It's over!
It's my first day after the SHTF Diet, which I celebrated by scarfing down a pizza, some chicken and bread bits as of 1 AM (2 AM DST.) Although a lot of relief was involved :) , I did so deliberately to accelerate any post-diet rebound and to make the final result more reasonable. As you're about to see, I lost twenty-two pounds or about 7.8% of my starting body weight.
Also below are summaries of effects on my health, energy level, and psychological makeup.
As diets go, this one worked. It wasn't worse than the other stretch of dieting I've been on, and there were times when it was definitely better. The only health issue was the runs. Blogging about it was a help in staying the course; the support and encouragement I got in the comments were a big help. Hence the shout-outs below.
Weight
As explained above, I expected a rebound and deliberately added to it with a wee-hours pigout. :) Doing so prevents an outlier result. Since this is the day after, and the 30-day stretch was broken up by a Hiatus Day, the total timespan is 32 days.
My weight on Day 0 was 280 pounds:
As of today, it's 258:
So, the total loss over thirty-two days has been twenty-two pounds. That's pretty good by diet standards, although it should be kept in mind that I'm fairly big. From my base weight of 280, I lost 7.85% of my body weight and that loss was flab. I went from obese to borderline obese.
It should be kept in mind that I did so by subsisting solely on the Mountain House packets. Had I not been fat, the calorie dearth would have presented a problem.
Health
I had no signs of dizziness, faintness, or any symptom consistent with vitamin deficiency. The worst I got was a case of the February blahs, which affected me from Day 14 to Day 17. But there was a health effect, which was mild during the stretch but hit full force after I finished the Day 30 post:
Diarrhea.
I experienced something like this during the diet from time to time (in the form of semi-liquid stools), and there were times when my stools were solid, but last night was a full attack. Undoubtedly, it's because of the composition of the food: I've had no trouble today.
Related to the diarrhea, my stools were far less frequent than beforehand. There was once a six-day stretch between two of them.
Other than the runs, there was nothing else.
Energy
One of the odder findings I have is the fact that my energy level increased in the early stage of the diet. At first, I chalked it up to an adrenaline jag - but the stretch lasted longer to be simply that. Adrenaline jags last three days at most: my peppiness lasted a full ten.
The best explanation I have is that the novelty of the diet plus the challenge factor boosted my vigor. It suggests that preppers will have an energy edge in a real SHTF situation because they're already prepared for the eventuality. Had I been forced to subsists on these packets because of a natural disaster, I would have had enough vim in the first ten days to volunteer to help others out.
It didn't last, though. The next twenty days were mostly medium energy, for me, with a bout of sluggishness during my February-blahs phase. Even during that stretch, though, I found out that new activities - novelty - helped. So did getting out. Meetups provided the opportunity, as did some off-inventory sales which aided in refilling my larder.
Psychological Effects
To abstract from my own personal experience, stress. If you try to replicate, you'll likely notice those tics and quirks that surface when you're under stress.
In my case, it was night owling, sleeping in two shifts for a time, sometimes withdrawing into my shell, and occasional attacks of (bottled-up) raw nerves. These can be chalked up to the stress of a de facto crash diet.
I actually got a bit of relief from documenting the gyrations of the scale. :) To use a statistical term, my weight over the 30-day stretch showed high variance. Although aided by being an experienced dieter, the gyrating needle helped me keep perspective when I plateaued.
But I got more help by the informal support group composed of the regular commenters. Steemers like @cbandit , @funbobby51 , @karenb54 , @breezin , @stevecoins , @jareen61 , @preppervetuk and of course the irrepressible @karenmckersie helped a lot in keeping the blues away. I also appreciated @lukebrn stopping by and adding his encouragement.
This point about the support group is important to know if you yourself want to try a diet: a supportive support group really helps.
Mountain House Food As A Diet Plan
They actually worked well as a diet plan. The 30-day stretch was a drag at times, but no more so than any other diet I've lost weight on. I even got an energy boost in the first ten days, in part because of the exotic nature of the food and the overall sense of romance that comes with prepping.
The exotic part is important, as the packets were easy to compartmentalize as "diet food." Eating a completely different kind of food for losing weight, which you drop when you're back to eating regular, does help.
