How Much Food?

[mayapuppies]

Hello all,

 

How much food would the average person need per day (in kg if possible) when hiking through the mountains?

[Captain Obvious]

Re: How Much Food?

 

Twilight: 2000 had people needing 1.5 - 3 kg of food daily, depending on what kind of food it was. 1.5 kg if it was MREs (high in calories and nutrition...also at that time, largely dehydrated; probably not too different from 'iron rations'), 2 kg for regular type food...the stuff you eat every day, and 3 kg for stuff scrounged out the woods.

 

A regular MRE is about a half kilo. I've found most of the time when I'm in the field, I eat five every two days, but I'm usually in a truck, not humping around all over the place. It's conceivable that someone really exerting themselves enough would need more than listed above, but that's a pretty good guideline, I think.

 

Post Apocalyptic Hero has some stuff about caloric requirements, if you have that available for reference.

[mayapuppies]

Re: How Much Food?

 

Gracias!

[Eosin]

Re: How Much Food?

 

Yeah, depends is the operative answer. A man would need in the region of 4,000 calories to maintain with that kind of demand. Each MRE is about 1,200 calories so we are talking about 3-4 of them in a day for moderately heavy exertion.

[gojira]

Re: How Much Food?

 

OTOH I was just watching a history show on ... cooking, I think. Confederate soldiers were given rations consisting of two pieces of hard tack per day and coffee. One piece of hard tack is a cracker about the size of a graham cracker.

 

This wasn't exactly healthy, but many managed to at least survive a month or so. I imagine they lost a lot of weight.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: How Much Food?

 

OTOH I was just watching a history show on ... cooking, I think. Confederate soldiers were given rations consisting of two pieces of hard tack per day and coffee. One piece of hard tack is a cracker about the size of a graham cracker.

 

This wasn't exactly healthy, but many managed to at least survive a month or so. I imagine they lost a lot of weight.

 

That can't have been pleasant. I wonder if the Union, whose economy was always stronger throughout the war, were able to feed their troops somewhat better. That seems like a "just barely surviving" regimen.

 

And, of course, many soldiers in that era supplemented their rations through foraging and hunting. Which was not reliable, and frequently led to eating very unpleasant things, but would help keep body and soul together.

 

How does a fantasy-world traveler keep his rations intact? Can magic help?

[jtelson]

Re: How Much Food?

 

Well a Union soldier's ration was something like 12 oz of bacon or 1 lb of salt beef and 1.5 lb of soft bread or 1 lb hardtack plus Coffee, salt and sugar. For every 100 soliders they were also issued peas, beans, rice, tea,molasses and the like.

 

The Confederate ration was similar although it was reduced steadily throughout the course of the fighting so while at the end it may have been 2 pieces hardtack and Coffee, it wasn't the norm for the uprising.

 

Using magic to preserve food would be game world dependant: In most, I suspect, a transform would be sufficient to "keep" food fresh (Cosmetic: X day old food to X-7 day old food, Minor: Food to Food that won't spoil for X Days). Once you've got magic you may also be able to just make food and water.

[Markdoc]

Re: How Much Food?

 

OTOH I was just watching a history show on ... cooking, I think. Confederate soldiers were given rations consisting of two pieces of hard tack per day and coffee. One piece of hard tack is a cracker about the size of a graham cracker.

 

This wasn't exactly healthy, but many managed to at least survive a month or so. I imagine they lost a lot of weight.

 

They were also expected to "forage". That hard tack was long-lasting stuff and intended to carry them through periods when foraging wasn't an option

 

That can't have been pleasant. I wonder if the Union' date=' whose economy was always stronger throughout the war, were able to feed their troops somewhat better. That seems like a "just barely surviving" regimen. [/quote']

 

That was the point. And yes, the Union did feed its troops better: you read over and over in letters from Union soldiers expressions of amazement at how deprived Confederate troops were, especially in the latter parts of the war. Foraging (more accurately outright theft) by soldiers impacted civilians too: confederate President Jefferson Davis suggested that desperately hungry Southerners should eat rats because they tasted better than squirrels. Taylor had to abandon his artillery in the retreat to New Orleans because his starving soldiers had eaten the mules and horses used to pull them, etc, etc. It's been estimated that the south lost a third or more of its livestock during the war, mostly due to pillaging by troops, destroying many farms and setting postwar recovery back by decades.

