the ideal weight for survival

DezertSkies, first you had me thinking this guy is in fantasy land talking about wrestling alligators and bears, and what does that have to do with survival. Then I read further and figured, wow, I guess this guy does this stuff, working with animals, for a living. Bet there's an interesting story behind the temporarily detached finger.

I've worked with animals since i was a kid. I' ve probably got more social interaction with other species than with humans in my lifetime. As a kid, i always had a collection of reptiles, monkeys, and other unusual critters. Growing up i worked with lots of different kinds of animals, both in the wild and with captive raised animals. There's a few people on tv these days doing stuff with animals, we all hung out together as kids.

I don't suggest the average cityslicker go out wrestling gators or jumping out of trees onto deer with a bowie knife, but if you're capable (you know who you are) then these are considered survival options. Sometimes depending on what you're doing, it can benefit to have 250lbs of leverage to do battle with a 10 foot gator trying to break your leg with a swipe of it's mighty (tasty) meat filled tail. At 180lbs that gator can toss you off balance a lot easier, at 250, you can absorb the gator's tailsnap and still stand solid and firm.

I've worked with animals at a sanctuary where we took in orphaned exotic animals. If a zoo went out of business, we usually got the animals. If a drug dealer got busted and they confiscated a lion or something like that, we got it. I worked with 150 large cats on a daily basis, as well as a whole slew of primates, bears, lemurs, bearcats, birds of all sorts, reptiles, both venomous and non, and a whole assortment of small critters like coati, capybara, cavy, and other weird little critters.

with knowledge and skill, capturing a 6' gator is not as dangerous as it sounds, and using the techniques the Seminole used, one could easily harvest enough gator meat to keep several people fed. Between that, and harvesting frogs, snakes, crawfish, turtle, and other small critters that live in the places you'd find gators, it'd be easy for a skilled hunting party of 3 or 4 to feed a decent sized village when it comes to meat. If you know how it's easy, and if you have the body weight to do so, it becomes extremely easy.

Whatever your size and body type though, make sure you use it to it's potential. If you weigh 90lbs take advantage of it by becoming a skilled climber, and learn how to stalk animals unobtrusively. If you weigh 300lbs, learn how to make that weight work for you, and a weakness can become a strength. Being 300lbs means you can drag large animals around, or heft some good sizable pieces of building material into place to build a solid shelter.

Haha, yeah, the finger. Right before i started at the sanctuary, i was working in the kitchen. Some glass fell off a shelf broke, and a heavy piece guillotined my finger, cut all the important stuff like nerves, tendons etc leaving only the bone. Kinda dumb, but it kept me one handed for almost two years.

"Everyone listens when the one armed zookeeper speaks" -Me

I still work in the kitchen, it'll take more than cutting off a few appendages to keep me away from cooking. That's my passion and i can't believe i get paid to do it.

Haha, yeah, the finger. Right before i started at the sanctuary, i was working in the kitchen. Some glass fell off a shelf broke, and a heavy piece guillotined my finger, cut all the important stuff like nerves, tendons etc leaving only the bone. Kinda dumb, but it kept me one handed for almost two years.

"Everyone listens when the one armed zookeeper speaks" -Me

I still work in the kitchen, it'll take more than cutting off a few appendages to keep me away from cooking. That's my passion and i can't believe i get paid to do it.

I have a BMI of about 20 (going off my Diver medical) so for long distance stuff I don't have a problem. The downside
Ran/speed marched marathons before carrying a day sack no problem, but I was in my early 20s then not 30 like I am now.

The big bulky and beefy guys will suffer in SitX IMO.
They will be used to fatty food and lots of it.
I'm not saying that cause I'm a skinny runt but cause it's what I've seen.
Food will be a scarce resource. If you look at the olde worlde pictures you'll notice how small folk were back then. Big guys were less common back then.

However for fit and heathy folk who are big builds they can carry a lot more than I could.
So where my bail-out bag only contains the essentials and few goodies, the big guys can cram a lot more into them.
A final point to consider is that the old saying of 'The bigger they are the harder they fall' has got to be one of the biggest cons going. Unless it's regarded a falling guy whose just been shot or something.

Big guys will typically be more dangerous fighters 1 on 1 than us skinny dudes in an unarmed fight. Even with weapons to even the odds the weight a big guy can put behind a hand weapon will give him an edge in a fight.
I know some of us have martial arts but in a survival situation I think most of them will be less useful than we think we'll be wearing layers of kit and be fighting for survival not flamboyance.

