[hbvvvvgff]

The only way to actually survive is to hunt big game. Fish is too lean. Vegetables have no calories. Small rodents have very few calories. Fatty meat is a necessity.

In alone, they are forced to transport heavy camera equipment. They start out right before winter. The local laws prevent them from actually hunting. The show is a joke. There is no surviving actually done. Just enduring starvation. The optimal way to win is to select fatty food as many of your 10 items as possible, make a shelter, and expend as few calories as possible. But that isn't entertaining to watch, so they won't select you to be on the show.

[ceejayoz]

> Vegetables have no calories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staple_food

"Typical examples include tubers and roots, grains, legumes, and seeds."

Yeah, don't go scarfing iceberg lettuce when stuck in the woods, but we've been finding and eating starchy root vegetables for probably millions of years.

[adrianN]

We've also spend a tens of thousands of years selectively breeding plants to produce more calories. You won't find such calorie rich wild plants. Foraging for plants is really hard.

[ceejayoz]

We started breeding them presumably because they offered clear nutritional benefits. That we made them better doesn't change this.

[mhotchen]

Not to say there isn't nutritional benefits to wild wheat and carrots and whatever (I've no idea to be honest), but I don't think the nutritional value was at the front of their mind when our ancestors began understanding agriculture. If it stopped them being hungry I think that's all that mattered, because it was the wilderness and that's basically all wild animals think about. I can definitely see it being a supplement to hunting initially, in order to reduce the number of hunts required, and only afterwards as we made improvements to our techniques and crops would the nutritional requirements from the crops become a focus point.

I don't know shit about this topic though, I'm just trying to put myself in their shoes (or feet as the case would be).

[whycombagator]

> The only way to actually survive is to hunt big game.

The article suggests the family did not hunt big game for the first 20+ years:

> It was not until the late 1950s, when Dmitry reached manhood, that they first trapped animals for their meat and skins

So they apparenrly survived for 20+ years without hunting

[mod]

I think optimal strategy was to be overweight to start, and to have a good mental plan to persevere.

The Patagonia season made it apparent that people were finally preparing mentally to stick it out. And what happened? 2 contestants removed for being to skinny, and the chunkiest guy won. I really liked him, not knocking him, but if they were all the same body fat % to start I'm not sure he'd have been the winner. The girl who got 2nd was absolutely not prepared to quit.