The starting line of the famous Marathon des Sables (MdS) is fast approaching, meaning runners need to start planning their nutrition for the race. Given its incredibly demanding nature, the MdS requires serious nutrition planning – it’s known as the toughest foot race on Earth for a reason! To help you prepare, our Marathon des Sables 2026 food and gear lists cover everything that you need to take with you, and our best recommendations for each to ensure your best performance.
What is the Marathon des Sables and How Long is It?
The Marathon des Sables is a six-day-long, 251 km ultramarathon that takes place in southern Morocco. Held every year, the race takes participants through the Moroccan Sahara, covering sand dunes, rocky plains, and desert terrain in temperatures of around 40-50°C.
The MdS requires that all participants be self-sufficient, meaning that you’ll need to prepare and carry with you the majority of the food and equipment needed. To ensure that you’re completely ready for the event, this guide includes a Marathon des Sables food list, a Marathon des Sables gear list, and all of our best advice.
Marathon des Sables Food Requirements
As recommended by MdS, the minimum food requirement for the event is to carry 2,000 kcal of food with you per race day. However, we recommend taking 2,500-3,000 kcal of food with you per race day to ensure you have enough energy to keep powering through, as a calorie deficit can hinder your performance.
How to Prepare Food for the Marathon des Sables
In the MdS, gas stoves are strictly prohibited. As a result, you’ll need to prepare meals using a portable stove that uses fuel tablets and also rely on pre-prepared food items. To prepare hot freeze-dried meals during race days, we recommend using:
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A fold flat stove or titanium stove: These are ultralight, fold flat, and are commonly used by participants.
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Solid Fuel Tablets (Hexamine), 1–2 tablets per day – Hexamine tablets are usually available to purchase directly at the first bivouac, allowing you to avoid flying with them.
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A small piece of aluminium foil or a windshield – This can be used to wrap around the stove and prevent the desert wind from wasting fuel.
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A small, disposable lighter – To light your stove.
The Ultimate Marathon des Sables Food List
When packing food for the MdS, it’s important to focus on packing practical, lightweight endurance food that contains as much energy as possible to keep you fuelled throughout the event.
Below, you can find our Marathon des Sables food list for recommendations on what kind of items you should take for each part of the day. Read on for further details on each food category, which brands we most recommend for each, and why.
Breakfast
The foods you choose for breakfast should be easy, mild foods that won’t upset your stomach, such as:
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Porridge
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Granola
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Muesli
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Coffee or hot chocolate sachets
During the stage
Foods you eat during a standard MdS stage should be fast and portable energy snacks eaten little and often, like:
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Salt tablets
Mid-stage and long-stage snacks
For the lengthier stages, you’ll need to eat on-the-go snacks that provide the extra calories you need for longer days, such as:
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Nut butter sachets
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Supernatural Fuel energy pouches
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Fruit, nut, and seed mix
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Soft energy bars
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Jerky or biltong
Dinner
When back at camp and finishing racing for the day, you’ll need hot, filling food to refuel and recover, like:
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Pasta meals, rice-based meals, and curry-style camping meals
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Soup sachets for fluids and salt, such as our freeze-dried soup
Treats for morale
While packing food in a purely practical manner may seem logical, taking small comforts with you matters more than you expect. We recommend taking some treats, such as:
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Gummies
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Jelly sweets
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Crisps or crackers
Recommended Breakfast
For MdS breakfast meals, we recommend TentMeals:
TentMeals have 18 different products in a variety of flavours. TentMeals offer runners a simple, stripped-back source of food. Here are some of the reasons why TentMeals are suited for MdS nutrition:
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The calorie-to-weight ratio is amazing.
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Incredibly small amount of packaging (just 3-4g per pack), so less dead weight to carry than other brands. It does mean you need a bowl to make them in, though you can get lightweight bowls that weigh very little. Most people on the MdS just repurpose an old water bottle anyway.
