Find out what percentage of your body weight your pack is, and whether that's light, moderate, or heavy for your type of trip.
Hikers commonly gauge whether a backpack is comfortably manageable by expressing its weight as a percentage of the hiker's own body weight, rather than looking at the pack's weight in isolation. A 30-lb pack is a very different experience for a 130-lb hiker than for a 200-lb hiker, so this relative measure is more useful for planning.
Pack Weight % = (Total Pack Weight ÷ Body Weight) × 100. General hiking guidance suggests roughly 10% or less of body weight for day hikes, about 15–20% for overnight trips, and up to around 20–25% for longer multi-day backpacking trips where more food, fuel, and gear are unavoidable.
A 160-lb hiker carrying a 28-lb pack on an overnight trip has a pack weight of (28 ÷ 160) × 100 = 17.5% of body weight — comfortably within the typical 15–20% range recommended for overnight trips.
The biggest weight savings usually come from the "big three": your tent/shelter, sleeping system, and backpack itself. Reviewing your gear list against these three categories first, before trimming small items, typically produces the largest weight reduction for the least sacrifice in comfort or safety.
A common guideline is 10-20% of your body weight for a multi-day hike, though this varies with fitness, trip length, and terrain.
It sums the weight of your base gear (pack, shelter, sleeping system) plus consumables (food, water, fuel) that you enter.
Base weight excludes consumables like food, water, and fuel since those get used up during the trip; total pack weight includes everything you're carrying at the start.