Calories
Calories are the primary source of energy for the body. As you burn calories, you gain energy, but if you don't replace calories, you can grow tired very quickly. Your best bet is to have a high calorie diet while adventuring. The fad today is to stick with a low calorie diet, but doing so on the trail will lead to fatigue quickly. When planning your menu, find high calorie foods. Most pre-packaged trail food is packed with calories. If you are really concerned about consuming too many calories, you can cut down on them for your supper being how you won't be burning as many calories when you sleep. However, in winter you may want consume more.
For a trail snack, I recommend protein bars, Clif bars, and even meal replacement bars since they have more calories than regular granola bars and trail mix. It may seem overdoing it eating meal replacement bars and eating full meals, but when you are trekking and burning those calories, meal replacement bars keep you sustained.
Stay warm
Your body's natural reaction to lowered body temperature is to shiver. This causes muscle movement, resulting in burning calories. If you stay warm, your body will consume less calories. That's why it is vital to wear clothes appropriate to the climate.
Taking breaks
When people want to lose weight by working out, they don't stop when you start sweating. Why? Because when your body starts to become stressed, it burns more calories. Same goes for hiking. When you start to over exert your body, you burn those precious calories much faster. It's a rule of thumb that 10 minutes into your hike, take a 5 minute break. After that, take a 10 minute break every 50 minutes. The reason for this is not because you're out of shape, it's to conserve energy. In cold weather, it's a little more difficult since you get colder faster when just sitting around. Being how that's the case, you may want to take your break earlier to give you time to make a temporary shelter.
Try to take your break every 50 minutes while hiking, but if you start to sweat, take a break. Unless it's very hot weather, it means you are over exerting yourself. In hot weather, you may want to take more frequent breaks as well. A rule to go by is only hike as fast as the slowest person and only hike as far as the weakest person. If someone else in the group starts to feel a little over exerted, the whole group should stop to rest.
Drink frequently
A part of conserving energy is staying hydrated. Be sure that you drinking enough fluids. If you become thirsty, you aren't drinking enough. We generally get by without drinking enough in our everyday lives, but trekking is a different story. You want to drink enough to where you are urinating frequently. Just be sure to conserve water as well if it's not readily available.
Be sure to avoid caffeinated drinks. I love coffee but have to careful when on a trip. Caffeine will cause your body to burn calories faster and end up crashing in the end. Drinks like coffee and tea are diuretics, along with caffeine, which causes you to need to consume more fluids than normal.
Use trekking poles
When hiking, the simple use of trekking poles will help conserve energy. Overall, trekking pole are a great investment. They make the hike easier on your joints and help balance. When hiking up and down hills, you tend to use more energy. When going uphill, it's harder work and going downhill, you use up more energy trying to keep yourself from going to fast. Trekking poles make a huge difference. They use your arm, shoulder, and back muscles instead of just using your legs. Distributing that work helps to conserve energy.
Sleep
Even though calories give you energy, you ultimately need sleep. If you hike all day, you shouldn't have any troubles falling asleep, but some people do. If you have this problem, you may consider taking along some melatonin or valerian. Try to go to bed early. When in a group, it's easy to hang around the fire late, but sleep is vital. Generally when camping, it's easier to wake up early. You can hang around the fire in the morning. Be sure to eat a high calorie breakfast. I don't generally eat breakfast, but I do when hiking because that will give you the initial energy for the day. Make sure to drink plenty of water with it to get your digestive system going to maximize what you eat.
Disperse work load
When you carry more weight and have a heavier work load, you burn more energy. When planning the trip, decide who is carrying what. Gear should be dispersed evenly among everyone and everyone's packs should be about equal weight. If there is a weaker hiker with you, you may want to lighten his pack some.
When working around the campsite, try to even out the load. Take turns digging latrines and cutting firewood. One person shouldn't be doing all the work.
It's important to conserve energy. When you don't, a pleasurous trek can turn miserable in a hurry. If there's anything you should be a master at, it's saving your energy. Comment some tips that you use to save your energy.
