Hunting & Fishing Carnivore on the mountian

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

I didn't really see a good place to put this, buy I feel like it's relevant to some in the group. I'm eating carnivore again, after cycling on and off for the last 5 or 6 years. I've had some good runs, and it's been extremely beneficial for me for so many reasons, but primarily performance. Well, I have some western mountain hunts coming up at the end of the month, and throughout fall and winter. I didn't want to break my diet, nor did I want to lose the benefits of eating carnivore.

Freeze drying your own food requires a significant initial expense, and when I looked at the loss for freeze dried meat, it is ghastly. A 1lb ribeye is $15 these days, and that will leave you with somewhere around 5-7oz of meat when dehydrated, plus the cost of packaging, time, etc. I've looked at other options for meat as well, but they are all ugly. I stumbled into a current mountain house sale. You can buy 10lb cans of dehydrated beef or chicken and it's cheap. I paid right at $90 delivered for a 10lb can of beef and a 10lb can of chicken. This is the hydrated equivalent of roughly 60-70lbs of food.

If you calculate 2lb of food per day on the mountain, that works out to $9/ day. If you buy 2 dehydrated (insert brand) pasta meals a day plus snacks, you're looking at $25-$30/ day or more for less than half of the protein and a bunch of gut bomb garbage.


Any other backcountry carnivores out there? How are you handling backpacking meals?

 

[powdahound76]

Pretty sure those are number 10 cans and not 10 lb cans?

Let us know how it goes.
Curious how carnivore does for say a 12-18 mile day, say a 6-7 mile hard packout with an elk hind quarter?

Just curious, as I am looking at trying carnivore this year, late fall.

I eat differently than at home when mountain hunting, but have a system that works for me.

I buy my freeze dry on big sales or via expert voice.
Never pay retail.
Have thought about a freeze dryer. Decided I am busy enough and have a solid food plan, dont need one right now.
Maybe in the future, just depends how fast the world burns….

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

Pretty sure those are number 10 cans and not 10 lb cans?

Let us know how it goes.
Curious how carnivore does for say a 12-18 mile day, say a 6-7 mile hard packout with an elk hind quarter?

Just curious, as I am looking at trying carnivore this year, late fall.

I eat differently than at home when mountain hunting, but have a system that works for me.

I buy my freeze dry on big sales or via expert voice.
Never pay retail.
Have thought about a freeze dryer. Decided I am busy enough and have a solid food plan, dont need one right now.
Maybe in the future, just depends how fast the world burns….

Ewww, you're right about the can size. Now I'm mad. I guess I just glanced at it and thought it said 10lbs. That's only a couple days of food in each can. Damn..


On the other front, I haven't packed an elk on carnivore, but I've done several long cardio intensive, massive calorie events on carnivore, and I've never had faster recovery. I was eating paleo while I was in the SFQC, at the peak of my physical ability, and this is better. It may not work that well for everyone, but for me, my ability to power through an event like a long pack out on carnivore is better than any other way I've eaten before. I train BJJ, and could do really hard rolls for hours and hours with almost no break while everyone around me was dying and sitting out rounds. Better cardio than I had at 25. Recovery is even better. I can do an extreme workout and have zero soreness the next day. Joint pain disappears, no gut issues. I'm one of those people that eat freeze dried meals and shit liquid on the mountain all week..

 

[powdahound76]

Good info.

Freeze dry and I get along fine. Fortunately!

I have too much energy as is, but more of it and long lasting sounds awesome.

Prolly Try it after archery and early elk rifle.
Still some hunting after that, for my 12 yr old daughters tags, so wont be as intense.

Not changing stuff this close

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

Good info.

Freeze dry and I get along fine. Fortunately!

I have too much energy as is, but more of it and long lasting sounds awesome.

Prolly Try it after archery and early elk rifle.
Still some hunting after that, for my 12 yr old daughters tags, so wont be as intense.

Not changing stuff this close

Yeah, everyone is different, but it seems to take most people 2-3 weeks to level out.

 

[HMRamateur]

Not on carnivore diet, but still a very high protein diet. I dehydrate my own ground beef or make my own jerky. Takes a bit of extra time to do it yourself, but I can eat dehydrated food on the mountain at the same price I'm eating at home rather than overpaying foe dehydrated meals that have no protein. Then I just throw pre sized meals together (dehydrated ground beef, minute rice and taco seasoning), and Bob's your uncle. Throw some powdered greens for added nutrients to my water.

Ziploc bags weigh less than those dehydrated meal packages too, and take up less space. I usually take more than I need also, so it's still a weight savings. Then I can make sure I'm getting at least 200g protein, if not more, per day.

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

Not on carnivore diet, but still a very high protein diet. I dehydrate my own ground beef or make my own jerky. Takes a bit of extra time to do it yourself, but I can eat dehydrated food on the mountain at the same price I'm eating at home rather than overpaying foe dehydrated meals that have no protein. Then I just throw pre sized meals together (dehydrated ground beef, minute rice and taco seasoning), and Bob's your uncle. Throw some powdered greens for added nutrients to my water.

Ziploc bags weigh less than those dehydrated meal packages too, and take up less space. I usually take more than I need also, so it's still a weight savings. Then I can make sure I'm getting at least 200g protein, if not more, per day.

Any trick to dehydrating ground beef?

 

[HMRamateur]

Any trick to dehydrating ground beef?

I fry up a big pan of it, making the pieces as small as possible. Then when it's cooked, I basically rinse it multiple times while on the stove to make sure there's no fat left. Fat will keep it from dehydrating properly and won't allow it to store as long. Then I basically crumble it as small as possible again by hand as I place it on the sheets in the dehydrator so that the pieces are pebble sized. Then it only take 4-5 hours, maybe a bit more, and I'm good for a weekend.

 

[powdahound76]

Thats a cool way of doing it.

How do you rehydrate?

 

[HMRamateur]

I just boil water and throw the bag of rice and beef in it and let it do it's thing. Takes no time at all.

Thats a cool way of doing it.

How do you rehydrate?

 

[zeroz]

Jerky would seem to be the ticket for a carnivore in the backcountry. Pound a day would do the trick Id think.

I have made a bunch of backpack meals in the dehydrator. I weigh the food before it goes in and then when it comes out. Then I write on the vac seal package how much water to add to make weight. The rehydrated consistency isn't perfect on all the meals but its as good or better than most commercial freeze dry meals and doesnt weigh much more. I have never pulled out the fat but its not really meant to be a long term storage meal. never had a problem with anything going bad over the course of a week or so.

 

[kthomas]

Here's a thread on rokslide that may be interesting to some here:

Backpacking on the Carnivore Diet

I did a backpack hunt last September while on carnivore. I was more Keto while on the hunt, but kept carbs extremely low. Performance was great. Did much better than I had the previous two years. Probably helps I was 50lbs lighter. Keto bricks are great. Most people who i have let try...

rokslide.com