glypnir
Member
I had 3 days of solo on Outward Bound. Didn't get hungry enough to eat the inner bark of the trees or dig for worms and bugs, which was about all that offered at 7000 feet or so in Idaho in early June.
What is the hungriest you've ever been?
- Thread starter guntownuncle
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akviper
Member
26 days in the bush. Ran out of food on the 22nd day. We located a cache on the 26th day and cooked the only thing we found there. Cream of Wheat and lime Jello with raisins all mixed in the same pot. I hate raisins but I forced myself to gag the damn things down. I've never intentionally eaten a raisin since.
parallel
Member
SERE school. I lost so much weight that when I returned home my wife literally didn't recognize me.
ingmansinc
US Veteran
Survival camping and canoeing is a hobby that I enjoyed for a number of years when I was younger and healthier. A friend and I charted an adventure into the Arctic Tidewaters of Ontario in 1982. It was a two week trip and we didn't have a stove, lantern, or food. We took a canoe, pup tent, sleeping bags, knives, hatchet, lighter, fishing equipment, charts, lots of line, and heavy cloths. It was the first fourteen days of June and the temps. were near freezing. We saw one other human being during the two week period and he had been there for thirty-five years. We ate fish and anything that moved slow.
I lost twenty-five pounds during the two weeks, but don't remember being really hungry as much as craving certain foods. It was truly a great time in my life.
BarbC
Member
I did that course in North Carolina. After the solo, we had some sort of hamburger concoction that gave me food poisoning and I finished the course in the hospital.
gregintenn
Member
I've never been more than a few hours without food. It doesn't sound like much fun.
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt
Amazing what one can do with Raman Noodles too!!
USAF385
US Veteran
SERE training... but I caught on quick and the hunger didn't last more than a few days...
Not as bad as having to parachute into the ocean though... Man I'm not a fan of the water.
Not as bad as having to parachute into the ocean though... Man I'm not a fan of the water.
BruceHMX
Member
During a 20 year career can recall very few times I was hungry. The mess hall was always open. C's, T rat's, and MRE's in the field. Yeah I did have to eat those dehydrated pork and beef patties that another member said it wasen't that many of. Guess he got the pick of the box when they were dumped. I didn't.
Winter warfare at Ft Drum was fun. Cooking bunnies at the Light Fighters Course was cool too.
Divorced in July last year. I've gone for days without eating. Stress, fatigue, food becomes a second if not a thought at all.
I've found when you look at a fresh hamburger dropped on the grill and want to eat it raw you might be missing something in your diet(i.e. iron)
I'm sure some of the pro's on here can sum it up. They usually can.
Hungriest now to move on to another time and place.
Food it's overated.
Winter warfare at Ft Drum was fun. Cooking bunnies at the Light Fighters Course was cool too.
Divorced in July last year. I've gone for days without eating. Stress, fatigue, food becomes a second if not a thought at all.
I've found when you look at a fresh hamburger dropped on the grill and want to eat it raw you might be missing something in your diet(i.e. iron)
I'm sure some of the pro's on here can sum it up. They usually can.
Hungriest now to move on to another time and place.
Food it's overated.
S/W - Lifer
Member
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Ranger School sums it up. They starve you on purpose. We were told that we would be fed one 1000 calorie C-ration a day, if we could make our resupply point. The briefer also said they would take 10,000 calories a day out of the fat of our backsides. They were true to their word.
We hit the showers at the end of the course. As we scrubbed off the filth and caked-in camoflage I realized we looked like Nazi death camp survivors. Our butts were gone, our ribs exposed and cheeks hollow. Is that Smith... I dunno, it looks like Smith... that can't be Smith... Jones, that can't be Jones, but it was.
When your body runs out of fat it starts to eat its own muscle. That's when the going gets tough and the weak die off.
That experience was nearly 40 years ago, and I'm still impressed. Hunger, in a word, is terrible.
We hit the showers at the end of the course. As we scrubbed off the filth and caked-in camoflage I realized we looked like Nazi death camp survivors. Our butts were gone, our ribs exposed and cheeks hollow. Is that Smith... I dunno, it looks like Smith... that can't be Smith... Jones, that can't be Jones, but it was.
When your body runs out of fat it starts to eat its own muscle. That's when the going gets tough and the weak die off.
That experience was nearly 40 years ago, and I'm still impressed. Hunger, in a word, is terrible.
Bruce - Hang tough and give yourself some time. Things WILL get better, and some of us DO care.
Andy Griffith
Member
I've never been too darn hungry...but...
I can definitely say that I can remember from years ago, my dear mother calling us in after a day of play- I must have been 10 or 12 at the time-
Those dinners, albeit simple- usually potatoes, some roast and a biscuit or cornbread, were the most delicious food I have had, before or since.
