Originally Posted by
wolfchild
Buy your ingredients in bulk and make your own trail mix. That way you can easily adjust how much fat or carbs/sugar you want. Eating a handful of nuts by itself isn't going to make you obese, in fact it may even slim you down. Most nuts have a good balance of carbs, fibre, protein and fats and there is no need to mix them with anything that has sugar. The problem starts when you start mixing sugar and sweets with those nuts. Fats and sugars is a bad combo. Fats and sugars are both fuels but your body can only use one of those at a time. When you mix fat and sugar your body will use one and store the other as fat in your body.
We use a trail mix of 2:1:1 salted peanuts, raisins, and M&Ms. 1:1:1 is good, too. I've been using one or the other for almost 40 years. On the last 10-day backpack with my wife, we used a total of 55 oz. of the 2:1:1 mix. Guess what? We lost a little weight, lost quite a bit of fat, and gained some muscle. We also supplemented with whey protein twice a day. We were noticeably stronger on the bike the weekend after we got back than we were before our hike.
So no, that's simply not true. Your body is a lot smarter than that.
For those curious about the nutritional breakdown of our mix, per pound, the 1:1:1: mix is ~800 calories carbs (62%), ~425 calories fat (33%), and ~70 calories protein (5%).
The 2:1:1: mix is, per pound, ~640 calories carbs (51%), ~515 calories fat (41%), and ~90 calories protein (8%).
In the minor issue of taste and edibility, we did enjoy every one of those 55 oz. we ate. Delicious, never gets old, doesn't melt in the sun, etc.