Chances are, if you’re going camping, you’ll probably make use of your time in nature to go running, biking, hiking, or something else equally strenuous. If that’s how you plan on spending a camping trip, you probably also go out of your way to consider what kind of food you should bring. Obviously you need food that provides a lot of energy, but it can be hard to find healthy options to accomplish that. Thankfully these calorie dense foods do exist, and there are a lot more of them than you think, without compromising health and nutrition.

The best food to eat before running, or any strenuous exercise really, is calorie dense foods like nuts and seeds. Believe it or not, nuts and seeds have one of the highest calorie contents per gram, without sacrificing healthy nutrition. Macadamia nuts are particularly great as camping or hiking food, providing a whopping 201 calories per ounce. Other great nuts and seeds include pecans, peanuts, and sunflower seeds.

Along that line, nut and seed butters are great hiking foods as well. Obviously, if the parent nut or seed is high in calories, its butter derivative is as well, so making use of peanut or almond butter is actually a  great way to provide you with the energy you need to bike, hike, or run during your camping expedition.

This one may come as a surprise to you, but chocolate is actually a really great energy option. Granted, dark chocolate serves this purpose much better than any other kind, but regardless it still provides up to 167 calories per ounce. And while popular media has convinced people that chocolate is unhealthy, it’s actually very good for the body in moderate amounts. Now, a whole chocolate bar might not be necessary, but half of one would serve quite well as calorie dense food for camping.

But if you’re entirely against chocolate for some reason, you can always rely on dried fruits and fruit juices. Prunes are actually one of the most effective when it comes to providing more calories per ounce, but let’s be honest: very few people like prunes. Thankfully, you can fall back on dried cherries, blueberries, and pears, or turn to something like raisins and dates. These food items are both healthy and calorie dense, making them the perfect food to eat before running, hiking, or generally spending the day outdoors.

That said, there are many other foods out there are that calorie dense and ideal for hiking expeditions, but we don’t have the time to list them all here. That said, you can learn about all of them and more if you follow us. Subscribe to our blog for more great info on everything outdoors, like our Facebook page to keep up to date with the latest news, or follow our YouTube channel for some great helpful videos. Whatever you do, don’t forget what you learned here today, and pack appropriately for your next excursion!