What snacks to take on a longer hike or bike tour? We have 5 tips for you!

While weight training is the ideal sporting activity for most of us during the winter months, many of you will also go on a multi-day bike ride or a longer backpacking trip during the summer. And if you're into these multi-day activities, you might be wondering what you should actually take for a meal - because having a backpack stuffed with, say, chicken and rice in the summer is definitely not a good idea. But in today's article, we've got a few tips for practical snacks on the go.

What criteria should an optimal snack meet?

The optimal snack for travelling should primarily be nutritionally valuable and balanced. Since both hiking and cycling are quite demanding sports, it is definitely a good idea to supplement with sufficient carbohydrates and protein. However, when choosing the optimal meal, you should keep in mind that it shouldn't fill you up too much and certainly shouldn't be unnecessarily heavy - for example, a large portion of steak and pastry will tire you out rather than give you any energy during a strenuous hike.

The most important thing is to plan everything in advance

If you're going to be going somewhere for multiple days, you'll want to pack toiletries and clean clothes in your backpack. But this means you'll find that you won't have much room left in your pack, and although it may not seem like it at first glance, when you put all the food you eat in a day next to you, it's quite a lot.

For multi-day trips, you need to have everything well planned out. You should answer the following questions yourself:

• How often will I be able to resupply?
• Will I be staying in a hotel somewhere or just under a tent?
• Will I be able to heat up my food?
• How long will my trip actually take?

And the answers to the following questions should help you decide what kind of food you will actually choose. Day trips tend to be easy, almost any food will last a couple of hours in a backpack, so it's no problem to take some fruit, some wholemeal bread with ham and cheese, or even a cold pasta salad.

For day trips, food choices are easy. If you're going somewhere for multiple days, it's worse.

What to pack for multi-day hikes?

While packing food for a day hike is probably not a problem for anyone, choosing the right foods for a multi-day hike where you won't have anywhere to resupply can be much more challenging. And that's what we'll focus on in our article today. We would recommend you to take:

Ready-made food

Normally, a ready meal might not look very attractive. And we agree that we don't know anyone who regularly indulges in beef stew, which you just have to heat and eat, at home, but if you're going on a longer hike, you better believe that at least once a day, a meal like this will come in handy. Its huge advantage is that it's portable, won't leak in your pack due to the perfect closure, and can be prepared just by reheating it wherever the current conditions allow. Despite the fact that it's a ready meal, specifically Express Menu, whose products we have on offer, really cares about the ingredients and you don't have to worry about this ready meal interfering with your healthy lifestyle.

Canned tuna

Canned tuna, of which we have a wide range in our shop, has similar properties to ready meals. Canned tuna weighs only a few grams, is storable, durable, but is also a great source of premium protein and omega 3 fatty acids, which are very important for our overall health, as we mentioned in the detailed article. And if for some reason you are not tempted by canned food, we recommend reaching for our yellowfin tuna in glass.

Protein supply

As we mentioned in our protein selection guide, there are a number of protein supplements out there. But whichever one you choose, what they usually have in common is that they're instant, dried, don't take up too much space, yet are packed with the protein you simply and simply need for proper recovery on long hikes or bike rides. Just take a shaker, put water and the necessary amount of powder in it, shake it a few times and you have a nutritious shake that will reliably fill you up for some time. We would recommend either whey or multi-ingredient protein for some longer hikes. However, even the more demanding among you can choose from our range.

Biscuits and bars

The last foods we need to mention are biscuits and bars. If you're not too fussy about your diet and want to take a break from the hassle of healthy eating on a hike, you can buy something sweet at any supermarket. However, if you want to replenish your body with enough nutrients while limiting your intake of unwanted ingredients such as industrially processed fats, preservatives and other additives, a better choice is to reach for either suitable protein bars, which are a good source of protein, or energy bars, which often contain, for example, oatmeal or another source of complex carbohydrates. And with dozens of different bars and biscuits on offer, there really is something for everyone.

What to take away from today's article?

The main thing you should take away from today's article is that the most important thing of all is to plan properly. You must never let yourself run out of food on a hike, and it's just as pointless to carry twice as much food as you can realistically consume. Once you have an idea of the length of the trip, we recommend packing canned fish, protein supplements, bars or trail mix in your backpack. Ready-made meals that you can reheat or eat cold at the end of the day are definitely not a bad idea either. Although it's obviously not the same as a freshly prepared meal, Express Menu's ready meals taste surprisingly good.