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Can all be made without a stove – just leave to soak. This means that you don't need to carry a stove and gas; again, a huge weight consideration for ultras.
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Extremely small size of meals, so very easy to carry (they compress the ingredients in each meal before sealing it up, so it takes up about half the space it would otherwise).
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The food for some people can be similar to what you'd eat on a normal day-to-day diet at home, so it's much easier to process and digest when you're working at your limit (i.e. less diarrhoea, less nausea, less constipation, better overall energy levels because it's easier for your body)
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They taste great!
Here’s what Dan Fallows (@500daystothemds) had to say about TentMeals from his experience of the MdS:
“At the top of the list of items that truly can’t be compromised on is nutrition. My food for the week needs to fuel me through 250km of sand dunes and Jebel Sand Mountains. I have to be able to perform when the temperatures are topping 50 degrees, and the daily distances approach double-marathon territory. I can’t compromise.
That’s where TentMeals came in. They are lightweight, nutritious, packed with calories, and tasty. As soon as I tried my first order, I immediately stopped looking for alternatives - I knew I had found the meals that would fuel me through the Marathon Des Sables.”
On-the-Go: Gels, Bars, and Electrolytes
Our most recommended brand for energy snacks during the Marathon des Sables is TORQ energy products, having a diverse range of products that deliver high energy efficiently.
TORQ’s energy-enriched, soft, syrupy, and deliciously tasty organic, vegan-friendly TORQ Explore Flapjacks are a convenient natural snack at any time of day. Or, why not take this scrumptious, homely goodness with you as you make your way across the desert?
TORQ also offers all-natural, vegan-friendly energy gels that combine 30g of carbohydrate and five electrolytes with a silky smooth texture, in a range of flavours that need to be tasted to be believed!
With no requirement to consume them with water, TORQ gels are a key component of the TORQ Fuelling System. Each TORQ gel blends 30g (120kcal) of maltodextrin and fructose in a research-proven 2:1 formulation, allowing you to take up 90g of carbohydrates per hour in conjunction with TORQ energy drink. This is 50% more carbohydrate than glucose-only formulations.
TORQ’s energy drinks are vegan-friendly, naturally flavoured, light and refreshing isotonic energy drinks formulated with fast-delivery, research-proven 2:1 (Maltodextrin: Fructose) and five key electrolytes.
Utilising their performance nutrition expertise, TORQ Explore instant supercharged breakfasts have been designed to provide easily accessible, useful and effective nutritional fuel in a convenient, lightweight, low-volume package.
Recommended Dinner
For dinner meals during the MdS, we strongly recommend Real Turmat for a variety of reasons.
Real Turmat is one of the best and most popular brands within the freeze-dried market. The manufacturer is highly passionate and always careful in selecting high-quality ingredients from suppliers and local farmers. Their chefs cook all meals in batches and then slowly freeze-dry them to retain all the nutrients and flavour.
Here are some of our top reasons for choosing Real Turmat for the MdS.
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Real Turmat meals are some of the best-tasting freeze-dried meals that you can find, tasting like home-cooked food. A real treat after a gruelling day!
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They are lightweight and vacuum-packed, meaning they retain their nutritional value and take up as little space as possible in your rucksack.
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There is a wide variety of meals, breakfasts, soups and energy products to suit various dietary needs, including gluten-free camping food, vegan camping food, vegetarian camping food, and lactose-free meals.
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All meals can be eaten straight from the pouch, eliminating the need for additional equipment.
Another worthwhile option when considering the ideal MdS dinner meals is the Summit to Eat range. Helping to provide plenty of energy to keep you powering through each day, many of their meals are available in both regular and larger portions. As such, their large meals provide around 1000kcal to keep you fuelled, all while being lightweight and full of flavour.
Marathon des Sables Gear List 2026
The race requires you to have a specified amount of lightweight equipment. The complete list of required items includes:
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An MdS backpack WAA ULTRA BAG 20L or equivalent.
