand full of reds and whites on the street corner as it would be cheaper and have the same effects. my mother claims it is the mad scientist gene from her side of the family! all i can say is that it works and i have been crushing everything i do when those 2 things are combined.