In this article on protein for day hiking, I’m going to be basing it around the International Society of Sports Nutrition’s (ISSN) protein and exercise recommendations, which is based on their review of 64 scientific studies related to the subject.
This article is also for any type of hiker, including a backpacker or thru-hiker. However my examples are contoured around the hiker having whole protein sources that are more readily available off the trail.
How much Protein Needed for Day Hiking?
The RDA for protein for healthy adults is 0.8g/kg per day, however any type of dedicated exercise, like hiking up a mountain at 2.6mph, for 90 minutes, then heading back down, likely requires a higher intake to replete and repair damage to the leg muscles, as they perform that novel task, relative to the activities of daily living, as most research points to.
Hiking is a type of endurance exercise – one that causes your heart rate and breathing to increase – and as such, several studies recommend a range of protein intake: 1 to 1.6g/kg per day. It would not be wrong to rationalize that shorter, flatter, slower hikes would fall on the the 1g/kg/day end of that spectrum, while longer, steeper and more vigorous hikes – the type that on your descent off the mountain, your muscles are shaky and weak, and sore the next day, even though you’re in shape – would fall on the higher, 1.6g/kg/day end of it.
However, in a more generalized statement, the International Society of Sport Nutrition recommends that exercising individuals take in 1.4 to 2g/kg/day, with endurance exercise – again, read general hiking – being on the lower end of that number.
Is It Safe to Eat High Amounts of Protein Just for Occasional Day Hiking?
High protein intake and kidney disease
As long as you are a healthy individual, with no kidney disease, then ingesting higher amounts of protein than RDA guidelines is safe. Studies showing otherwise were done with individuals that already had kidney disease. Further healthy individuals with regular diets have similar rates of progression, concerning age related kidney function deterioration, as do individuals that have low protein diets. And it is possible, though not conclusive, that higher protein diets may reduce risk of diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and obesity, and therefore reduce risk of kidney disease (though this would be in the context of higher intake of plant proteins, substituting for carbs, this causing weight reduction).
High protein intake and bone mass loss
The phosphate component of protein rich foods (and protein supplements with added calcium and phosphate) cancels out any deleterious affect, regarding bone mass loss, seen in small studies done with purified, high dose proteins with minimal phosphate content.
Indeed, healthy senior adults, that aren’t regular hikers or endurance exercisers, should still get a little above the RDA number, to minimize bone mass loss. When I was studying for my Certified Nutrition Support Clinician exam, the number most quoted for seniors was 1g/kg/day. This also reduced the risk of sarcopenia – age related muscle mass loss. ISSN still recommends, even for this age group, the 1.4-2g/kg/day protein level for healthy exercisers.
When Should You Eat Protein When You Are Hiking?
The original ISSN recommendation was that exercisers (I’ll just say hikers) should eat high quality protein within the time period around their hike (before, during, and after the hike). The updated 2017 literature review by the ISSN recommends evenly spacing your daily protein intake at intervals of around 3-4 hours, to promote maximum sustained muscle protein synthesis, and performance, with the optimal intake per serving being 0.25g/kg, or an absolute protein dose of 20-40g, with older individuals needing to shoot for that 40g at the higher range. (Somewhat consistent with this recommendation, I’ve read that within 30 minutes after vigorous hiking, you should be eating 0.3-0.5g/kg of protein, based on another ISSN paper.) This latest ISSN recommendation implies that you’ll be eating 4 to 6 times throughout your hiking day. Further, they state ingesting protein during or after an intense endurance exercise reduces muscle soreness and myofibrillar damage.
Example of protein intake and timing for hiking
I’ll model out what we’ve learned so far, using a 70kg individual on a moderate to hard 6 hour hike:
| Time | Intake | Protein Related Foods |
| 9:00am – eat breakfast | 24g | 1 cup of milk; 1 Chobani yogurt; cereal |
| 12:00pm – pre-hike snack; hike out 12:15pm to 3:15pm | 18g | Cliff Barr with peanut butter spread onto it |
| 3:15pm – mid-hike snack; hike back in 3:45pm to 6:45pm | 23g | Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai w/ Chicken backpacking dehydrated food |
| 7:00pm – dinner | 47g | Chicken breast; long grain rice |
| 10:30pm – pre-sleep snack | 16.7g | Popcorn, handful of nuts, glass of milk |
| Totals | 128.7g |
In this example, the hiker went a little over his needed 1.6g/kg and landed at the 1.8g/kg range. No big deal. However they could have dialed back on the dinner protein, like eating half a chicken breast, diced into some rice with broccoli and still been in a good range to minimize muscle breakdown, and maximize muscle tissue reconstruction.
