Going through my spreadsheet for bow season, I'm wondering what you guys are taking in for food weight/day. Personally I feel like I take in a ton of food, shoot for 4500 cals/day, bulk weight 37.5 oz (120 cal/oz).
I always shoot for a minimum of 100 cal/oz so I’d say you’re doing well at 120. Everybody has different caloric requirements and yours may be higher than mine but I’m usually about 25-30 ounces per day of food.
I think I was around 27 oz per day this year and somewhere around 4K calories. Everyone’s different on their needs. Your needs will even be different from day to day. I had some days this past season that I was stealing food from the following day. And other days that I would have fly touch anything between breakfast and dinner. Elevation, work load, hydration, diet, food quality are all aspects that play into everyday needs.
last year it was about 18oz. i ate everything. previous years it was nearly twice that at about 3800 - but never seemed to have time to eat it all and still lost weight.
but we did change, did more a series of 2-3 days with regroup in-between so wasn't as concerned, if it were 5 days straight it would be around 1.5 lbs.
I shoot for about 2500 call/day at 20oz packaged. Some days I'm up to 22oz since I have about 3 different arrangements to avoid getting bored. Others are 18 oz. I shoot for 100 grams of protein, and the days I pack foil packs of smoked salmon get me due to the water weight. Field Trip brand beef jerky has a ton of protein per ounce.
3000/day at about 1.5lbs per bag I what I typically consume. I will throw in another 100-300 cal per bag though. Yes, that means I will be packing out uneaten food, but it gives me a little variety on a daily basis, and it also means that I can usually stretch out a trip by another day or so if needed.
It’s hard for me to plan how many calories I need for this trip, because I’m very hit or miss when it comes to having an appetite while backpacking. To be on the safe side, I’ll be sticking with 2750-3000 calories per day for my elk hunting trip. This should be more than enough calories to keep me fueled for 6 days of hard hunting in the mountains.