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Should I change my food habits for my winter activities?
Is simply increasing the quantities or choosing food with higher calories enough?

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  • Caloric intake is certainly the largest factor. Calories are energy.
  • If you are on a low fat diet normally and a very fit individual, you'll likely need to increase your fat intake. However the primary concern is that you are getting fats, so if you are already, you should be fine.
  • Drink more water! It's very counter intuitive, but you dehydrate faster in the cold.
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  • Is there a specific type of food that you will recommend ?
    – Amine
    Nov 9, 2012 at 21:46
  • Amine -- Personally, for extra calories, I like vacuum packed smoked salmon. It keeps forever, it's lightweight, and it tastes good.
    – Russell Steen
    Nov 9, 2012 at 22:02
  • interesting you should append that example to your answer
    – Amine
    Nov 10, 2012 at 2:26
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One other difference - in the winter, your food and water can freeze during the day. Make sure that your lunch (or anything else you'd eat without cooking) is something that you can actually chew when its frozen. Also, camelback-style water bladders can be a little more difficult to use, as the water in the tube can freeze up.

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  • Good point on "food not rock hard when frozen" :)
    – Russell Steen
    Nov 12, 2012 at 14:41
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    I’ve learned to push the water in the tube back to the bladder after drinking. During the summer it helps to keep the water from getting warm in the tube, hopefully it will also work in the winter to keep it from freezing.
    – zoul
    Nov 13, 2012 at 8:08
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    Energy bars are a good example of a food which turns to rock in cold temperatures. Keep a bar in an interior pocket of your jacket or be prepared to break a tooth.
    – furtive
    Nov 16, 2012 at 21:18
  • There's an article about a field trip from a British Antarctic base. All the old hands just took chocolate bars for lunch, the newbie made a nice healthy sandwich. Of course the sandwich was frozen solid and inedible, but the chocolate could be gnawed.
    – Martin Bonner supports Monica
    Dec 12, 2018 at 15:04

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