Oddly enough, so did going off the diet for a day although it made the diet harder to stick to. It's as if my body had switched back to "feast" mode from "famine" mode and stopped conserving calories.
If The SHTF?
One lesson I learned is that I can get by for a full 30 days with only Mountain House emergency food. A full month is longer than any disruption I've read of. I'd only be left short by a bolt-from-the-blue SHTF event like an EMP attack or an economic collapse.
Still, the remote possibility does make it important to not rely on these foods solely. The most important addition is multivitamin tables: a few sealed bottles of a brand that you and your loved ones would run through normally. The second is bulk food, especially if you're normal weight or underweight. I could have added an MRE per day as my dinner and used the packets as breakfast and lunch: a quick calorie tally showed that the combo would give me enough to hold my weight steady. Another, more economical alternative is energy bars; they can be calibrated to give yourself enough calories to maintain your weight and strength. The bargain-basement option is a big bag (bags) of rice. Rice will make up the calories, and the nutritive content of both the Mountain House food and a multivitamin will get you by.
Conclusion
Although it had its grindy days and required some endurance-type grit to get through, this test had its fun side. I learned a lot! More importantly, I found out through experience that the Mountain House 30-day emergency supply store will get me by if the S really does hit the F. Oddly enough, it makes for a serviceable diet plan whose results stack up well against other diets.
If there's one big unanswered question, it's: what would this food be like after storing it for five or ten years? Since there's no feasible way to test it, I don't know.
Addendum: @preppervetuk left some questions about the diet in the comments section of yesterday's post. Here they are, with my answers:
Did it turn into an endurance event?
Essentially, yes. After the tenth day, I had to tough it through by enduring: what I called "grit."
Did the sodium content lead to excess bodily fluid loss?
It might have. In fact, it might have led to my weight fluctuating from day to day. I wasn't dehydrated, so it didn't add to my thirst all that much. My fluid intake was normal for me.
Favourite meal?
The Lasagna. :)
Recommended additions (sauces eg tobasco)?
I can't recommend any, but that's because I don't use sauces for normal food.
Lethargy? or Constapation?
Diarrhea : see above.
How do you intend to ease yourself back into normal food?
Leaving aside the above mentioned pig-out, I'm finding that I'm eating somewhat smaller portions. That was the case earlier tonight.
A Special Thank You For Reading This Series!
As always, feel free to comment below.
Day 0
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Hiatus Day
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27
Day 28
Day 29
Day 30
Congratulations on completing this test! (and for the weight loss!)
In regards to your energy level... do you think part of the higher levels (due to the excitement of trying this) also had to do with psychological expectations?
It's been MANY years since my high school and college psychology classes, but I know from personal experience the new-ness of something always adds to adrenalin and the rush of the end result.
SO glad you had a great support team there for you! That can make, or break, a significant change in one's life; such as this. KUDOS to all those who cheered you on!
I think that's it. One of the funny quirks about prepping is that you tend to come alive when things are tough.
Seconded. :-)
NOW that would be a good post too! How prepping, the fear of the potential unknown and an outcome!
Did you feel at any time that the calorie deficiency was eating at your muscles, instead of fat?
For preppers, consider the amount of stress you will be dealing with in those first days. Thankfully, you'll be in a better place mentally than those who didn't prepare, but stress will make a difference in energy consumption. Some people take to stress though, so YMMV. Adrenaline addicts FTW!
Good job in detailing pysch effects; we need to remember these will be magnified in SHTF sitauations!
Congrats on the weight loss! Thanks for the shout-out and the prep test~!
Thank yourself!
No. When I had to do something physical like snow shoveling, I wasn't dragged down at all. If there were some of that, it was subtle and unnoticeable.
Can't say what would happen over two months, but for the month I was drawing down fat.
Good to know; one of the assumptions I have is that calorie deficits attack muscle first. I must have read something wrong there, or remembered it wrong!
De nada ;)
I'm sure what you read is true if you're buff or don't have much fat on your bones.
Way to go....👍🎉🎊🍾 You lost 22 lbs. without any serious injury to yourself or anyone around you😁. You made it to the end with a sense of accomplishment for this adventure you had going, yes you had ups and downs but you overcame them.
