Best Hiking Lunches: With Protein, Carbs & Fats

The best hiking lunches are ones with protein, carbohydrates and fats. In fact these can be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here are ideas for how to create an energy-packed sandwich for a hike.

Does Hiking Burn a Lot of Calories?

Bagel, Luncheon Meat & Cheese

Cream Cheese Baguette & Pepperoni Stick

Pita Pizza

Chicken & Cheese Wrap

Pumpernickel, Baby Bel & Pepperoni

Sample Backpacking Meal Plans

Does Hiking Burn a Lot of Calories?

To answer the question, “does hiking burn a lot of calories” we would have to know how fast and far you are going. You would also need to know your elevation gain and loss as these require more effort than traversing. The simple answer is “hiking may burn a lot of calories.”

In my article Best Energy Food for Hiking, I talk about using a smart device to track your calories spent on a hike. A Garmin or Apple Watch are great examples of tools that will track calories for an activity. Just a heads up that the data is not 100% accurate. If you chose to use these smart devices, look at them as a guideline to help you plan calories on a similar hike.

In the above mentioned article, I give detailed instructions for calculating calories needed on a hike. It is pretty complex. To avoid bonking, you do want to consume adequate protein, carbohydrates and fat on a hike. The easiest way to do this is:

• Eat a sandwich for every regular meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Eat high energy snacks between meals

Don’t forget hydration!

Best Hiking Lunches

The best hiking lunches below are ones that contain protein, carbohydrates and fat. Since you will be burning calories non-stop, all food should be dominate in carbohydrates.

Best Hiking Lunches: Bagel, Luncheon Meat & Cheese

We think this is one of the best hiking lunches because the sandwich can be squished down before it’s wrapped in saran wrap to keep it compact in your pack. Bagels are also so satisfying because they’re very dense. I have found though that they can be dry so I like to put mayonnaise on my bagel sandwich (or butter depending on the weather).

Best Hiking Lunches: Cream Cheese Baguette & Pepperoni Sticks

With think that this is one of the best hiking lunches with the crusty bread, creamy cheese and chewy pepperoni sticks. This sandwich can also be squished down with saran wrap to maximize space in your backpack. There’s something so satisfying in cream cheese.

Best Hiking Lunches: Pita Pizza

Pizza, in any form is up there as one of the best hiking lunches ever! I like making a very basic pizza pocket with pepperoni, cheese and sundried tomatoes. You can fold up each half of the pita and tightly wrap it with saran wrap to make it compact for your pack. You can also melt your mozzarella over your pepperoni in a toaster over before stuffing your pita.

Best Hiking Lunches: Chicken & Cheese Wrap

Among the best hiking lunches is a burrito-style wrap. A few times a month we order burritos from “Burrito Boyz” and they are to-die-for! While I usually like mine very spicy, it’s not a good idea for a long hike. This sandwich is a twist on the burrito and has a lot of options for fillers, including chicken, cheese, mayo or guacamole or even rice or beans.

Best Hiking Lunches: Pumpernickel, Babybel & Pepperoni

Babybel cheese has to be included in the list of best hiking lunches. When I packed out meals for Yamnuska Mountain Adventures, Babybel was a staple. They’re great as they’re individually wrapped (pack your wrappers out!) and nice and chewy. Paired with a stick of pepperoni and fresh pumpernickel bread, this hiking lunch is awesome!

Sample Backpacking Meal Plans

Here are examples of meal plans based on the formula:

• Eat a sandwich for every regular meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Eat high energy snacks between meals

These meal plans are ones I would prepare for myself based on consuming an average of 1750 calories on non-hike days and burning approximately 220 calories per hour hiking mountains. Calorie breakdown is shown for those that count calories and to give an idea of how many more calories I consume on hike vs non-hike days. Note that it is not necessary to replace every calorie burned hiking. If you want to learn more about detailed calorie counting, read my article here.

See my Hiking Guide for ideas on training, route planning and more!

Backpacking Meal Plan #1: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Hike

	Calories
Bob’s Red Mill bar	226
Chicken & Cheese Wrap	437
Kashi Bar	145 hiking calories
Breakfast, Snack & Dinner at home	1250
	1913 total calories (vs 1750 on non-hike days)

Backpacking Meal Plan #2: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Hike

	Calories
Pumpernickel sandwich	549
Pita Pizza	436
LARABAR x 2	402
RXBAR	221
	1608 hiking calories
Breakfast & Dinner at home	900 non-hiking calories
	2508 total calories (vs 1750 on non-hike days)

Backpacking Meal Plan #3: 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hike

	Calories
Baguette/Cream Cheese/Pepperoni	577
Bagel Sandwich	404
CLIF Bar	276
Kashi Bar	145
Love Good Fats Bar	209
	1,611 hiking calories
Breakfast & Dinner at home	900 non-hiking calories
	2,511 total calories (vs 1750 on non-hike days)

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