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Sleeping bag – Our collection of sleeping bags offers a variety of sizes and temperature ratings to choose the option that best suits you.
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A head torch and a complete set of spare batteries, or spare batteries with an external or solar charger – We offer many headtorches that are convenient to wear and provide plenty of light to help you navigate in the dark effectively.
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10 safety pins
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A compass, with 1° or 2° precision – We recommend our easy-to-read and accurate SOL Map Compass.
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A lighter
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A whistle – Our Fire Lite 8-in-1 Survival Tool contains a whistle, fire-starter, compass, and more tools, all in one small, convenient package.
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A knife with a metal blade
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A topical disinfectant
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An anti-venom pump
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A signalling mirror – Our SOL Rescue Flash Floating Signal Mirror is dependable for emergencies, being visible up to 10 miles away.
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An aluminium survival sheet – Our SOL Emergency Blanket is resistant to tearing, reflects 90% of your body heat, and is waterproof and windproof.
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2 Bouillon cubes per day (such as “Knorr” type)
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A tube of sun cream (50ml minimum)
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200 euros or 2,000 dirhams
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A passport or, for Moroccan residents, an identity card valid at least until the end of the stay in Morocco.
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The original MDS medical certificate, filled in and signed by the doctor
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The original resting ECG and its tracing
Though not compulsory, we would recommend taking a sleeping mat and camping pillows with you, as this can help to significantly improve your comfort and ensure you are well-rested after each day.
Managing Your MdS Gear: Food Weight and Packing Tips
Choosing Lightweight Foods
Keeping the weight of your supplies to a minimum is essential to keep your rucksack as light as possible for the race, and to ensure that you have enough room to pack all of your belongings.
Our many camping meals at Base Camp Food are designed to be compact and lightweight, perfect for carrying around. In particular, we recommend choosing Real Turmat, Expedition Foods, and Summit to Eat meals for the Mds, as they provide an excellent balance of energy while keeping weight to a minimum.
Taking Meals out of Their Original Packaging
A popular option to reduce the overall weight of your belongings during the MdS is to remove food from its original packaging, store it in a zip-lock bag, and vacuum-pack it. However, you must include the nutrition label for each of these foods and ensure it is clearly visible.
For further convenience, some of our food brands, such as Real Turmat and Adventure Menu, are already vacuum-packed as especially lightweight options.
Marathon des Sables FAQs
What Is the Minimum Calorie Requirement for MDS?
Marathon des Sables require that you have 12 000 k/calories for the whole event, with a minimum of 2,000 k/calories per day; otherwise, you will be penalised. In addition, any food outside its original packaging must display its nutrition label.
Can I Use a Gas Stove at the Marathon Des Sables?
Using a gas stove in the Marathon des Sables is strictly prohibited. For this reason, stoves that use fuel tablets are preferred for making hot meals.
How Should I Prepare for the Weather During the MdS?
While it may be expected that the weather in the southern Sahara Desert is consistently hot, it can be unpredictable. You can experience extremes in heat, wind, cold, and rain, and how each person responds to these conditions can differ.
As a result, it’s recommended to bring clothing and equipment to prepare for all eventualities. Then, you can leave what you anticipate you won’t need at the hotel, according to what the weather forecasts predict closer to the time.
Marathon Des Sables Food and Equipment at Base Camp Food
Now that you know everything you need to take with you from our Marathon Des Sables food and gear lists, you can get started on preparing for this exciting challenge!
Of course, nutrition for a race of this magnitude is deeply personal. It’s important to be used to the food you’ll be eating during the race to avoid any complications and to make sure the event goes as smoothly as possible.
Here at Base Camp Food, we pride ourselves on having a wide range of light, calorie-dense, and nutritious meals for you to choose from, as well as many dependable equipment choices. We hope this guide helps, and wish you the best of luck for the Marathon des Sables!
If you have any questions about our products or would like some support or guidance with your nutritional plans, please get in touch.