What is the right way to ration your food in a survival situation?

**wildernessnavigator** · 04-10-2015, 12:37 AM

You have crashed your bush plane in a remote part of the Frank Church wilderness. You aren't injured besides some bruising. Assume rescue will come in 2-3days so you stay by your plane. You barely have enough food and water for a fulfilling meal. Do you gradually eat your food, or do you wait to eat all of your food at once.

**Rick** · 04-10-2015, 01:47 AM

Hopefully you aren't sitting in your crashed plane using satellite to post here and trying to figure out what to do with your food. Your scenario is too vague to be answered. Are you on a transport filled with canned Spam or a Cessna with only a package of crackers left? How are we to know how much food you have and how many people are with you? What are your caloric needs? Did you declare a Mayday before going down? Are you smack dabbed in the middle or closer to Grangeville? Do you still have battery power? Does your radio work? Did you file a flight plan? Are you going to try to walk out or stay put? All these variables will dictate your needs. Read through this post to gain some insight.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...rio-Check-List

**crashdive123** · 04-10-2015, 05:49 AM

Only given the information you have provided, I am not overly concerned about rationing food. Two to three days of light eating is no big deal. What I am more concerned about is the time of year, weather conditions and my ability to survive exposure. Use the link Rick gave you. It will help us help you.

**hunter63** · 04-10-2015, 12:15 PM

Why assume rescue will come in 2-3 days?

You can go 3 weeks with out food.
Priorities would be shelter, (and or fire) water,....... then food.

**Seniorman** · 04-10-2015, 12:37 PM

Depending on the time of year you crash your plane in the River Of No Return Wilderness (aka "Frank Church"), if it's in the middle of the Winter, you will have much more problem than food. In the Winter, that is "mean" country and you'd be far better served staying with your wrecked plane, building a shelter and gathering firewood.

If you crashed in the late Spring, Summer, or mid-Fall, you'd find hunters and outfitters not far away and they'd help you even if an official S&R team hadn't found you first. The River Of No Return Wilderness is a popular area for hunting, hiking, horseback riding, etc., during those seasons when its not snowed in.

As for food, if you had a gun, there are both small game and large game there, plus fish in the streams.

It's a beautiful, remote wilderness but survivable if you keep your wits about you.

S.M.

**Lamewolf** · 04-10-2015, 01:00 PM

You can live 3 weeks without food, maybe 3 days without water. Hydration is more important than food but shelter is a main priority. Not familiar with the area you are speaking of, but if its cold, find or build shelter, make fire, and concentrate on finding more water. Don't eat a lot of food unless you have ample water - food requires water to digest and digestion causes further dehydration. Keeping hydrated and your core temperature right is much more important than eating at this point !

**Lamewolf** · 04-10-2015, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by Seniorman

Depending on the time of year you crash your plane in the River Of No Return Wilderness (aka "Frank Church"), if it's in the middle of the Winter, you will have much more problem than food. In the Winter, that is "mean" country and you'd be far better served staying with your wrecked plane, building a shelter and gathering firewood.

If you crashed in the late Spring, Summer, or mid-Fall, you'd find hunters and outfitters not far away and they'd help you even if an official S&R team hadn't found you first. The River Of No Return Wilderness is a popular area for hunting, hiking, horseback riding, etc., during those seasons when its not snowed in.

As for food, if you had a gun, there are both small game and large game there, plus fish in the streams.

It's a beautiful, remote wilderness but survivable if you keep your wits about you.

S.M.

Makes me wish I was lost there !

**kyratshooter** · 04-10-2015, 01:57 PM

One does not just jump in a plane and fly through remote areas of either Canada or Alaska. Survival gear in each plane is required by law.

http://www.equipped.org/ak_cnda.htm

The old Canadian rules required 10,000 calories be carried in the kit, which would theoretically be a 10 day food supply for one person.

Of course the FC area being in Idaho I suppose you can fly over it with anything, or nothing if you wish. This is not really a question about what to do after the fact, byr why was there such pi$$ poor planning before take off.

Then there are those of us that could last for about two months, with nothing but water, before we got down to "normal" weight.

I pity all you skinny guys when the starvation starts!

And you have to remember that this group is made up of people that keep 3 weeks rations in their minivan, and the thought of flying over a wilderness without adequate food is a repellant consideration and we can not understand how anyone would do such a thing.

