Calorie count when preparing your food preps is important as we basically need energy to survive, simple as that. As a very rough guideline, the average sedentary male needs approx. 2000 calories a day, and the same average female 1800...a very rough guideline to start from. Whats more important is getting balanced meals and covering a wide variety of nutrients, vitamins, etc. When preparing your rice and beans, just remember that a variety of food is important. Counting calories alone will not give you what you need.

Thecrownsown thanks for adding to my post. I clearly did not post all that was needed. I was hoping this will give something for others to think about.

Thecrownsown thanks for adding to my post. I clearly did not post all that was needed. I was hoping this will give something for others to think about.

It is a good topic to think about. Really good. Because food is one of those essential needs. Without food...energy...the game is over. Consider the length of time you have to prep for...say 1 month for just someplace to start. 2000 calories a day per adult. So for arguments sake say that is 4000 calories a day to start. Plus you might be more active moving, etc. during an emergency event building sandbags around your house for an impending flood or whatever..so lets be conservative and say for a couple, 5000 calories a day. That 5000 needs to have a balance of carbohydrates, proteins, you need a balance of vitamins, minerals, etc. 5000 calories x 30 days. It starts to add up. And when making long term food storage decisions...can get a bit scary trying to prepare for 6 months...a year into the future. When your preparing food stores its imperative to keep a count of the potential energy your going to get out of it (calories), and which foods have particular nutrient density.

I guess what I'm saying...is justdoit...your right. This is such an important topic. Where to start.... Perhaps the Canadian food guide as a template...and model your food stores as best as possible around that....with the understanding that as food is processed more...be it dehydrated, freeze dried, powdered...whatever...it loses more and more of its original benefits....

I just had concern when i read folks are buying in huge bulk flour and rice and beans and not mentioning anything else.. Really that would be a great way to slowly starve yourself.. We do heirloom seeds and harvest a bunch for the next year. Some folks think our place is a mess int he spring but its preps for the garden.. To get the best out of it. Please folks.. Join in.. This is important for everyone. Toss out ideas.. We all over look something..

I would think your immediate personal environment and how you manipulate it also makes a difference to your caloric needs to maintain body heat in various times of year . Do you work off calories in spring and summer stacking wood and putting up food for winter and then hibernate ? Are you invested in lots of appropriate clothing for the seasonal weather ? ... house design ...
Short term you might get by fine with packaged storage food rounding out your caloric intake but i know I will be in agony if I don't look at stuff like what can be stored in cool room like a root cellar , squash , potatoes, turnips, beets, cabbage and so forth as a good percentage of those daily calories plus sprouting . and year round gardening as we can .
I happen to believe that changing our diet to organic and higher raw consumption is one of the best prepper tactics to better your chances of survival here and now. To hedge against disease and degeneration which are what I see as the first and biggest threat to your quality of life. Long term survival in a crisis situation or a changed circumstance of survival , calories in make animal protein more critical to me .

So short term a years supply of oats is great but long term I need to be growing food and adapting lifestyle in ways to conserve calories too.

Wonderful topic. It's the fresh, nutrient-dense foods that will be more problematic in the long-term. Growing our own food and eating sprouts are important, but knowing how to forage and what plants are edible is also crucial in tough times. How many edible plants can you identify? What greens do you know of? How do you eat/cook them? This is important for if/when things get really bad. I know in the Great Depression, many people used to forage for dandelions and other wild foods, but that knowledge was a lot more common back then. I know I am making sure my kids know how to grow food and how to identify wild edibles.

Great comment Syn as I also believe that organic is a huge help. Not only does your immune system get amped but you are also giving your body time to adjust to a leafy green/raw diet that is all your going to get in the wild or when the store are empty. Its not really getting to like the leafy/ raw diet but for me it was more of the transition from the lifestyle of the norm to this style of eating. Its also plane to see that game will need to be lynched to accomodate the higher caloric needs IMO so its kinda laid out nicely in that you will need to forage and hunt to obtain the necessary requirements. Great place to start your preparedness 😉
I personally have adopted the lower end of the scale to put me more in the window of less. I have done the same for the pets as well. Kids still get all they can swallow LOL but they also understand that we are blessed with a good life and thats no reason to overextend our gullets now because we can.

I think 2500-3500 calories depending on the size of the individual is a good place to start however you are right it DOES depend on the environment and other factors. I would shoot for the same number and if you require less do to demands it goes to the foodbank and next weeks vision and supply. Cant have enough.

Good post!

Hi. New person again.
It can be really difficult to either grow or forage enough fresh foods to meet calorie bases. Food forests with a nut base or areas where tubers exist naturally can help or do the job, but foragers should give it a shot for a week and a month during the end of each season to really get an idea of what is feasible. Greens - garden, wild, or tree-based - really don't have many calories.

Salad food is diet food. Consider looking at things like the "gorilla diet" for ideas about how much energy is available in those foods.

Emergency Essentials (I'm not associated with them) has a food storage analyzer that's nice in a variety of ways. It takes info about age and sex and comes up with a daily calorie count. You can then input foods they sell as well as your own. They have a limited grocery section, but you can type in any nutrition label you like. It will then give you a day count divided by calorie and a listing of the nutritional qualities/composition of the food storage.

A lot of the 500 pound LDS-style one-year plans are very similar. I went through and typed in one that at least included some fats and some jams. At 2000 calories, it covers a year for calories easily, but there are some pretty severe deficiencies. The attachment shows those results (I hope, just like I hope I can get the attachment in). Again, that's one of the more common LDS-type "calculator" food systems at 2000 calories (it originally said "pounds" - my bad). A 35 y/o guy who is moderately active may be burning 2400-2800. A teenaged boy or young man may be hitting 3000.

That's the kind of thing growing and foraging can more readily accommodate for most of us. The calorie base is grains and beans, and then we grow the bright veggies and sprouts and forage greens and flowers and fruits to help make up nutritional value and to add variety/interest and flavor to the basic staples.

Sorry it's a long one again.
-P

I think 2500-3500 calories depending on the size of the individual is a good place to start however you are right it DOES depend on the environment and other factors. I would shoot for the same number and if you require less do to demands it goes to the foodbank and next weeks vision and supply. Cant have enough.