Now you can say I did it and I can do even more things if I have to so lookout world because here I come. Great post you give people the power to move ahead on this same kind of journey. Keep posting and steem on...😁👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🍾🎊🎊🏁
Hi. I am doing a post about a couple of members that i follow. You are one of them.i am posting about your the 30 days i have been watching. Do huh mind if i use this photo on this post. Its about a couple of followers i want to promote :(
Sure! Go ahead, and thanks.
Thank you :)
Its done :)
That was a very well earned pizza. I’m happy to hear that you finished the diet. Continued good health my friend!
Thanks!
YOU MADE IT!!
I must say, when I read your findings, I was surprised to see how little (given circumstances) negative implications it held in store!
Really proud that you stuck it through!
Thanks!
Interesting! It was wise to give it a test run so you know you can tolerate it in an emergency situation. We have rice, beans, and dried produce stored up along with lots of canned goods, medicinal herbs, and livestock to utilize for eggs, milk, and meat. We rotate through our storage so things aren't stored for too long to help keep the inventory fresher.
That's a good idea: not only storing lots of staple food but also eating it and replacing it with fresher stuff. One advantage is that you'll find it easier to switch to a disaster diet if the S does hit the F.
Cool. I just happened upon this series today due to a resteem. I have a couple of containers full of dry goods. Rice and beans, beans and rice. Also have a huge bulk container of multivitamins, a bunch of dried milk, several containers of iodized salt and a few day's supply of canned fruit. It would get our family through about a month without any of us losing weight, albeit not exactly tastefully. More than that and I could start hunting for meat since we live in a semi-rural area with lots of game.
It's funny because I learned how to calculate a diet like this because of my problems putting on and maintaining weight over the years. When I moved to Cali I was kind of poor, and I had resolved to pay off credit card debt, so I very methodically sat down and calculated how many calories I would need to maintain weight. Then I went to the local grocery stores and equally as methodically found the cheapest foods that I could find that would a.) give me enough calories, and b.) give me a balanced diet.
What I settled on were TV dinners (meat, veggies, carbs, all in one place), yogurt (the kind that comes in packets 10 or 12, the ultra cheap stuff), bananas, hot dogs, ramen and frozen burritos. Eventually I had to get rid of the burritos because they were almost entirely composed of fat and made me nauseous and lethargic after a while, and replaced them with salads so I got some fresh greens in there somewhere. Regardless, I was able to get my food cost down to less than $5 a day (many days it was around $3, some days I would splurge and get a dollar sandwich and dollar fries at McDonald's) with this diet and because I was so methodical about the calorie intake I actually put on healthy weight for the first time in my life! By healthy weight I mean that it happened gradually over several months.
Now, it wasn't the healthiest food around, but I did learn that I just simply wasn't eating enough calories before this time, and it also convinced me that the methods would work in reverse. If you were trying to lose weight, just cut a couple hundred calories from the "maintain weight" number of calories for your weight and you'll take it off nice and slow, you know, so as not to shock the system into famine mode.
And yes, I paid off all that credit card debt in only two years time while making shit money.
Oh, something I forgot to mention. I slept less and needed less sleep now that I was finally getting enough food. So if you're ever in a SHTF scenario, sleep as much as possible. It will help you conserve energy.
Good advice, especially since a real SHTF scenario would prolly take your work away (except for disaster-relief volunteer work.)
Good for you! With my "regular" stored food, I've latched onto similar food so as to save costs. For example, I've stocked up this past month using off-inventory sales.
One way of eating cheap - provided that multivitamins are part of the diet - is to see cheap staples like flour, rice, ramen, and so on as "base" foods and the rest as "ingredient" materials. I'm starting to knock around with a rice cooker to see what I can do with it.
One thing I found is that you can use it for macaroni (not very well,but serviceably if you don't mind the taste of some "browned" macaroni) and you can also use a single slice of cheese on top (processed "Swiss" in my case), pop it in the microwave for 30 sec., and get home-brew mac and cheese. Not as good as the processed stuff - for one, the cheese coating is thin - but serviceable.
The same trick works for rice & cheese, although one slice doesn't provide enough "cover." This one's a work in progress. :)
@nxtblg I was hoping to ask you if I can have some more SP as Delegation??
