Trail food & high-protein meal planning
Backpacking food planner and high-protein meal tools
Free calculators and long-form guides for hikers, backpackers and meal preppers. Work out food weight, calorie and protein density, water carries and batch recipes, with every formula shown.
Tools
- Backpacking Food Weight CalculatorDays × calories ÷ density = how much food goes in your pack.
- Calorie Density CheckerTurn any nutrition label into kcal per ounce and per 100 g.
- Protein Density CalculatorProtein per 100 g, per 100 kcal and % of calories for any food.
- High-Protein Trail Mix BuilderMix nuts, seeds and fruit and see calories, protein and density live.
- Hiking Calorie EstimatorEstimate energy burned with body weight, pack weight and terrain.
- Multi-Day Trail Meal PlannerSplit each day into breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner targets.
- Protein Cost CalculatorCompare foods by price per 20 g and per 100 g of protein.
- Meal Prep Recipe ScalerScale a recipe to any number of servings and track protein per box.
- Water Carry CalculatorHow many litres to carry between water sources, and what it weighs.
Latest guides
- Food to Take Hiking: A Day-Hike Food List That WorksWhat food to take hiking on a day hike, how much to pack for your hours on the trail, and a printable food list with calories per item and practical packing tips.
- Trekking Meals: Eating Well on Hut and Multi-Week TreksTrekking meals for hut-to-hut routes, teahouse treks and long self-supported trekking, covering what huts serve, what to carry between meals, altitude appetite, and planning a resupply.
- Trail Food Ranked by Calories per Ounce (35 Foods)A reference table of 35 common trail foods ranked by calories per ounce and per 100 g, with protein, how well each one keeps, and how to use the list to build a lighter food bag.
- Snacks With Protein: 30 Easy Ideas With Grams ListedThirty everyday snacks with protein for home, work and on the go, with approximate grams of protein and calories per portion, no-prep and five-minute options, and how to compare them fairly.
- No-Cook Backpacking Meals: Stoveless Ideas and a PlanNo-cook backpacking meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with calories and weights, cold-soaking basics, a sample stoveless day and tips to keep food dense and appealing.
- Low Carb High Protein Meal Prep: 5 Batch RecipesLow carb high protein meal prep with five batch recipes, approximate protein and carbohydrate per container, vegetable swaps for rice and pasta, a sample week, and storage tips.
Protealpes is a free backpacking food planner and set of high-protein meal tools: calculators for food weight, calorie density, hiking calories, water and meal prep, plus guides that show the maths.
What Protealpes is for
Most food advice tells you what to eat. Protealpes is about how much. How many grams of food go into a three-day pack? Which snack gives you the most energy per ounce? How much protein is actually in your meal prep containers? How much water do you need for the dry stretch after the pass? These are arithmetic questions, and they have clear answers once you know your inputs.
Every tool here does one calculation and shows the formula, so you can check it by hand. Every guide uses worked examples with real numbers and names the sources for nutrition figures. Mostly that's USDA FoodData Central for food composition and the Compendium of Physical Activities for exercise energy. Nothing here is a medical recommendation. It's planning maths, explained plainly.
Trail food planning
A backpacking food bag is a balance of three things: energy, weight and what you'll actually want to eat on day three. The core idea is calorie density, the energy per gram. A bag averaging 450 kcal per 100 g weighs about a third less than one averaging 300 for the same energy. Start with the backpacking food weight calculator to size your bag. Check individual foods with the calorie density checker, then split each day into meals with the trail meal planner.
If you'd like a complete example to copy, the 3-day backpacking meal plan walks through one trip from calorie target to shopping list. For lighter, simpler trips, see no-cook backpacking meals and what food to take hiking.
Protein on the trail and at home
Protein comes up in two very different settings. On the trail, you want protein that doesn't cost too much weight. Seeds, nuts and hard cheese often beat jerky once you count calories as well as grams. At home, you often want the opposite: plenty of protein within a calorie budget. The protein density calculator shows both views from one label. The trail mix builder lets you design a mix that's both dense and protein-rich.
For home cooking, the meal prep recipe scaler multiplies any recipe and tells you protein per container. The protein cost calculator shows which of your usual foods give the cheapest protein. These pair with guides like the 7-day high-protein meal prep plan and cheap high-protein meal prep.
Energy and water
Two more numbers shape a trip. The first is how much energy the hiking takes. The hiking calorie estimator uses MET values with your body and pack weight. The second is how much water to carry between sources, which the water carry calculator works out from distance, pace and drinking rate. Both are estimates, and the tool pages explain what they leave out.
How to use the site
- Pick the question you're trying to answer and open the matching tool.
- Enter your own numbers. Defaults are examples, not recommendations.
- Read the explanation under the tool. It covers the formula, a worked example and common mistakes.
- Follow the links into the guides for the bigger picture.
Who writes it
Protealpes is built and written by Mohamed Laghbar, an independent developer and hiker. He isn't a dietitian, and the site doesn't pretend otherwise. The about page explains the background, and the editorial policy explains how facts are checked. Corrections are welcome at hello [at] protealpes.net.
New this month
The latest guides cover high-calorie backpacking food, ranked by calories per 100 g and per ounce, and calories burned hiking with a pack, with tables by body weight, pack weight and terrain. For home cooking, high-protein diet recipes gives ten weighed meals with calories and protein per serving. Every tool page has also been expanded with step-by-step instructions, reference tables and worked examples.