Post by LowKey on Apr 14, 2017 10:08:57 GMT
A while back in another thread Lifeboat Rations came up as a good option for a highly shelf stable compact food for BOBs that had a high energy density. I was and am a fan of them in such a role but I my quest to cut my load out weight to a minimum* I started thinking about other foods that would meet the criteria and possibly deliver more calories for the weight carried than they provide.
Just as a reference-
Carbohydrates and Protein provide 4 calories per gram.
Fat provides 9 calories per gram.
Alcohol is 7 calories per gram, BTW. Not really a good source of calories if you're having to bug out, but good to remember.
Obviously fat has the better caloric value by weight which is not surprising as it's main purpose is to store calories. The downside is that I don't imagine a 3000 calorie hunk of plain fat would be all that appetizing to eat.
So far the best shelf stable food I've found is homemade pemmican* at 6.66 calories per gram vs 5 calories per gram of the Datrex lifeboat rations. When you start looking a weeks worth of calories what seems to be a small difference turns out to be quite a bit of weight.
Rough calculations for my daily caloric needs based on a combined weight of myself and gear being around 225 and the overly optimistic assumption that I could put in about 25 miles per day (Dannus, stop snickering!
) while handling an elevation change of 1000ft show me burning about 4800 calories. While I doubt I'd manage to pull that off for even one day without the incentive of being chased by a pack of hungry rabid hyenas, I like to figure on the higher side/most pessimistic estimates of fuel consumption (in this case calories) when planning.
So for one day I'm looking at 720 grams/25.4 oz of pemmican or 960/33.86 grams of Lifeboat Bars....240 grams or 8.46oz difference.
Over a week thats 5.045 kg/11lbs 2 oz of pemmican or 6.72kg/14lbs 13oz of Lifeboat Bars. 1.675kg/3lbs 11oz difference.
Nearly 4 pounds difference in weight for just a weeks worth of food is not insignificant.
So what other shelf stable foods out there match or exceed 6.66 calories per gram?
*Pemmican Manual
*So I can most likely end up adding other stuff.
Just as a reference-
Carbohydrates and Protein provide 4 calories per gram.
Fat provides 9 calories per gram.
Alcohol is 7 calories per gram, BTW. Not really a good source of calories if you're having to bug out, but good to remember.
Obviously fat has the better caloric value by weight which is not surprising as it's main purpose is to store calories. The downside is that I don't imagine a 3000 calorie hunk of plain fat would be all that appetizing to eat.
So far the best shelf stable food I've found is homemade pemmican* at 6.66 calories per gram vs 5 calories per gram of the Datrex lifeboat rations. When you start looking a weeks worth of calories what seems to be a small difference turns out to be quite a bit of weight.
Rough calculations for my daily caloric needs based on a combined weight of myself and gear being around 225 and the overly optimistic assumption that I could put in about 25 miles per day (Dannus, stop snickering!
) while handling an elevation change of 1000ft show me burning about 4800 calories. While I doubt I'd manage to pull that off for even one day without the incentive of being chased by a pack of hungry rabid hyenas, I like to figure on the higher side/most pessimistic estimates of fuel consumption (in this case calories) when planning. So for one day I'm looking at 720 grams/25.4 oz of pemmican or 960/33.86 grams of Lifeboat Bars....240 grams or 8.46oz difference.
Over a week thats 5.045 kg/11lbs 2 oz of pemmican or 6.72kg/14lbs 13oz of Lifeboat Bars. 1.675kg/3lbs 11oz difference.
Nearly 4 pounds difference in weight for just a weeks worth of food is not insignificant.
So what other shelf stable foods out there match or exceed 6.66 calories per gram?
*Pemmican Manual
*So I can most likely end up adding other stuff.
