Marathon des Sables food: what to eat and how much to carry

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix. Updated October 2026.

Marathon des Sables rules require at least 2,000 calories of food per race day, 12,000 in total, checked before the start and in spot checks (2026 and 2027 regulations). A realistic target is 2,500 to 3,000 calories a day. At 4.5 to 5 calories per gram, that week of food weighs about 3.2 to 4.2 kg.

This page sets out the current food rules with the year each applies, a week's food bag weighed at four calorie targets, calories per gram for 24 foods runners carry, a sample race day and what our customers ate in the Sahara. Flaming Phoenix makes Phoenix Bars and over 150 Marathon des Sables runners have used them, so I say where they fit and where other food does the job better. Training, cost and the medical file are in my Marathon des Sables training guide.

What are the Marathon des Sables food rules?

You carry all your own food for the race, at least 2,000 calories for each timed race day, with a readable nutrition label on anything you repack. These rules come from the organisers' 2026 race regulations (40th edition, 3 to 13 April 2026), their 2027 regulations and the MDS Legendary 2027 event page (41st edition, 2 to 12 April 2027, fully booked with a waiting list).

• Calorie minimum: 2,000 calories per race day across the timed stages, 12,000 over the six days that count (2026 regulations, Article 24; the same 2,000 a day for 2027). The final day has no minimum, but you still need breakfast and stage food.
• Food check: at the technical checks the day before stage 1, officials record your food and its calorie value, and they can inspect your pack at any time after that. Being short of 2,000 calories per race day at a check costs 2 hours (2026 and 2027).
• Labels: repacked food must carry a legible nutrition label. The 2027 rules also accept "any other means" of checking the calories, and the 2027 event page suggests writing the calories and the water to add on each bag.
• Meals before the start: for 2027 the organisers' help centre counts 24 meals, from dinner on 2 April to lunch on 10 April; the first 4, eaten before stage 1, are not inspected.
• Stoves: gas is banned (2026 and 2027). The organisers supply water and the tent and nothing else, so hot water means a small stove burning solid fuel tablets, as the help centre's cooking kit list describes, or a fire of twigs.
• Water: 5 litres at the end of each stage, which must last until the first checkpoint the next day (2026 and 2027). Dinner, breakfast and your stock-cube drinks all come out of it.
• Stock cubes: two per race day, 14 in all, are mandatory "to promote rehydration" (2027); missing them costs 2 hours.
• Pack weight: 6.5 to 15 kg including food, not counting water (2026 and 2027). The help centre's preparation tips put the ideal at 7 to 8 kg.
• No resupply: outside food or water is prohibited, and in 2026 the penalty started at 3 hours.

Older guides quote a 14,000-calorie minimum: iRunFar's 2019 food guide did, under the rules of the time. The 2026 rules ask for 12,000. Ian Corless, a photographer and writer who covers the race, still treats 14,000 as the realistic minimum in his 2026 race preview, because the long stage and the rest after it take up two days.

The course changes each year. The 2026 edition had a 100 km long stage and Corless's preview put the total at about 270 km; the 2027 event page promises about 250 km in six stages and gives 2025's 80 to 90 km long stage as its example. Plan that day hardest, because most people are out through a night and into a second day.

How many calories a day do you need for the Marathon des Sables?

Plan on 2,500 to 3,000 calories a day for the race days, more if you are big or racing near the front, and expect to burn far more than you carry.

Here is the working for a typical stage. On a 32 km day at 5.2 km/h, the average pace the organisers publish, a 70 kg runner is moving for about 6 hours 10 minutes. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities rates backpacking at 7.0 METs, and each MET burns roughly 1 calorie for every kg you weigh, every hour. That gives 7.0 x 70 x 6.15 = about 3,000 calories on the stage, plus about 1,250 for the other 18 hours at around 1 MET. Call it 4,300 calories for the day. For a 50 kg runner it is about 3,000; for a 90 kg runner, about 5,500.

Almost nobody carries that much. At 5 calories per gram, 4,300 a day would be 860g of food daily and about 5.4 kg for the week. The gap comes out of body fat, and even a lean runner has enough for a week.

The best published numbers come from a 2016 case study of five finishers from 2011 and 2013 by McCubbin, Cox and Broad in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. They planned about 3,240 calories a day (2,470 to 4,340), carried 4.2 kg of food, or 0.7 kg a day, at an average of 3.9 calories per gram, and ate 98.5% of it. Their problems were a dry mouth, and sweet gels and sports drinks that became unpleasant once the sun had heated them.

