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Many of us are currently or could benefit from the loss of a few extra lbs.
This was brought home to me recently at a training class with a certain instructor who is known for the conditioning aspects of his seminars. A year ago with him doing similar conditioning I was sucking hind teat as the saying goes. This time around the results were almost a full 180. I attribute a lot of that to the fact that I'm almost 30 lbs. lighter now.
Also I've been cutting weight this month in preparation for an upcoming competition.
Now before anyone posts the "you can't do that for long, you'll die" type stuff understand that I have no health problems (praise the Lord) that would preclude this type of activity. I have no heart issues, I don't have diabetes, etc. I've done this sort of thing before, it's just been a long time since I did.
So I've dropped pretty close to 10 lbs. this calendar month. Was 215 the start of the month and this morning it was 207.6 and most likely will be at 205 by Monday.
I wanted to basically have a little experiment in "living on less" for a month or more to see what effects it had on my energy levels, my body in general, etc.
I have made no changes to daily routines, workout schedules, etc. I'm not sitting under a tree all day long doing nothing but taking in 1,000 calories.
Three days a week we do martial arts for 2 1/2 hours including 30 minutes or more of sparring. Three days a week we run a mile after doing a workout. There is always some physical work around the homestead intermixed between this and normal life activities.
I've been subsisting on 1,000 to 1,500 calories a day during this month. I've seen this amount of calories called a "starvation diet." I've seen people say you couldn't do "any" physical labor off of this amount.
Now, this MIGHT be true for some Barney Fife skinny dude with no reserves. However from meeting thousands of survivalists over the years, I can tell you that their ain't many folks like that in the movement ;)
Yes, right now, I'm burning reserves, but hey that was the plan after all :)
I'm not arguing or trying to prove that you could live just fine off of 1,000 calories with a lot of physical activity for years, please understand that. Could it be done for a few months? I would guess yes if the person is starting with some "reserves" to burn through. OR if the physical activity is lessened.
I'm not sure the latter is an option in a SHTF situation. Unless your talking about spending a couple weeks or a month in a shelter avoiding fallout.
Your body does get used to living on less and you do crave food less. Energy levels haven't been ever to the point where I "couldn't" workout or spar, but I have had an energy drink on sparing days once or twice ;) Nothing that coffee wouldn't do, but I can't stand coffee without a lot of cream and sugar which = empty calories.
Obviously no one show start any diet without consulting their physician, blah blah blah liability statement.... However I think it's important for each of us to know what our body can and can't do under limited caloric intake. If your looking to drop some lbs. it's a perfect time to figure that out also.
We can KNOW, or we can THINK we know. If possible, we ought to all know for sure ahead of time. While you might have mountains of food storage, understand that you can lose ANYTHING that's tangible.
Lowdown3
This was brought home to me recently at a training class with a certain instructor who is known for the conditioning aspects of his seminars. A year ago with him doing similar conditioning I was sucking hind teat as the saying goes. This time around the results were almost a full 180. I attribute a lot of that to the fact that I'm almost 30 lbs. lighter now.
Also I've been cutting weight this month in preparation for an upcoming competition.
Now before anyone posts the "you can't do that for long, you'll die" type stuff understand that I have no health problems (praise the Lord) that would preclude this type of activity. I have no heart issues, I don't have diabetes, etc. I've done this sort of thing before, it's just been a long time since I did.
So I've dropped pretty close to 10 lbs. this calendar month. Was 215 the start of the month and this morning it was 207.6 and most likely will be at 205 by Monday.
I wanted to basically have a little experiment in "living on less" for a month or more to see what effects it had on my energy levels, my body in general, etc.
I have made no changes to daily routines, workout schedules, etc. I'm not sitting under a tree all day long doing nothing but taking in 1,000 calories.
Three days a week we do martial arts for 2 1/2 hours including 30 minutes or more of sparring. Three days a week we run a mile after doing a workout. There is always some physical work around the homestead intermixed between this and normal life activities.
I've been subsisting on 1,000 to 1,500 calories a day during this month. I've seen this amount of calories called a "starvation diet." I've seen people say you couldn't do "any" physical labor off of this amount.
Now, this MIGHT be true for some Barney Fife skinny dude with no reserves. However from meeting thousands of survivalists over the years, I can tell you that their ain't many folks like that in the movement ;)
Yes, right now, I'm burning reserves, but hey that was the plan after all :)
I'm not arguing or trying to prove that you could live just fine off of 1,000 calories with a lot of physical activity for years, please understand that. Could it be done for a few months? I would guess yes if the person is starting with some "reserves" to burn through. OR if the physical activity is lessened.
I'm not sure the latter is an option in a SHTF situation. Unless your talking about spending a couple weeks or a month in a shelter avoiding fallout.
Your body does get used to living on less and you do crave food less. Energy levels haven't been ever to the point where I "couldn't" workout or spar, but I have had an energy drink on sparing days once or twice ;) Nothing that coffee wouldn't do, but I can't stand coffee without a lot of cream and sugar which = empty calories.
Obviously no one show start any diet without consulting their physician, blah blah blah liability statement.... However I think it's important for each of us to know what our body can and can't do under limited caloric intake. If your looking to drop some lbs. it's a perfect time to figure that out also.
We can KNOW, or we can THINK we know. If possible, we ought to all know for sure ahead of time. While you might have mountains of food storage, understand that you can lose ANYTHING that's tangible.
Lowdown3
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