people are clueless about how many calories you need out there,

[registror]

as well as how few calories meat, fish or wild plants have to offer. A 200 lb man, in order to lose no weight, needs to eat 2000 calories per day, laying around in bed, at room temps. Top swimmers have to eat 10,000 calories per day when in training, and they AINT fat. Thing about that. It's possible to burn (and eat) 4x as much food as you normally eat. When it's cold, damp, windy and you have to work hard out in that crap, you''re gong to need 4000 calories per day. You burn 100 calories per mile walked, on flat pavement, unburdened, at room temps. Most of the things you'll need to do in a survival situation, will burn LOTS more calories than just walking. You need more effort (calories) when fighting brush, mud, snow, hills than when walking on flat pavement, eh? When you have to lug around 40 lbs of survival gear (or camera gear in the case of the alone show), that's going to require more effort/calories, eh? When it's cold, your body has to metabolize more food in order to heat itself, too. Every 3000 calories that you're deficient in your diet, you lose a lb of body weight and when all of your bodyfat is gone, you lose 1.5 lbs per day. First your muscles get depleted and then your body starts cannibalizing your vital organs. That's why you sign a contract with the Alone producers that says you'll be pulled from the show when your BMI drops below 17. If you're getting no food at all. The record for fasting is 13 MONTHS, but that was at room temps, just lying around. The guy weighed 450 lbs and went down to 180 lbs. He lost 2/3rds of a lb per day, on average. This bs of adding 40 lbs of blubber before you go on the show should not be allowed. You dont get 2 months of warning before a crisis hits. and this is a contest. Wth wants to endanger their health by adding 40 lbs of fat? If you can't feed yourself adequately, stay off of the show. wtf wants to watch a bunch of 300 lb lardasses lay around in their sleeping bags?

[registror]

Only about half of a fish or animal's live weight is edible flesh and that flesh typically offers only 600-700 calories per lb. If you need 4000 calories per day, you need to eat 6+ lbs of fish/game per day. It's much worse for most plant foods, too. You can't eat enough of that stuff to stay alive. If you try, you'll crap yourself to death. You'll have to juice it so as to reduce the amount of fiber you're putting into your guts.

Crawfish, clams, etc, only 1/4 of their live weight is edible flesh and that flesh offers only 400 calories per lb. So you'd need to catch 40 lbs of such food sources per day and eat 10 lbs of it. This will also give you a very bad cases of the craps.

This is why I say what you need to do for the Alone tv show is score 200k+ calories in 50 days on the Alone tv show, get it smoke/dried/frozen, get it inside of an ice-igloo a foot thick, and just hole up inside of your debris/tarp shelter for the last half of your 100 day challenge. With the debris between each of the 7 layers of clothing that you can take/make out there, Then you'll average needing 3000 calories per day. You'll come up short by 100k calories, which will cause you to lose 35 lbs. That's acceptable if you start at 6 ft and 100 lbs. All of the top marathoners who are 6 ft tall weigh 145 lbs or less. It's not unhealthy at all. to be that "skinny", even long term and working out like a fiend.

[grumpygremlin]

post collapse most people will be glad to find any food to eat no matter what the calories.

[registror]

so what? they'll still starve if they dont get enough to eat. the WW2 Minnesota Starvation Experiment (google it) showed that if you dont get 1500 calories per day, you'll lose weight FASTER than if you ate nothing. Below that level, your body slows its metabolism, to buy you time to find enough food. either save up your food until you CAN eat 1500 calories per day, or use the food as bait, if it's going to spoil soon.

[grumpygremlin]

I've never counted calories and I get enough to eat.

[registror]

sure, now, when you can easily get all the food you want, very high calorie food at that. But we/re soon not going to have that anymore.

[Nik]

IIRC, the 'Rule of Thumb' is 1000 Calories Female, 1500 Calories Male to maintain 'sedentary' weight. Gets seriously crazy if you must be active, doing 'physical' work. ~3000 Calories ? Yeah, that fits for the 'light' end. You'll need a lot of 'slow carbs', and still lose weight...

[registror]

you can't get carbs. All that's available is protein and a bit of fat. You;ll have to b e pretty active for the first half, but the second half of the 100 days, you hole up in your sleeping gear/shelter, doing almost nothing. Certainly a big man needs more calories than a small woman, but he's ALSO got a lot more body weight to lose before he falls below 17 BMI and is pulled from the show. Guys have lost 70-80 lbs on the show. That's 200k+ calories, right there.

[Tugaloo]

you can't get carbs. All that's available is protein and a bit of fat.