As a rough guide: 2,500 calories a day if you are light and walking, 3,000 for most people, and 3,500 if you weigh over about 85 kg or race at the front. In Corless's words, a small 50 kg woman and a tall 90 kg man have very different calorie needs.

How much does a week of Marathon des Sables food weigh?

A week of MDS food weighs about 3 to 5 kg; your own figure is the calories you plan divided by the average calories per gram of what you pack.

The table covers the six race days that count towards the 12,000-calorie rule, plus 1,000 calories for the last morning and stage. It leaves out the first four meals, which you eat in the bivouac before the start. Weights are food only, before bags and labels, and 3.9 calories per gram is the average of the five finishers in the 2016 study.

How much weight does denser food save?

Raising the average from 3.9 to 5 calories per gram saves about 1.1 kg on a 3,000-calorie week: 19,000 divided by 3.9 is 4.87 kg, and 19,000 divided by 5 is 3.80 kg. That is more than two-thirds of the weight of the 1.5 litres of water you must be able to carry.

Density comes from fat, which carries 9 calories per gram against 4 for carbohydrate and protein, and from taking the water out. The densest foods are also the hardest to live on: a handful of macadamias is heavy going with a dry mouth, and olive oil only works stirred into a meal. The 2016 finishers ranged from 3.5 to 4.3 calories per gram. The sample day further down reaches 5.1 by mixing nuts, oil and a dry freeze-dried dinner with food that is easy to eat on the move.

How many calories per gram do common MDS foods have?

Oil and nuts carry the most calories per gram, at 6 to 9; dry freeze-dried meals and bars sit at about 4 to 6; sweets and dried fruit come in under 3.5.

Supermarket foods are per 100g from the UK's McCance and Widdowson (CoFID) tables. Branded foods are from each brand's own label in October 2026, using the dry weight where the brand gives it, and the table is sorted from densest to lightest.

For more foods ranked the same way, see my list of calorie-dense foods, and for meals compared brand by brand, the best freeze-dried meals for backpacking.

What does a day of Marathon des Sables food look like?

A well-built race day is about 3,000 calories in under 600g of food: a breakfast that needs little or no cooking, small bites every hour on the stage, a drink and stock cubes at the finish, then a big rehydrated dinner.

This worked day is for a 30 to 40 km stage, with calories from the labels and CoFID values above.

The food water for this day is about 150ml for the porridge, 250ml for the shake and 265ml for the curry: roughly 0.7 litres of the 5 litres you get at the finish, before the stock-cube drinks.

If you would rather not use bars, swap both for an 800-calorie Expedition Foods porridge (168g dry) and 100g of trail mix. The day comes to about 3,110 calories in 610g, so the weight barely moves; the difference is in what you can face eating at 35 km.

What food should you take to the Marathon des Sables?

Take food you have already eaten on long training days, split by meal, with something salty at every meal and more variety than you think you need. The official MDS 120 page lists what past runners favour: tabbouleh, potato dishes, vacuum-packed cold meats, dried fruit, fruit pastes, bars, salty crackers, purée pouches and soups.

Breakfast

• Freeze-dried porridge or granola: 800-calorie breakfasts from Expedition Foods and TentMeals weigh 168g to 202g, and both brands say cold water works if you give it longer.
• Phoenix Bar porridge: one bar broken into a bag with a little water the night before gives up to 557 calories in only 120g, with no stove.
• Muesli: Swiss-style muesli is about 3.7 calories per gram (CoFID), so add milk powder, nuts or oil to bring it up.

More ways to load a bowl of oats are in my high calorie porridge guide.

On the move during stages

• Salted nuts and peanut butter sachets: 6 to 7.5 calories per gram, with salt included.
• Crisps or salty crackers: crisps are about 4.9 calories per gram; crush them into a bag to save space.
• Jelly sweets and dried mango: 3 to 3.3 calories per gram and quick to eat, but sweet food is the first to pall in heat, so keep them to 50g to 100g a day.
• Drink powders over gels: Ian Corless works out that one 32g gel an hour on a 60-hour race would be 1.9 kg of gels.

After the stage and dinner

• A shake as soon as you finish: 50g of Mountain Fuel Recovery Fuel is 167 calories and 11g of protein, and goes down when chewing is a chore.
• Stock-cube soup: your two mandatory cubes in warm water make a salty drink while dinner soaks.
• A freeze-dried dinner of 800 to 1,000 calories: Expedition Foods' 1,000-calorie Chicken Tikka weighs 165g dry, and Firepot's extra large meals run from 645 to 940 calories.
• Olive oil: 10g stirred in adds 90 calories.
• Something sharp afterwards: a lemon sherbet weighs a few grams and freshens a mouth that has tasted of curry and stock all week.

