HOW TO FUEL FOR A LONG HIKE (or any endurance sport)

Fueling on a long hike is critical for keeping your energy levels up so you can bask in nature without feeling distracted by low blood sugar and the hanger that comes with it!

But just because we’re putting our bodies to work doesn’t mean we want to sacrifice the quality of foods we’re fueling with. We want to make sure we’re eating and hydrating appropriately so that our flesh vehicles can carry our minds through the ultra-satisfying, anti-anxiety, and beauty of momma earth. 

Here are my top three recommendations for fueling yourself appropriately during a long hike and my favorite go-to electrolyte supplements, snacks, performance, and energy bars.

1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! I’m not talking about your regular old H2O, you need some electrolytes to make sure your cells are absorbing that water and putting it to good use! Try a clean electrolyte supplement. I really like Ultima. You can also carry a water bottle and add a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt for some make-shift electrolytes (they still do the job!)

It’s really hard to find electrolyte powders without crap sources of added sugar (like dextrose, rice syrup, etc). This one is pretty clean, it does contain natural flavors, which aren’t my jam either, but besides that it’s definitely one of the cleaner ones on the market!

2. Carbs for quick energy. Glucose is your body’s preferred energy source. You want to make sure your muscles are fed and happy on your hike. Some yummy quick-absorbing fruit (think banana, apples, berries, oranges) and energy bars are perfect for this. I also love dehydrated beet chips as a source of carbohydrates, AND they’re rich in nitrates—the precursor to nitric oxide, a gaseous molecule that dilates our blood vessels and promotes blood flow (definitely something we want for a long endurance workout!).

Ingredient: beets (that’s it!)

Note: where you get your energy from matters! We want to make sure it's from a clean source, and I’m sorry, but Cliff, Quest, and Nutrigrain bars are crap energy! They’re loaded with syrups and soybean oil that do nothing but rev up inflammation in the body!

I’m not worried about sugar in an energy bar, that’s what we want! We just don’t want is sugar from garbage sources like refined GMO syrups. What we do want is sugar from high-quality sources, so opt for an energy bar with natural sugars like dates or honey and minimal ingredients. The energy bars I packed are ultra-clean and ultra-delicious. Truvani’s The Only Bar and Thunderbird Chocolate Coconut Cashew ftw!

Ingredients: Organic almonds, organic dates, organic maple syrup, organic cocoa, organic cacao nibs, sea salt

Ingredients: dates, almonds, coconut, cashews, cacao, extra virgin coconut oil, Himalayan pink salt, pecans

3. Healthy fats for sustained energy. Carbs are great for quick energy, but we want healthy fats to keep that flame alive and burning the whole hike. Meat sticks (Country Archer Provisions is a clean brand!), nuts, and seeds are excellent sources of healthy fats. But let’s stick to the varieties that only have the nut + salt. (The salt is also going to help with your hydration.) And don’t fall for flavored nuts, they’re a scam! Filled with processed ingredients, seed oils, and flavor enhancers like MSG. Thanks, but no thanks!!

Ingredients: Turkey, Water, Sea Salt, Encapsulated Citric Acid, Cultured Celery Powder (Celery Powder, Sea Salt), Spices (Including Rosemary, Basil, Thyme), Dried Vegetable Powders (Carrot, Garlic, Onion), Cherry Powder, Colored Beef Collagen Casing.

Ingredients: cashews, almonds, pistachios, sea salt

Where does protein come in? That’s recovery, baby. We need protein to help our muscles rebuild and recuperate after a long journey. When you get home from your hike, load up on some bioavailable protein, like salmon, a turkey burger, or a nice grass-fed steak. This will help give your muscles the rebuilding materials it needs and help you feel less sore the next day. 

Another super quick point I want to mention is the way our bodies prioritize energy over lengthy endurance workouts.

First, it works through glucose—what’s available in our bloodstream from whatever we just ate and what our muscles are holding as the storage form of glucose, glycogen. We burn through this first because, as I mentioned above, glucose is the preferred fuel for our cells. 

However, after a certain point, once our bodies start to run low on glucose and our muscle stores are tapped out, our bodies turn to fat for energy.

The amount of time spent burning glucose before switching over to fat depends on how much glycogen you have in your muscle (which depends on how much muscle mass) and the amount of sugar in your bloodstream (in the case that you had something starchy one or two hours prior to your hike).

And when your body is over mobilizing fat for energy, it will turn to protein and start chowing down on your muscle mass. We don’t want this to happen!

The point I’m trying to make here is that your body is able to burn multiple energy sources, IF (and that’s a big if!) we are metabolically flexible. That means our bodies have to be familiar with switching between burning glucose for fuel and burning fat. And for the majority of people, tapping into metabolic flexibility is a concept that’s totally foreign to the body. Why?

Because so many of us are running on sugar for energy non-stop around the clock, rarely does our body ever tap into burning fat for energy, and this is mostly because it doesn’t have to! When carbs and sugar are available, that’s what our bodies will choose to burn—and in the Standard American Diet, these are a staple. 

Remember the food pyramid?! Carbs and grains were on the BOTTOM. The government’s dietary guidelines advised us to eat six to eleven servings of grains PER DAY! That indoctrinated processed grains as a staple. I’m talking about pasta, bread, bagels, oats, rice, and cereal products. Unfortunately, the majority of the population still leans on starches as a staple, which is why our bodies aren’t quite adapted to burning fat for fuel. 

The bottom line is metabolic flexibility is important for endurance hiking and performance sports. If this is something you’re into and want to feel amazing while doing it, replace some of the lower-quality processed carbs in your diet with healthy fats and quality protein along with following a time-restricted eating schedule (i.e. not eating within two hours of going to bed and waiting to eat one or two hours after waking up), is going to help your body become more metabolically flexible. This will take your performance to the next level!

Sending love and kindness to everyone,
Taylor 🫶🌱