There used to be a standard pack to body weight ratio that was thrown around like it was a fact. People used to say that a comfortable backpack weight was 20% or one-fifth of your body weight. At 175 that would be 35 pounds for me. All that is a little suspect because it would probably not be the same for a thin person and a heavy person; for an athlete and someone in marginal shape. Nowadays equipment is much lighter and attitudes toward the subject have also changed. So here is what I would like to do. Tell me what your body weight is and what you consider a “comfortable” pack weight. In other words, for argument sake say you were going out for several days. What would you consider a good target weight for your pack, including food, but not water? If I can get enough responses here to consider it a representative sample I’ll do a little math and tell you what the average is.