 

Interestingly, the Japanese did the same thing in WW2. Daily rations for troops were supposed to be 24 ounces of rice, 7 ounces of fish and 28 ounces of vegetables, but during field operations troops were often issued with only a few day's rations for operations that could last a week or more. They were expected to take the rest from the enemy. The British stopped the Japanese advance in Burma when they finally worked this out and developed the "box" strategy: anytime the Japanese broke through, the British fell back into a box formation to defend their rations and ammo. That forced the Japanese into frontal assaults rather than their preferred infiltration approach and if that wasn't successful, then they rapidly lost cohesion (as parties spread out to forage) and also effectiveness, as the soldiers starved. If you read accounts from that "forgotten war" you get an echo of the Union soldiers' letters, as Commonwealth troops express surprise and even pity at how malnourished the japanese soldiers often were.

 

And, of course, many soldiers in that era supplemented their rations through foraging and hunting. Which was not reliable, and frequently led to eating very unpleasant things, but would help keep body and soul together.

 

How does a fantasy-world traveler keep his rations intact? Can magic help?

 

Sure, magic can help with anything. In our D&D game, where magic is common, virtually every single character now has a Heward's handy haversack, an Everful mug and a Pouch of endless rations. It's worth the cost to carry all your gear, and all the food and drink you'll ever need in the equivalent of a small day pack.

 

In my FH game where that sort of magic is rare, the sea-mage can use his magic to help the PCs fish for food, or to call rain if they lack water, one of the players is an excellent hunter, and they carry hard tack for those times when they cannot forage or buy food. In some cities or fortresses there are magical cornucopia that produce an endless stream of food.

 

cheers, Mark

[Captain Obvious]

Re: How Much Food?

 

Historically, troops in the field have always lost weight. This was always the case until the development of the MRE. Either historic rations standards were set too low, or logistics problems kept soldiers from getting the standard level of rations once they'd been on campaign for a while.

[DusterBoy]

Re: How Much Food?

 

Historically, troops have always bitched about their rations.

 

Two apropos quotes:

 

"What's this crap supposed to be?" Spunkmeyer

"Corn bread, I think" Wierzbowski (from Aliens)

 

"An army marches on its stomach" Napoleon Bonaparte

[Markdoc]

Re: How Much Food?

 

"An army marches on its stomach" Napoleon Bonaparte

 

Which is why they all froze to death on their way to Moscow. Fools! If only they'd walked instead!

 

cheers, Mark

[Teflon Billy]

Re: How Much Food?

 

Historically' date=' troops in the field have always lost weight. This was always the case until the development of the MRE. Either historic rations standards were set too low, or logistics problems kept soldiers from getting the standard level of rations once they'd been on campaign for a while.[/quote']I still lose weight in the field, even when I have access to a KBR dining facility. 18lbs so far!

 

But seriously, when I went on my last 10 day FTX humping 10-15km a day with a 45-50lbs ruck sack. I was eating 1 MRE and 3 granola bars a day. I never was able to find out how much weight I lost but it was noticeable. However, I felt fine no weakness. I wouldn't wanted to know what I would have been like after 30-40 days of that, but that's pretty easy to find out. Look at Rangers going through Ranger School. 69 Days the average weight loss is 20% many going as high as 30%.

 

TB

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: How Much Food?

 

Which is why they all froze to death on their way to Moscow. Fools! If only they'd walked instead!

 

cheers, Mark

 

Actually is was famine as much as the cold that doomed Napoleon's army. The Russians kept burning their crops in the wake of Napoleon's army to prevent the French from foraging effectively, when they got to Moscow there was nothing left there, and the supply lines were so long (especially with 1812 technology) that transporting food to the troops in the winter was impossible. Of the men Napoleon started out with, only a few thousand made it out of Russia alive.

[Old Man]

Re: How Much Food?

 

"What's this crap supposed to be?" Spunkmeyer

"Corn bread, I think" Wierzbowski (from Aliens)

 

Frost, not Wierzbowski.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: How Much Food?

 

Article: A History of Rations and Army Rations Historical Background

 

Subsistence and Army Cooks History Page

 

Civil War-era Recipes

 

COMITATVS

(Has links to roman cookery)

 

Military Rations at Answers.com

 

Any website devoted to nutritional science will very likely have way more than you need. The military sites show what people believed to be good nutrition at the time.