[Freedom4US]

Not 10k

The US Army determined “heavy exertion” needs 4,500 calories. Something like that. And when they classify “heavy” exertion, they know what they are talking about. The USDA 2000 calorie RDA is intended for moderately active individuals, most people can easily gain weight with those nimbers, especially elderly or sedentary.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"The US Army determined “heavy exertion” needs 4,500 calories"

Funny you mention that. The US Army has done a lot of physiological work and modeling to determine how much weight a soldier can carry, how far, food needs, etc. For example, see "Modeling the Metabolic Costs of Heavy Military Backpacking.

I'm working on preserving muscle mass in my 70s and shedding weight. So, when I hike with a pack in the mountains and hills, I'm interested in my calorie burn. I found the app I use ("MapMyRun") is wildly optimistic, so I started researching calorie burn models and found three: METs, American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and the Army's "Load Carriage Decision Aid (LCDA)." I started plugging my hike data into the models and getting much better numbers with pretty close agreement. Eventually, I used Grok, ChatGPT and Claude to write a program that does all the work for me.

[Deaf Smith]

I quit working 1.5 years ago and at the time needed 5K calories to maintain 178lbs over the years.

I have dropped my intake to 2K calories and am at 182 lbs @ 5’ 11 1/2”.

[PIF]

Not 10k The US Army determined “heavy exertion” needs 4,500 calories. Something like that. And when they classify “heavy” exertion, they know what they are talking about. The USDA 2000 calorie RDA is intended for moderately active individuals, most people can easily gain weight with those numbers, especially elderly or sedentary.

—

Except the military diet is no where near the activity level of the old time [ late 19th and early 20th century ] loggers, nor is the food they consumed anything like a modern diet the military estimate is based on.

If you had ever worked in the woods or been a commercial fisherman, you would know the truth of the 10k calories needed. Its not just the falling of the trees, its walking through heavy brush uphill carrying the saw, your food and water, for 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week.

Go watch an episode of Timber Titans or The Last Woodman and spot the fat faller or Deadliest Catch and spot the fat deckhand.