ISSN actually recommends 30-40g of casein protein intake before bed, to increase overnight muscle protein synthesis, so in addition to dialing back the chicken breast at dinner, our hiker could do well to forgo the nuts at night, and instead drink a couple cups of milk and eat another Greek yogurt.
What Type of Protein Should You Eat for Day Hiking?
ISSN recommends striving for whole food sources of protein that contain a balanced array of all the essential amino acids (EAA’s), and that have 6-15g of those EAA’s, and 700-3000mg of leucine, per meal. This 6-15g of EAA’s are what is considered stimulative to muscle protein synthesis, as these particular aminos uniquely drive muscle building after hiking, or exercise. If supplementation is involved, strive for a ratio of leucine to isoleucine to valine of 2:1:1, which is what is found in animal protein.
The older ISSN recommendation said that you should consume above 45mg/kg/day of leucine, but that 45mg number was the baseline for sedentary individuals, so the new, higher number should be your focus.
Protein qualities are scored by the DIAAS and the older PDCAAS programs. The higher the score number, the more balanced and easier to digest the protein is. You want the higher scoring ones to give you the best chance repleting muscle burned on that 1,500ft 1.6 mile climb (yes, I’m looking at you O’Melveny Park). I’ll throw down some of the higher scoring ones but if you Google or Wikipedia search these, you can find the full list.
| Protein Source | PDCAAS | DIAAS |
| Milk Protein Concentrate | 1 | 1.18 |
| Pork | n/a | 1.17 |
| Whole Milk Powder | 1 | 1.159 |
| Whole Milk | 1 | 1.14 |
| Hard Boiled Egg | 1 | 1.13 |
| Whey Protein Isolate | 1 | 1.09 |
| Chicken Breast | 1 | 1.08 |
| Soya Flower | 1 | 1.05 |
| Egg | 1 | 1.01 |
Protein Supplementation
If you’re interested in using protein supplementation, the ISSN, in their original 2007 report, recommended whey and casein based supplements be used, due to their high protein quality scores. Generally high quality whole foods, and whey/casein supplements, have around 25% BCAAs, so any deficits in the former can be filled by the latter. Whey powder is about 10% leucine, so a 20g scoop has 2000mg of leucine.
Since this 2007 report was released the DIAAS scoring was developed that allows low scoring proteins to be added together with higher scoring ones, to garner an overall high scoring meal. This opens up the possibility to have vegan based supplements, based around pea protein and rice to play some roll in supplementation, though such go beyond this article, and is not part of the ISSN recommendations.
Post Hike Repletion
I’ve further compiled a list of ISSN 2007 and 2017 based requirements (per meal requirement, post exercise requirement, essential amino acid and leucine requirement, branch chain ratio requirement, and post endurance exercise carb requirement, etc.) and tested those against products found on Amazon, to find something that works as a post-hike protein and carbohydrate repletion supplement.
As a reminder, we’re looking for 0.25-0.5g/kg of protein, or an absolute value of 20-40g (ISSN 2017), and 1.0-1.5g/kg of carbohydrate to be consumed within 30 minutes after hiking (Smith & Collene 2015). Surprisingly the only ones that fit the bill are the ones that are loaded with carbs, which are designed for muscle mass building. Of course the hiker wouldn’t be using the same quantity (i.e. same dose) indicated for body building, but instead, just a fraction of that to get their ISSN recommended values in.
So far I’ve only found one product line that fits the ISSN recommendations, and further, my personal requirement of not having any artificial sweeteners in it. It’s the Naked Mass product line and I go into the details about it in my article Best Protein Supplement To Take After Hiking.
References:
International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise (2007)
International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise (2017)
Smith, A.M., & Collene, A.L. 2015. Wardlaw’s Contemporary Nutrition (10th ed.). New York: Morgan-Hill
Further Reading
Check out my hiking nutrition page, where you can find anything from fluid requirements to my proprietary day hiking calculators, to how to calculate your sweat rate and which minerals and micronutrients are lost through sweat.