**madmax** · 04-10-2015, 02:15 PM

I'm of the mind to eat when you have it.

**Rick** · 04-10-2015, 02:19 PM

yeah, heck I rarely leave the kitchen without proper supplies. You never know what might happen on the way to the family room. That's another reason I have Twinkies cached throughout the house.

**kyratshooter** · 04-10-2015, 03:09 PM

Now I have this all worked out mathematically. Incredible what you can do when the ground is wet and you can't mow the grass.

A pound of fat is 3600 calories.

It takes about 2000 calories to sustain life when at rest (some of us would sit here in the recliner and swear it was less)

If one is 20 pounds over the height weigh chart standards

one would not lose enough fat reserve to reach normal weight for 36 days.

So you have a month of weight loss before you even started "starving".

So the best thing to do is find a plentiful source of firewood, build a fire and sit down and chill, burning as few calories as possible and if you are found within two days you will have not lost more than a pound and a half. Less if you had a granola bar in your pocket.

And I am still trying to figure out why this pilot has less gear in his bush plane than the AAA says that drivers should keep in their automobiles for a jaunt to the shopping mall.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...973#post458973

**Rick** · 04-10-2015, 05:19 PM

Holy cow! I'm 3,240,000 calories!!!!!!! I gotta look into a diet.

**jdbushcraft** · 04-10-2015, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by kyratshooter

.

And I am still trying to figure out why this pilot has less gear in his bush plane than the AAA says that drivers should keep in their automobiles for a jaunt to the shopping mall.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...973#post458973

Maybe the plane had an REI sporting goods store and an Outback steakhouse in it but they were lost in the explosion.
Maybe the plane was being flown by monkeys who have different flight requirements.
Maybe the important part of the OP was whether to ration or eat.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

**hunter63** · 04-10-2015, 07:41 PM

Originally Posted by jdbushcraft

Maybe the plane had an REI sporting goods store and an Outback steakhouse in it but they were lost in the explosion.
Maybe the plane was being flown by monkeys who have different flight requirements.
Maybe the important part of the OP was whether to ration or eat.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Maybe it's not quite 24 hours into a 2 to 3 day wait.....IF he is logging in with a sat phone.....giving him 1 to 2 day left.

I would just eat it up.....What would you do?

**crashdive123** · 04-10-2015, 08:04 PM

Sea monkeys........its a plot by THE MAN. Sea monkeys I tell ya.

**jdbushcraft** · 04-10-2015, 08:10 PM

I would try to eat just a bit each day but I also know myself well enough to know it would last two days at best. My intent would be to try to just stop hunger pains

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

**Rick** · 04-10-2015, 09:44 PM

Ummm. How much food did you have? If you don't know that then what are you guessing at and how can you know how long it would last? You have one cracker. Oh wait, there's a whole case of MREs. Oh wait wait. I found two more cases back in the back. This whole thread illustrates the problem when someone posts a "what if" that's vaguely defined. We've gone through about a thousand of these.

**hunter63** · 04-10-2015, 10:02 PM

Lots of variables including age and gender....Case in point and an exercise in rationing.....

Deer hunting with 15 year old son.....we each had a, "all day" lunch, 2 sandwiches, chips, apple, two stick of string cheese, 2 cans soda, trail mix, jerky and hard candy.

Hunting hours are from approx. 6:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.

At about 9:00 A.M. he shows up and ask if I had any lunch left......took a sandwich, soda, apple........

Approx. 11:30 A.M.....shows up to tell me he hadn't seen anything all morning......wanted to go to lunch.....
15 year olds can eat their weight every 24 hours......

So much for rationing.....

**jdbushcraft** · 04-10-2015, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

Ummm. How much food did you have? If you don't know that then what are you guessing at and how can you know how long it would last? You have one cracker. Oh wait, there's a whole case of MREs. Oh wait wait. I found two more cases back in the back. This whole thread illustrates the problem when someone posts a "what if" that's vaguely defined. We've gone through about a thousand of these.

Or how about...

Originally Posted by wildernessnavigator

. You barely have enough food and water for a fulfilling meal. Do you gradually eat your food, or do you wait to eat all of your food at once.

The thread demonstrates some people's inability to read.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk