BURSTEighty Snickers bars. Eighty Mars bars. A giant pile of Skittles.
No, this isn’t a candy commercial. It’s a summary of the staggering amount of sweets that Yuji Hirayama and Daniel Woods took with them for their summit push on Borneo’s Mount Kinabulu.
The ascent was featured in a Reel Rock film called The Sensei, which documented the successful adventure in 2017.
It may be an old film, but dietary choices are always current; especially in the winter when many climbers are in training mode, experimenting with new regimens.
Hirayama and Woods’ food choices were interesting, considering how much advice there is against eating ‘junk’ in general.
The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines For Americans 2025-2030 urges consumers to avoid sweets and puts a hard cap of 10 grams of added sugars per meal.
Meanwhile, in the UK, a landmark ban was enacted on junk food ads targeting kids this month. Unsurprisingly, the country’s National Health Service advises people to stay away from ultra-processed foods, which it links with greater cases of obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
“It’s not known if ultra-processed foods are unhealthy due to the processing or because of the calories, fat, salt and sugar they contain,” the NHS says.
But that advice probably wasn’t geared towards climbers on multi-day routes in the mountains.
Junk food advice from two climber-dietitians
So can candy actually be a good thing to fuel up with when climbing? And if a climber burns through the calories quickly enough, does that neutralize the health risks associated with junk food?
Two climber-dietitians told Gripped that in some cases, candy can have its advantages.
“In the context of climbing performance…these carbs can be really useful to fuel the energy systems your body is using to climb,” wrote Marisa Michael, a registered dietitian nutritionist.
“It all depends on the intensity and duration of the climb, as well as your own digestion and gut tolerance as to how much you should consider eating. In studies on athletes, eating simple sugars during workouts to fuel them in ‘real time’ does not negatively impact health, and in fact, can support recovery and help prevent relative energy deficiency in sport.”
Michael, who authored the book, Climbing Nutrition: A Comprehensive Guide, added there are advantages to consuming junk food during hard climbing sessions.
“Eating food with too much fat, fiber, or protein slows digestion, making the food less available as fuel for working muscles and brain,” she said. “Lower intensity workouts can usually tolerate nuts, jerky, granola, etc. But it’s advantageous to use quickly-digesting, low fiber carbs before and during climbing sessions. Things like white bagels, Rice Krispie treats, pretzels, gummies, applesauce, and dried fruit work well.”
That being said, once the workout stops, healthier foods are probably the best choice.
Michael said the remainder of your diet pattern should consist of mostly less processed foods such as whole grains, lean protein, dairy, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and legumes.
Shayne Dhak, a registered dietitian at Vancouver’s Progression Bouldering gym and clinic, had similar advice.
“When you are exercising at a high intensity, your body will be burning a lot of glycogen especially if you are using a lot of different muscles simultaneously such as in climbing,” Dhak wrote to Gripped. “To match these energy demands, athletes must eat more calories and carbohydrates. A lot of the chronic ‘damage’ that you see from chronic ‘junk’ food consumption is a result of the other factors that are present in the sedentary lifestyle that is typically lived by the average person.”
There are several reasons, he said.
Excess sugar and fat will become a problem when they become a caloric surplus in those who are sedentary, said Dhak. It can also be an issue when these foods displace nutritionally dense whole food sources a body needs
But for an active climber, there are silver linings to wolfing down a chocolate bar.
“It is true that ‘junk’ food can be harmful if eaten excessively in the context of a sedentary lifestyle but these high calorie snacks can be useful for refuelling and because of the increased calorie budget afforded by long sessions of compound movements on the wall, I would be less worried about nutrition-related chronic disease prevention,” said Dhak.
“Just make sure that most of your diet includes whole foods and you can use snacks for exercise related fueling demands without worrying about having a heart attack on the wall (not a cholesterol-induced heart attack at least).”
The Sweet Spot: Finding the right amount of junk to eat
For Dhak, the right amount of sweets depends on how long you’ve been at the crag, how close you are to maximum effort, the time since the last meal and your caloric deficit or surplus, among other things.
“If you are two to three hours into your climbing session and the glycogen in your muscles is quite depleted, then your body will be ‘insulin sensitive’ and will be primed to take up sugars to refuel,” he wrote.
“Taking in a couple bars of chocolate every few hours will be a fine way to refuel in the short term. However, if you are planning to be out for the entire day, then taking a break for a snack containing carbohydrates, fats, and protein will be ideal to provide a more smooth stream of energy, as it will digest slower over a longer period of time.”
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