The durn thing is, not yet. I'm still waiting for Minnow Booster to release my Steemit from expired delegations.
They've got some bugs, don't they?
No no it's the basic Steemit rule.
You always have to wait for 7 days before you get your Delegation back.
You will be getting around 15k SP back within 3 days will you be delegating it again??
I would love to have it.
Thanks.
Yes, I will.
Through Minnowbooster?
Yes I would love to have it via Minnowbooster let's see if they solve this Blacklist issue.
I won't mind a Weekly Payment where I can pay you weekly with one week in advance
I'll keep checking my wallet and I'll keep you in mind.
Thanks a lot @nxtblg.
Its been fascinating watching you go through this, you were disciplined and kept with it. Well done and thanks for the mention its been a pleasure :)
Hey, glad to. I am glad for you stopping by.
Aw man, I stopped by some of the early posts to encourage you! I am just not able to spend much time on here reading anymore.
Nice wrap up post here.
https://steemit.com/neo/@barrydutton/neo-genesis-block-0-kickoff-meetup-details-within-post-wednesday-evening-tomorrow-est
I'm curious to know how my family would do surviving on what we have put back for an emergency situation. I've tried to have at least 30 days worth of ingredients to make the foods that we eat on a regular basis. But in a longer-term situation, we would have to mix it up with freeze-dried meals and dehydrated Foods that we have stockpiled along with beans, rice, flower and other grains that we have by the buckets full. I thought that in a longer-term situation we could use the everyday ingredients that we have to make familiar meals between the "survival meals" to acclimate us to the new diet. But there will always be the vegetables from the garden and eggs and meat as long as we have chickens and honey as long as we have bees.
Thats some weight loss diet and have often wondered about the Mountain house meals, mainly to stories of the high sodium content. Its good to hear your energy boost during the experiment.
I bet it also saved on water used for washing up and thats good right lol.
This kind of experiment is a good exercise in order to establish a base-line of what you can and cannot do or cope with.
No doubt it has given you great confidence in your resources and food intake measures. YOU now know what you have to do or eat for sustainment, others may still be questioning THEIR requirements (especially when there are numerous family members) = They'll have to 'brass it out'!
Thanks for the mention/shout out - You endured so we could learn.
Congrats on making it through. All in all, what was your favorite meal of the bunch?
Answered above: the lasagna. And thanks.
I read before the addendum😁 Have you considered how to keep the weight off?
Prolly "eat smaller portions."
This is the first I have seen of this series. That's a REALLY interesting test of prepper supplies! I have never heard of Mountain House but am more of a learn-skills prepper than a store-supplies prepper, at least at this juncture. GTK about the weight loss; I am of the muscle-weighs-more-than-fat-so-people-assume-I'm-underweight-until-I-tell-them-the-number body type. The key for me is to keep up protein levels or I turn hypoglycemic real fast.
Thanks!
In that case, you couldn't rely on just this for SHTF-proofing yourself. But I can assure you that your muscles will be a lot of help for people who've been badly whacked.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Will Be Tiny Braun For Protein, lol 😂
Wow, I just came across this. I could say I am surprised I missed the other 30+ posts but I don't check the new section of homsteading or prepping often. I really should.
Anyway I am impressed that you were able to stick to it. Also that your energy was good for the first ten days and not too bad for the remainder with few side effects. It's good to know that living off of mountain house or other long term store-able food is doable. Thanks for being a guinea pig.
That's what I'm there for. :)
Thanks for dropping in; I'm now following you.
Likewise, thank you!
With the high sodium and resulting loss of fluids (via diarrhea)...I am wondering if this food would be safe for smaller kids over 30 days. They loose body fat so quickly and can suffer severe dehydration after one day of diarrhea.
Very thought provoking...thank you for sharing the experience so we can learn too...
It might not be.
Wow. Great post . Health is wealth. Diet must contain all necessary class of food for body growth and development. Thanks for sharing this.
Well, I learned something and passed it on. Hope it helps.
Great job , keep going
Thank you
Good post..diet is very important for healthy. Many people do that. The good information. Be sucses brother
Thank you.
Did you gain the 22 pounds back already @nxtblg? : )