If a regular weight person and an obese person were left on a desert island with no food, would the obese person live a lot longer bc they have stored up energy as fat? Or does it not work like that?
In: 9490
Absolutely, the obese person would live longer all things being equal. You can see a real-life example of this on season 5 of Alone. Alone has contestants see who can survive the longest in a primitive setting.
Contestants receive regular health exams. Getting dangerously skinny is a reason for getting kicked off the show for safety reasons. Sam Larson, who started the contest quite heavy, won. His win was controversial and irritated many fans as he won despite not successfully hunting (and thus not eating) a single thing besides a few mice. Despite not eating anything he outlasted everyone else.
Having watched his season, other contestants were impressive in their hunting and fishing skills and were eating lots of fish especially. Sam ate a few mice. He lasted 60 days and lost 50lbs.
There are about 3,500 calories per lb of fat. He burned about 2,900 calories per day. He was able to provide himself more calories than his fellow competitors without having to lift a finger…without having to spend calories cleaning game, cooking it, or chewing it. Having excess fat is definitely a survival advantage when food is scarce. That’s the intended purpose of it after all. We’re able to carry spare calories inside our bodies.
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