The long stage and rest day

The long stage is the hardest day to feed. It was 100 km in 2026 and 80 to 90 km in 2025, the 2026 regulations allowed up to 32 hours for it, and most runners are out through the night. Carry the day's snacks plus an evening meal you can eat at a checkpoint: Ian Corless notes that many runners stop and cook a meal during the night. The following day is a rest day for most, and you still need 2,000 calories for it at any check, so pack it as a full day with a bigger breakfast.

How do you eat in 40°C desert heat?

Expect to want less food, and sweet food least of all, so pack savoury options, eat to the clock and leave anything that melts at home.

The 2026 regulations give average April temperatures of 30°C by day and 14°C at night and call them indicative. Runners such as the author of Tales of Adventure's MDS food plan report days over 40°C, and Ian Corless notes that 2025 brought rain, strong winds and sandstorms. Your food sits in a pack in full sun either way.

Heat blunts appetite. In a 2009 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 11 active men ran for 40 minutes at 36°C or 25°C and then ate from a breakfast buffet: after the 25°C run they ate more than after resting, but after the 36°C run they did not. The 2016 MDS finishers met the same problem in the desert, with dry mouths and sweet foods they no longer wanted.

• Chocolate and chocolate-coated bars melt, so leave them at home. Gels and sweet drinks survive but turn sickly once warm, as the 2016 finishers found.
• Cheese and salami are the risky end: they are about a third water (CoFID: Cheddar 37%, salami 34%), they sweat fat in the heat, and many packs say to refrigerate once opened. If you take them, take small sealed portions for the first two or three days.
• Nuts and nut butter keep, but heat makes their fats go stale faster, so buy fresh stock and carry sealed sachets.
• Freeze-dried meals and bars have shelf lives of months to years. Paul Blinstone, who ran the 2025 race, said his Phoenix Bars "kept their shape even in desert temperatures".

Eat to the clock. Past runners' advice on the organisers' MDS 120 page is not to wait until you are hungry, and to snack every hour. If you cannot eat or drink, feel unwell or are unsure about the heat, go to the medical team: the 2027 event page says the bivouac medical tent is open at any time. Heat and hydration decisions belong with them and the race's official guidance.

How should you handle salt and electrolytes at the MDS?

Follow the organisers: the rules make two stock cubes a day mandatory "to promote rehydration", and the organisers' help centre, in its kit list for the shorter MDS formats, says the cubes effectively replace salt tablets.

Ian Corless reports that the cube rule was questioned when it arrived in 2024, and that feedback was largely positive by the end of that race. Not all cubes dissolve well, he adds, and many runners use Knorr because they do, so test yours in cool water at home. Salty food adds to the cubes: peanuts, crisps, crackers and soup all bring salt with their calories.

How much salt you need varies a lot from person to person, and this page is not medical advice. Set your plan from the race's official guidance, ask the race doctors before adding salt tablets or electrolyte drinks on top of the cubes, and see your own doctor beforehand if you have been told to watch your salt.

How do you avoid taste fatigue on a week of MDS food?

Pack at least three different dinners, two breakfasts and both sweet and savoury snacks for every day, because food you like at home can stop going down by the middle of the week.

Ian Corless puts it bluntly: however much you love spaghetti bolognese, do not take seven for a seven-day race. He also warns that sweet food becomes boring and sickly, that something savoury with a little spice can rescue a day, and that strong spices can upset a stomach already under stress. Past runners quoted on the organisers' MDS 120 page say to choose foods you enjoy, as taste can change during the race.

Plain food helps. Stephanie Strachan, who ate a Phoenix Bar for lunch every day of the 2025 Legendary, said the taste was "quite plain in a good way - which meant I didn't experience any flavour or palate fatigue". Alessandro, reviewing them after the 2026 race, found they helped "especially in the last two days in which I had enough of other type of food".

How do you test your race food in training?

Eat your exact race food on a back-to-back training weekend with your full pack, at least eight weeks out, so there is time to replace whatever fails.

