Dehydrated food portion sizes

[srforum112]

Does anyone have any idea what the average dehydrated meal portion size is for one person?
Would be really usefull as my pack is getting heavy from my over zealous portion sizes!
Sonja

[Marwood]

Lots of variables involved here. Probably the best I can answer is to say what works for me.

Considerations:
1. I'm male in my 40s, averagely fit.
2. I do pretty moderate walks usually of 2-4 days duration - mostly about 10-20km per day and carrying 10-15kg.
3. I usually eat about 2/3 of the portion size I would at home when bushwalking, since I find I have less appetite in the bush. My appetite returns with a vengeance about 30 seconds after I'm done with the walk.
4. I have a moderately sized breakfast and minimal lunch and snacks during the day, sometimes none. So dinner is my main meal for the day. Not necessarily what is recommended but it works for me.
5. When the weather's cold and wet, I want to eat more so I increase my meal sizes about 20-25%.
5. My home-made dehydrated meals seem to reduce to 1/3 their original weight. This includes the rice/pasta component which I usually mix in.
6. I tend to make quite spicy food for bushwalking, because I find this more enjoyable & satsifying. I often carry my homemade chilli sauce to add to my food.

So I end up with dried dinner portion sizes of 120-130g most of the time, but if it's going to be wet or cold I'll up this to 140-150g. Along with dinner I usually have a cup of well sugared peppermint tea, and some chocolate. Breakfast for me is usually two Weetbix with brown sugar and powdered milk, with black coffee. At lunch a couple of crackers, a handful of nuts, some chocolate and maybe a cuppa soup if it's cold does me fine. The cuppa soups are my backup meals as well. I generally have some mints as well to idly chew on as I walk.

Now my wife who often accompanies me likes things completely different. She grinds to a halt if she doesn't have a good breakfast and a proper lunch, and plenty of little snacks along the way. For her, dinner isn't so important. In total she has maybe 10-20% less food than me each day, but organised way differently.

[Mutley]

I usually work on 1 cup muesli and milk for breakfast, with coffee. Lunch is a mountain bread roll up (2) with salami and cheese or peanut butter, with a cup of hot tea and dinner consists of a tasty and often spicy chilli, bolonanise, or curry weighing about 100g dry with deb, pasta or rice. And instant custard with rehydrated strawberries and banana for desert. Snacks throughout the day include a 100g bag of Scroggin and a muesli bar. The lot is about 700g per day and I'm never hungry. Oh yea, a big mug of hot sustagen and milk after setting up camp replaces the energy really well. The most important factor when planning menus is kj per 100g. Don't carry anything with a low energy value. I think I need about 12000 kj per day to avoid weight loss, while on a hard hike. So that equates to 1.2 kg per day if your average energy value is 1200 kj per 100 g....way too heavy...

.With processed food, the kj is clearly stated on the pack, but with your home cooked meals it's a bit harder. When I cook a curry, I weigh all ingredients as I go and using an online database, like calorie king.com.au, it's not too difficult to calculate the exact kj of the meal. I then weigh a typical serve and dehydrate it, which usually reduces weight by 2/3.