The Thirty Day SHTF Test Diet: Results And Conclusions

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.

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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.

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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