1. Weigh every item on kitchen scales and log the day, food, calories and weight in a spreadsheet; Ian Corless points out that the race wants this information at the checks anyway.
2. Eat one race day's bag on the Saturday and another on the Sunday, on the move and at the times you will eat in Morocco.
3. Make breakfast and dinner with the water you will have, cold if you plan to cold-soak. The organisers' MDS 120 page passes on the same tip: practise heating water and preparing meals beforehand.
4. Dissolve your stock cubes and drink them.
5. Write down what you did not want to eat, swap it, and test again.

How to build those weekends is in my MDS training plan, and getting your stomach used to food on the move is in gut training for ultras.

How do you pack Marathon des Sables food?

Pack one labelled bag per day, strip off outer packaging, keep each nutrition panel, and write the day, the calories and the water to add on every bag.

• One bag per day: the organisers' MDS 120 tips recommend daily bags labelled with their calorie counts. Number them by stage so the long stage and rest day stand apart.
• Repack, but keep the proof: cut the nutrition panel off each pack and put it in the bag. Taking a freeze-dried meal out of its pouch saves 15g to 20g (Expedition Foods' 800-calorie Chicken Tikka is 132g dry and 152g in its pouch), about 120g over six race dinners, but you then need something to soak it in: a cut-down water bottle is the classic bivouac bowl.
• Keep today's snacks within reach, in a front pocket or chest pouch, with crumbly food in its own bag. Julie Graham, who ran the 2026 Legendary, kept her Phoenix Bars "in a separate plastic bag due to their crumbly nature".
• Eat today's bag, not tomorrow's. Ian Corless's countdown has you holding 14,000 calories at stage 1, 8,000 at the long stage and 2,000 on the last morning, and checks can come at any time.
• Lay each day out on the floor before it goes in its bag: if it looks too small to get you through a day, add to it.

Where do Phoenix Bars fit in a Marathon des Sables food plan?

Phoenix Bars fit breakfast and food on the move: up to 557 calories in only 120g, up to 66g carbohydrate and 19g protein, in six flavours, eaten in small bites or soaked into porridge without a stove.

They are the high calorie bars Flaming Phoenix makes, so read this section knowing that. Over 150 Marathon des Sables runners have used them, and customers who reviewed them used them in the Sahara like this:

• Breakfast every day: Hector Elliott, 2025: "I used them for my breakfast every day". Derrick McCourt did the same in 2025.
• Porridge: Paul Blinstone's 2025 method was to "break up into a bag night before, add a little water and let it soak overnight into a very thick porridge", then add sultanas or banana chips. For Derrick McCourt, the "Highlight was turning a bar into porridge on the rest day".
• Small bites on the move: Derrick found that "if I cut it in half and took half before starting and then nibbled another quarter each subsequent hour that staved off hunger". Julie Graham, 2026, found them "easy to digest in small bites whilst on the move in the heat".
• The long stage: Tom Vogel, 2026, ate them "for every breakfast, lunch and even as additional snack on the 100k long stage after 80k to manage last 20k". Paul Blinstone ate "3 bars throughout the day mixed with the 30g Jelly's from Precision Hydration".
• Getting to the finish: Harry Hunter says they "helped me finish the Marathon Des Sables and claim the record as one of the oldest ever finishers of the race". Alistair Downs, 2025: "Phoenix Bars worked very well for me".

Where Phoenix Bars fall short

• Price: £5.25 a bar works out at 94p to 99p for every 100 calories. TentMeals' 800-calorie breakfast works out at 74p and its 800-calorie dinners at 86p, Expedition Foods' 800-calorie Chicken Tikka at £1.50 and Firepot's extra large Chilli Non Carne at £1.62, on each brand's list price in October 2026. Supermarket peanuts are about 5p per 100 calories in my Tesco price check.
• Weight: at 4.4 to 4.6 calories per gram they sit mid-table. Nuts, oil and the driest freeze-dried meals are denser. The case for a bar is that it needs no stove and can be eaten a bite at a time while you walk, with a sip of water.
• Texture: they are dense and can crumble, which is why Julie Graham bagged hers separately. Richard, who packed two a day for the 2026 Legendary, gave them three stars: "they're very dry and you need to find a way to eat them", and "it was difficult to eat 2 per day". He took a swig of water with each bite, as Tom Vogel and Paul Blinstone also describe.
• Taste: personal. Customers' favourites range from Chocolate to Cherry Bakewell across the six flavours, so buy a mix and find out which you still want on day five.

Test them on a back-to-back weekend before you commit to two a day, the same as any race food.

How many Phoenix Bars should you take to the Marathon des Sables?

