There are a million posts out there about how many calories an “average” person needs to eat per day in a survival situation. Well, frankly, I’m not average. I’m 6’4″ tall and consume the “average” amount of calories in a well planned breakfast on a normal day. That being said, we’re going to take a slightly more scientific approach to figuring out how many calories we should be eating per day. Here are a few thoughts first:
1) You will be doing much, much more exercise. What, with all of this running from zombies, dragging the dead bodies of your friends, building bunkers, etc. You probably will spend considerably less time watching television (since there is now no electricity) and more time doing things that require your body to move. Hence, you need more calories.
2) This sucks because food will be less available. Hence the reason why this site is called “Zombie Preppers,” because we have to prep. This means storing food so that you can continue to live after the world ends.
3) You’re probably going to lose weight. I submit that given a few months of zombie apocalypse there will be very few fat people left for two primary reasons. First, fat people are slow, and zombies are faster than you think. Second, it will be incredibly difficult to get the sort of high caloric food that we can commonly find at fast food restaurants today.
Those things being true, here’s how we should be figuring out how many calories we need:
First, look at this chart. Find your idea weight for your height. This is important because we’re not going to plug or current weight into the calorie calculator, but rather our ideal weight. You will eventually find that you will burn your own body fat to account for the calorie deficit until you arrive at your ideal weight, at which time you will find some sort of balance and stay at that ideal weight provided you are eating the correct amount of calories. You can thank me when you’re thin.
OK, so now you’ve arrived at your ideal, “healthy” weight. Now you want to visit this calorie calculator and plug in the information for your height, ideal weight, age, and exercise level (remembering that there will be no such thing as light exercise in post apocalyptic existence). Then, viola! You’ve got a solid number of calories that you need to consume in a survival situation.
Of course the number is different for everyone. Using a “one size fits all” calorie requirement is stupid, lazy, and dangerous. Your “normal” calorie intake would probably cause my body to shut down and die. One size definitely does not fit all. Plan accordingly.
For instance, my daily calorie requirements under this method are 3,203 given 6’4″, 200 lbs, moderate exercise, and 31 years of age. For my wife, it would be 2,276 calories. You get the point. Big difference.