Originally posted by WatchRider

Big guys will typically be more dangerous fighters 1 on 1 than us skinny dudes in an unarmed fight. Even with weapons to even the odds the weight a big guy can put behind a hand weapon will give him an edge in a fight.
I know some of us have martial arts but in a survival situation I think most of them will be less useful than we think we'll be wearing layers of kit and be fighting for survival not flamboyance.

I don't think big guys typically have the advantage, or are more dangerous. Big guys are usually slower and telegraph all that power they're making to put a fist through your skull IF they connect. A big guy who uses strategy is a VERY dangerous foe.

As a big guy, i'd be more worried about having to confront a small, quick, wiry individual. I know several people literally half my size or even smaller, that i'd be very hesitant to engage hand to hand, because it would be like fighting an enraged chimpanzee.

I've had big guys swing at me, and i usually end up taking my time when it comes to avoiding, and just tilt my head and let the fists hit air while remaining calm, that usually ends the drunken turd looking to toss hooks from going much further.

That, and with experience dealing with animals, after wrestling a 300lb bear into a full nelson and immobilizing it, folding a feeble little human in half is a simple task. Last time i had to restrain someone i did exactly that, used brute strength to fold some clown in half, head down, arms pinned in between his legs, knees pinned to ribs, i just carried him down the block like a sack of potatoes and tossed him out of the hood.

I would say that no matter what you look like before or during situation 'x' you will not stay like that for long if you can maintiain survival.

In the north, you want to look like this

In the hot souths



In the jungles and forests

Far south


AND IN LARGE CITIES?
Dont matter is your fat or thin. Your doomed in situation x. Good luck.



[edit on 16-5-2008 by IvanZana]

[edit on 16-5-2008 by IvanZana]

Its not so much the fat or weight you carry around, its your level of physical fitness and mental fitness that are going to carry the day. It would not take many days of low food intake in a situation X scenario for your body to start using up its fat/energy reserves.

You could call a Situation X 'The Stress Diet'.

Remember, you need fat for energy. The ideal survival food is in fact bars of lard ...... Yes, i know its disgusting and it would likely make you vomit anyway, but its a fact. Lard is one of the easiest forms of food that your body can convert to energy. Its all about calorie consumption and energy conversion. Think about it ...... Why do you cover the peanuts you put out for the birds in Lard?

Your body stores energy in your liver and muscles. Your Liver is your powerhouse. It normally uses the energy from your liver first before resorting to your 'other fat/energy' stores. It is much more harder for your body to convert the energy stored in your muscles back into a useable energy source which is called Glucagon.

Going back to mental fitness, although the brain represents only 2% of the body weight, it receives 25% of total body glucose utilization. The energy consumption for the brain to simply survive is 0.1 calories per minute.

Low amounts of energy in the body not only slows you down physically, but also mentally, whereby you could make the wrong judgement calls.

It is also a well known fact that in survival situations, especially long-term ones, women are more likely than men to survive in starvation situations due to their higher fat reserves.

So far no one has answered this correctly so I will explain.

You have three different types of fat.

1. Structural fat. This supports the organs and is essential. During a shutdown of the body this will be burned to get the last few hours out of the organism for a last chance at rescue etc. When this is burning there will be a lack of cognitive function and also a burn of raw muscle tissue. The last hours before death.

2. Normal fat. This is a layer under your skin and it contains on the average a week to ten days of nutrition. You begin to burn this after there has been no intake for a couple of days. All of this will burn before structural fat and muscle is consumed.

3. Abnormal fat. This is the spare tire and mud flaps. It will all burn after the normal fat in most cases, but its very complex and controlled by a tiny region of the brain. It is a different functioning in everyone.

In every case if the person is fit enough to do day to day activities and occasionally work on keeping the heart rate up and some form of fitness, one would be far better off to have the stored food with them in its most compact and ready to use form over carrying lots of extra rations.

This was all concluded by Dr.Simeon in the 1950s with the discovery of HCG hormone and its function in pregnant women's weight loss after giving birth. We all have HCG, its just how much and how the brian choses to make and use it.

What is fat? It is a combination of stored fuel with the proper amounts of vitamins and minerals to allow it to be used as a sole source of food if needed.

The long and short of it is when the day comes the fat will eat the skinny well before they lose weight and die on their own. All omnivores will resort to cannibalism, when the population is food stressed.

When food stops the fat become more fit and the skinny become sickly. The predator and prey lines are clearly draw in the sand.

Personally I think I will take up insects if it get to that, but we know what the unprepared will resort to......


[edit on 8-6-2008 by Illahee]