Two to three bars a day over the six race days is 12 to 18 bars, and with about six for testing in training, 18 to 24 bars in all.

At two a day the bars give 1,058 to 1,114 calories in 240g, about 37% of a 3,000-calorie day, which covers breakfast and food for the stage. At three a day they give 1,587 to 1,671 calories in 360g, over half the day, for runners who also want a bar on the long stage and at camp. The table assumes an even mix of the six flavours, at £5.25 a bar with no bundle discount.

For two a day, the Essential Bundle covers the race and a training block; for three a day, buy two Starter Bundles. Phoenix Bars come in bundles of 6, 12, 18 or 36 bars with a mix of flavours, and orders are hand-packed in London and posted within 1 working day.

Free download: my Marathon des Sables fuelling plan (PDF), written for the 2026 race, with a stage-by-stage bar schedule, the porridge method and a preparation timeline.

What food do you need for MDS 120 and the shorter formats?

MDS 120 covers 70, 100 or 120 km in three stages over four days in the desert, and the organisers ask for 10 to 12 meals and at least 2,000 calories per race day, all shown at the technical checks.

The same principles apply on a smaller scale: no gas stoves, 5 litres of water after each stage and an extra 5 litres on the rest day, and the MDS 120 page notes that some runners choose cold meals to save weight. Dani Beckett, who ate Phoenix Bars for lunch on MDS Jordan in 2024, "didn't want to have food which would force me to stop to eat". Two bars a day over four race days is 8 bars, so a Starter Bundle of 12 covers the race and a couple of training runs.

Marathon des Sables food FAQ

What happens if you fail the Marathon des Sables food check?

You get a time penalty. Under the 2026 and 2027 regulations, being unable to show at least 2,000 calories per race day at a check costs 2 hours, and the 2027 penalty table adds that disqualification is possible. Missing stock cubes cost another 2 hours, and a pack outside 6.5 to 15 kg costs 1 hour.

What do you eat before the first stage?

For 2027 you feed yourself from dinner on 2 April, the night you arrive in the bivouac, until stage 1 on 4 April. Those first four meals are not inspected and you never carry them on a stage, and Ian Corless notes there is no weight limit on them, so take proper, heavy food you would never race with.

Do you need a stove for the Marathon des Sables?

No. Ian Corless's 2026 kit advice says that if you do not plan to heat water you need neither stove nor fuel, only a bowl. If you want hot food, gas is banned, so the choice is a small folding stove with solid fuel tablets or a fire of twigs at the bivouac.

Do freeze-dried meals work with cold water?

Yes, but slowly. Expedition Foods says cold water works with a longer rehydration time, and TentMeals says its Blueberry Burst breakfast and Almond Jalfrezi can be made with cold water if left to stand overnight. Ian Corless adds that taste can change, and suggests adding water to breakfast at bedtime so it is ready by morning.

Can you do the Marathon des Sables on a vegan diet?

Yes. The rules only set calories and labels. Firepot's Chilli Non Carne and Baked Apple Porridge are vegan, TentMeals' Almond Jalfrezi and Blueberry Burst breakfast are suitable for vegans, and nuts, nut butter, crisps and dried fruit all work. Phoenix Bars are vegan and gluten-free. Expect to lean harder on nuts and oil for density.

Can anyone give you food during the race?

No. The race runs on food self-sufficiency, and the 2027 regulations prohibit any external food or water supply; in 2026, resupply carried a minimum 3-hour penalty and possible exclusion. Water from the organisers is the only supply, so everything you eat from stage 1 onwards has to be in your pack at the start.

How can I get help with my MDS food plan?

Email me at jfrost@flaming-phoenix.co.uk with your food spreadsheet and I will reply myself. I had a stand at the MDS UK Expo in September 2026 and spoke to runners preparing for the race at a 2025 expo. I also talked through eating in the heat, and keeping calories going when appetite fades, with a runner preparing for the MDS: listen on Spotify or watch on YouTube.

Marathon des Sables is the name of a race run by its organisers; Flaming Phoenix is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by the race.

Sources: MDS Legendary 2026 regulations and 2027 regulations; MDS Legendary 2027 event page; MDS 120 format page; MDS help centre on meals, cooking kit, mandatory kit and preparation; McCubbin, Cox and Broad 2016; Shorten, Wallman and Guelfi 2009; 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities; CoFID; Ian Corless 2024 and 2026; iRunFar 2019; labels from Expedition Foods, TentMeals and Firepot, October 2026.