The issue of what to eat and how to replenish during outdoor activities can be addressed through more rational eating habits to ensure the body’s energy supply, achieve physical fitness, and develop healthier lifestyle habits. Let’s hear what experienced hikers have to say?

1Differences in Food Planning for Short and Long Trips
The human body has an automatic adjustment ability. For one- or two-day local short trips, there's no need to overly focus on nutritional supplementation or balance, or electrolyte replenishment. Under normal circumstances, you can supplement according to your usual habits.
For trips lasting two days or longer, food planning should follow the principles of "high energy, high compression ratio, and long shelf life." Energy is fundamental. Whether you prefer noodles or rice, dried noodles or instant noodles, it’s entirely a matter of personal taste. Generally speaking, the same weight of noodles provides more calories than rice.
Always make sure to have a good breakfast before each trip, and that goes for daily life as well.

2Food
Many people believe that eating meat helps you stay full longer, so should you bring more meat when going outdoors? Actually, that’s not the case. Carbohydrates provide energy more directly and quickly than proteins or fats, and they’re easier to digest. Therefore, the primary supplement during outdoor activities should be carbohydrates — namely, rice and flour-based foods.
1. Carbohydrates
As mentioned earlier, these are essentially vegetarian foods.
2. Meat
Meat should be eaten several hours before or after exercise (such as at breakfast or dinner), and it’s best not to eat it during the activity itself.
Beef is the best choice among meats because it is rich in unsaturated fatty acids and trace elements, providing relatively balanced nutrition.
Canned foods are also best when they contain beef. Be cautious with fish — with the exception of sardines and cod, which are okay.
3. Convenience Foods
Also known as junk food, such as instant noodles and ham sausages. These should actually be brought along because they are convenient and lightweight. Just don’t eat too much of them in everyday life.
4. Fruits
Fruits help adjust taste and appetite and are excellent sources of vitamins, especially lemons, followed by oranges and apples.

3Beverages
Water is the most important component of the human body. Without food, a person can survive for seven days, but without water, survival is limited to 3–4 days at most.
Dehydration may lead to serious consequences such as heatstroke and kidney failure, and can even be life-threatening. Therefore, it is essential to drink water before, during, and after outdoor activities.
It can be said that water is the single most important factor in outdoor activities. Thus, knowing how to hydrate and how to maintain the body’s water needs is extremely important.
1. Hydration
The traditional advice we’ve received is: take small sips frequently, just three small sips at a time. This way, it doesn’t dilute gastric juices and prevents intense feelings of thirst. But this approach has some issues. Cooling offered an apt analogy: when cells are on fire, taking small sips is like adding fuel to the flames. Only a certain amount can meet the cells’ water needs. His suggested quantitative guideline is: drink every 20–30 minutes, 150–200ml each time.
Under normal conditions, a person should consume 1,200ml of water per day. During strenuous outdoor activities, you should intake 3–6 times that amount to meet your needs. Here’s a reminder for those who drink little water: during outdoor sports with heavy sweating, drinking insufficient water causes the body to reabsorb moisture from urine due to self-regulation, leading to reduced urination. Over time, this can cause various kidney problems.
2. Salt Replenishment
Is it good to often eat high-salt pickled vegetables? Generally speaking, there’s no need!
Sodium in the human body is mostly excreted, but when needed, the body will automatically retain some. It's only necessary to supplement salt when the weather is extremely hot and you're sweating profusely over a long period.
3. Sports Drinks
Can drinking sports drinks during outdoor activities effectively replenish energy? The answer is no.
The amount of energy and electrolytes provided by a bottle of sports drink is very small—Gatorade, for example, contains only half the electrolytes of Lucozade. We often overestimate the effects of sports drinks; the impact of one bottle is almost negligible. Sports drinks are mainly effective at boosting burst power, but have little effect on endurance. On the contrary, regularly consuming functional drinks can disrupt the body’s natural fluid balance system and be harmful to health.
4. Sugar Supplementation
Glucose is easily absorbed by the human body—is it beneficial to drink more? Not really, for the same reasons mentioned above. For homemade glucose solutions, be careful not to store them for long periods, as such solutions are most prone to microbial growth, which can easily lead to diarrhea if consumed!
In short, the human body is a highly precise self-regulating system. As long as you maintain a certain level of hydration, it can maintain its own balance. Therefore, the water we carry daily should be: plain boiled water, mineral water, purified water, or natural spring water in the wild. When drinking water, don’t wait until you’re thirsty—follow the principle of taking sips every 20–30 minutes, with each intake being about 150–200 ml.

4Energy & Nutrition Replenishment
In terms of energy preparation: in the past, most people would bring chocolate, and some recommended Red Bull. For outdoor activities, you need both high energy and anti-fatigue benefits, along with something lightweight and easy to carry—so chocolate was the first choice that came to mind. The main ingredient in Red Bull is taurine, combined with other compounds, which helps keep you alert, but it doesn’t do much for restoring physical energy. Chocolate, although high in energy, is digested and absorbed relatively slowly. A suitable supplement of amino acids and glucose is a good option. Such foods are especially recommended for longer hikes or mountain climbing activities.