For longer trips, I do not feel you save any weight with no-cook and certainly not volume. My biggest concern on a longer trip is fitting 10 days food in a bear can! I even go as far as using non-instant items to save volume. Yes, more gas is needed, but that does not have to go inside my bear can.

To me it boils down to: 1) do you like to cook and 2) do you have time to cook. Honestly, cooking is a nice activity for me since I really do not have the energy to be going full-steam all daylight hours.

And IF you decide to cook, there are three methods - the boil water only method (fd meals), the cook pre-packaged non-freeze dry meals (think of Lipton side dishes with added meat), or 3) cook from scratch (just bring ingredients and cook from your "pantry". I do a combination of #2 and #3.

Stoves nowadays are really light. And also efficient - only needing about 1 oz of fuel a day. If you are careful (use a cozy and only partially cook) you can even use about 1 oz a day with cooking from scratch.

I keep my cooking to one-pot meals. I really hate eating out of a plastic or mylar bag (just-add-hot water stuff) so I bring a light pot no matter what.

And for me, bottom line is I WANT MY HOT COFFEE!!!