Bugging in, how many calories?

[chexmix]

I plan on bugging in for a few months if SHTF (hope not). How many calories should be consumed a day if I don't leave my apartment. I have vitamins to go with my food.

[Haffenreffer]

1500 female

1800 male

[PLA]

Calories are good to worry about, but where you going to get water? I have the same problem untill I get out of my apt and into a house. No room to store that much water.

[chexmix]

My apartment is on a lake, its about a 3 min walk.

[speedofl33t]

What if you can't leave your house?

I'd say plan for as many calories as you need? Do you know how much you eat now? If you're stuck inside an apartment without heating you'll easily spend as much as you do a normal day on the run. And can you afford to lose some weight?

[Joey-T]

I don't count calories or anything like that now, and my preps pretty much reflect what I currently eat, so I don't imagine I'll concern myself with it after the SHTF.

[Nimmer]

Joey T even though you eat what you store and store what you eat I would think that most will start to cut back on food intake in a shtf situation out of common sense and necessity.Then again some may eat more from the stress.

[corndogggy]

Depends on how much work you plan on doing, how big you are, your metabolic rate, etc. For playing with numbers to get a general idea, check out something like this:

http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm

You can consume 500 calories per day less than your maintenance level with no real ill effects other than weight loss. And, if you lose weight, your requirements will go down.

[Phoenixdadeadhead]

On my hikes I float around 1000 calories a day, and I hike in full gear from sun up to sun set. On Average I lose about 1 pound a day for the first 10 to 14 days, and balance out maybe losing a pound a week after that. I will pig out about every 5 to 7 days when I hit a town, downing 3 to 4 thousand calories. I may be getting a few more calories since I eat black berries, blue berries, apples (if I find any), make wild flower tea, spruce tea etc.

[corndogggy]

Originally Posted by Phoenixdadeadhead

On Average I lose about 1 pound a day for the first 10 to 14 days, and balance out maybe losing a pound a week after that.

Most people trying to lose weight do something very similar... the first 1.5-2 weeks you're losing water weight. After that, 1-2 pounds a week is realistic... that's actual fat. Pretty much anything beyond 2 pounds per week is water weight.

[letsgetreal]

Heck with all that ........one word.......ketosis........that's where your body begins to consume your muscles for protein..........are you fat? You could stand to miss a few meals( body fat is stored for lean times).......ketosis begins when it has depleted all body fat and any carbs/protein you give it.....look up ketosis.

[corndogggy]

Originally Posted by letsgetreal

Heck with all that ........one word.......ketosis........that's where your body begins to consume your muscles for protein..........are you fat? You could stand to miss a few meals( body fat is stored for lean times).......ketosis begins when it has depleted all body fat and any carbs/protein you give it.....look up ketosis.

No, you can enter it pretty quickly and definitely without having depleted all your body fat. In fact, the burning of fat itself is ketosis, not what happens after this process is finished and fat is depleted. You can diet for a day and you'll be in the textbook definition of ketosis.

What you are talking about is "catabolism". The body can actually "burn" protein, converting it into usable energy instead of building blocks. It can do this with ingested protein, but if you aren't using your muscles really hard while losing weight and not enough carbs are available, the body will attempt to basically cannibalize itself if there is excess muscle. It will do this immediately even if you are fat, you do not have to deplete your fat stores for this to happen. This is why body builders lift big weights with low reps during a cut and not mess with cardio or high reps, it helps to prevent this.

What you may have been trying to get at is "ketoacidosis", which is the extreme form of ketosis. When everything is depleted and your body is eating itself really hard due to no other choice at all, ketones can build up to fatal levels, or at least really dangerous ones... damaging your kidneys and liver. This is what puts diabetics into a coma.

[Lonereb]

3000 cal Mon - Sat, 1500 Sun

[Halkon]

I think yo get by on 2000 calories Mon-Sat. and 800 Sunday if you fast half the day.

This might change if your chores required more like chopping wood or threshing grain.