As our resident expert..
How did the colonists, pioneers and other early Americans survive? In the winter, they couldn't garden. The same applies to the Conestoga wagons that crossed the US as they couldn't stop at Walmart and shop.

So how did they survive without the carbs and calories you claim they'd need to survive?

[RICHFL]

The military issues MREs to the troops in combat. They have found with all the movements needed just to stay alive a normal human needs between 4000- 5000 calories per day. That is not sitting on your ass.

What I noticed on the ALONE show is these people are building, hunting, setting snares, fishing, getting fire wood, water, etc. They underestimate the amount of food they need.

A book I read a number of years ago talked about daily life in a dairy farm in 1910. I was surprised as to how much food was eaten at each meal. The normal diet was about 6-9000 calories per day. While growing up in a fairy farm in the 50-60's we utilized electrical equipment, we still ate a lot more, then most people today.

[Tugaloo]

The military issues MREs to the troops in combat. They have found with all the movements needed just to stay alive a normal human needs between 4000- 5000 calories per day. That is not sitting on your ass.

What I noticed on the ALONE show is these people are building, hunting, setting snares, fishing, getting fire wood, water, etc. They underestimate the amount of food they need.

A book I read a number of years ago talked about daily life in a dairy farm in 1910. I was surprised as to how much food was eaten at each meal. The normal diet was about 6-9000 calories per day. While growing up in a fairy farm in the 50-60's we utilized electrical equipment, we still ate a lot more, then most people today.

The war fighters are "high speed, low drag" types; however, the calorie content is less.

The twenty-four different varieties of meals can be seen in the menu table. Components are selected to complement each entrée as well as provide necessary nutrition. Each meal also contains an accessory packet. The contents of one MRE meal bag provides an average of 1250 kilocalories (13 % protein, 36 % fat, and 51 % carbohydrates). It also provides 1/3 of the Military Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamins and minerals determined essential by the Surgeon General of the United States.

https://www.dla.mil/TroopSupport/Subsistence/Operationalrations/mre.aspx

The link also supplies the contents of each case of MREs from MRE 35 to MRE 40.

The "calorie" we refer to in food is actually kilocalorie. One (1) kilocalorie is the same as one (1) Calorie (uppercase C). A kilocalorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius.

https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/what-difference-between-calories-and-kilocalories

The answer for Vietnam's C-Rations vary too much to share, actually to believe is more accurate. However, ~1200 calories per individual meal is the average.
Ham and Lima beans were not popular. The M-60 MG came with a canvas ammo bag that was discarded and replaced with a can of Lima beans or whatever was disliked. The advantage over the bag was the loader could add another belt easily.

As they lacked the MRE's heater, the usual way infantry heated them was using C4, a plastic explosive. Cut a piece of C4 off and roll into a about 3" long and the diameter of a finger. Insert it into a hole in the ground and light it. Instant camp chef stove.

To complete the list was the LRRP ration:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRP_ration

I'm a bit confused here as it was Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol and LRRP makes sense as the abbreviation.

In December 1965, the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, formed a LRRP platoon, and by April 1966, the 1st Infantry Division, 25th Infantry Division and 173rd Airborne Brigade formed LRRP units as well. On 8 July 1966, General William Westmoreland authorized the formation of a (LRRP) unit in each infantry brigade or division in Vietnam.

https://www.americangrit.com/2017/01/04/watch-lrrp-vietnam/

Beats me where LRP came from; any assistance would be appreciated.

[Armyjimbo]

Long Range Patrol . Just like the name suggests. Cut down move fast and quiet.

[Tugaloo]

A little history by an old Veteran. It took some research to add dates.

12/65, the first LRRP teams were formed by the 1st Brigade of the 101st ABN. 4/66, the 1st Infantry DIV, 25th Infantry DIV and 173rd ABN formed them as well.

LRRP stands for Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol, the teams consisted of 4 or 5 men. They were inserted by a Huey and extracted by a Huey.
In 1966, Special Forces Detachment B-50 Project Omega at Nha Trang, and later at Ban Me Thout. B-50 Project Omega was created to train personnel for the various Vietnam Corps to provide a means of long range patrol and intelligence gathering in each Corps tactical zones. That is the most logical explanation for LRP.

Basically LRRP teams moved at night and slept during the day. LRRPs were a pure recon patrol and due to the team's small size and limited loadout avoided any contact.
As I served in Vietnam, I'm familiar with LRRP. However, I never saw the term LRP until many years later when I saw it online.