Review of the Lyo Expedition Food main meals
I encountered Lyo when looking for ways to reduce the weight of the food I take on expeditions, without compromising on the amount of calories and good taste. Both of these factors are crucial: you need food that will keep you going in very rough conditions. At the same time, the food must be truly tasty – it’s extremely important for expedition morale. When it’s wet, cold, windy, and life in general sucks, a promise of hot gorgeous meal at the end of the day is one of these things that help to keep going. For many years, I have been using different brands, and I was not fully satisified with their quality. Here, Lyo really delivers – their main meals hit the sweetspot of being tasty, calorific, as well as lightweight; they are simply superior to previous brands. So far, I have used Lyo meals during two expeditions in 2022 (a winter expedition to the Putorana Plateau and a summer expedition to the Anabar Plateau), and I indent on taking them for any future undertakings.
So, what does distinguish Lyo from other expedition food producers?
(1) Amazing taste. It’s easy to check by just getting one or two such meals and trying them out. They just taste so much better than other brands.
(2) Exceptionally calorific. Most meals I have been trying so far, offer between 300 to 400 calories per 100 grams of their meals. With Lyo, they have a large selection, and while many meals do fall in this range of numbers, Lyo also offers products with exceptionally high amount of calories. For example, Chicken Tikka Masala comes with amazing 589 calories per 100 grams! This is just as high as you can get, before your food turns to pure fat – but Chicken Tikka Masala is far from being just tedious fatty meal, it’s also really gorgeous. This one has become my favourite especially for winter expeditons, then energy intake must be as high as possible.
At the same time, the huigh amount of calories also means that one can take less food, which is important while trekking, as it can noticeably reduce the backpack weight.
(3) Effectively portioned. Unlike most manufacturers, who offer only one single- and double-person portions, Lyo offers a large number of different portionings. Depending on the actual meal, these portions can be 80g, 90g, 95g, 100g, or even 128g. Such a wide choice is actually very useful, because one can make better food plans. For example, when I really want to push in terms of speed of walking and the distance covered, I would opt to take more 80g portions, because over the course of several weeks, this will constitute a large saving in the carried weight. Of course, one can also reduce the amount of snacks eaten during the day, but often it’s easier to eat a bit less at the end of the day during the main meal, rather than limit the calories taken while being on the go.
(4) Diverse. Many tastes are available, and it’s hard to get bored of the meals. They even have the traditional Polish sauerkraut!
(5) Nutritious. The contents speaks for itself – these meals offer everything the body needs to function properly out in the wilderness.
More information
More information is available under the Lyo website: https://lyofood.com/. You can order Lyfood online on Sklep Gorski.