I don't find that the dehydrated food is that calorie dense - it's good, but really about half or *more* of my calories I take when I go are in my snacks I consume during the day. So thinking about a typical snack load. For example, a 3 inch square bay bread biscuit I make, with peanut butter on it, has as many calories as my usual dehydrated backpacking dinner. And on a good long day, I may have that, with a chocolate bar, some almonds, dried fruit, 50 g or sausage. and a piece of cheese. But not so much on shorter days - I'm basing that on my usual solo bit of getting up and starting walking by 7 AM, and I probably won't stop till 8 or 9 at night - so breakfast is early, and supper is late - that big load of "snacks" is what let's a big guy like me enjoy hiking longer days - I don't go that fast, I just have long days.

Now my snacks are also the majority of the *weight* in my food bag too.. that calorie dense stuff is heavy