I think it is just as much the happiness and the memories as it is the food.
I think the fact is, that having enough food makes a man feel...well..safe.
I can definitely say that I can remember from years ago, my dear mother calling us in after a day of play- I must have been 10 or 12 at the time-
Those dinners, albeit simple- usually potatoes, some roast and a biscuit or cornbread, were the most delicious food I have had, before or since.
I think it is just as much the happiness and the memories as it is the food.
I think the fact is, that having enough food makes a man feel...well..safe.
1968hawkeye
US Veteran
+ 1 for Ranger School. 41 years ago for me. I have never been that hungry since. Ranger School made Vietnam look like a Sunday School Picnic.
Hawkeye
Crazy K38
Member
I remember I was living on my own at 15 and couldn't get a job yet and I hadn't eaten in 3 days, the hunger had gone away but i was passing out daily, at 6'1" 125, I dont really have a lot of fat to burn, had no money, and I had managed to aquire some minute rice and a can of half used lemon pepper and 2 slices of cheese... well I couldn't cook.. at all... needless to say i ate burnt rice with WAY too much lemon pepper, and not nearly enough cheese to mask anything, but it kept me alive, I wish I was outside of a town at that time, but when in a big city with no transport, you do what you can
Wickahoney
US Veteran
When you smell the ketones and acidosis on your breath and realize that there isn't any more fat to burn and you are now burning muscle tissue. It's amazing how far and how hard you can go with no butt and popsicle stick arms and legs. All the time humping the M60 and the ammo and covering ground big time.
When I was 16 dad and I went deer hunting. It was just supposed to be for the afternoon, till the rest of the outfit arrived. Dad came up with the bright idea of dropping me off and havinging me walk up through Wickahoney Canyon from Lower Horse Basin Trails to Upper Horse Basin Trail and he would shoot the big buck when he cam outy the upper trail.
It took me about 3 hours to drop into the canyon from the rim and then head upp stream. It didn't take long to figure out I was sort of "In it" and day light was rapidly going. I had on a pair of Whites boots, Levis a T shirt and an unlined nylon windbreaker. I did have 25 matches, a pocket knife, 20 rounds of 257 Roberts ammo to go with the rifle and 2 licorice flavored suckers.
THe up side was there was plently of water. By day two I was darned hungry. I had also learned to light a log jam on fire in the evening rather than trying to feed a sage brush fire all night.
By day 4 I was damned hungry and decided that my cousins cows looked real good. I thought it was nice that I picked out the smallest calf I could find. After that I wasn't hungry.
The next morning I decided I really had no idea how far the upper trail really was but I knew it was 4 days back to the lower trail and another day to my grandparents ranch. So I turned around and headed home.
I was within 2 miles of my starting point when I saw a plane up very high fallowing the canyon. I lit a huge smoky fire. About an hour later a helo came down the canyon and flew me out to the top and the search party.
One of three time I ever saw my dad cry.
Funny thing, the thing I craved was fruit cake!!
We got back to the ranch and my grandmother made me sour dough flap jacks with ham and eggs.
I took a shower and went to bed. By the time I woke up my grandmother had the fruit cakes baked. ;-)
Turn out the distance in a straight line from the lower trail to the upper trail is about 47 miles of hard wlking in a straight line, if you are on the top of the rim. If you are in the canyon and have to wade the creek conctantly , getting wet every time it adds to the time and the actual distance in the canyon is 74 miles of damned hard walking. I'd actually made it within about 5 miles before I turned around.
It did teach me a very valuable lesson. After that I nevr went out hunting or hiking without being prepared to stay and survive. So I carried a small fanny pack with a space blanket, parachute line etc. It's saved my bacon and made the inadvertent stay over night a lot more comfortable.
Not even Ranger School or Jungle Survival School seem all that bad after that.
RWT
When I was 16 dad and I went deer hunting. It was just supposed to be for the afternoon, till the rest of the outfit arrived. Dad came up with the bright idea of dropping me off and havinging me walk up through Wickahoney Canyon from Lower Horse Basin Trails to Upper Horse Basin Trail and he would shoot the big buck when he cam outy the upper trail.
It took me about 3 hours to drop into the canyon from the rim and then head upp stream. It didn't take long to figure out I was sort of "In it" and day light was rapidly going. I had on a pair of Whites boots, Levis a T shirt and an unlined nylon windbreaker. I did have 25 matches, a pocket knife, 20 rounds of 257 Roberts ammo to go with the rifle and 2 licorice flavored suckers.
THe up side was there was plently of water. By day two I was darned hungry. I had also learned to light a log jam on fire in the evening rather than trying to feed a sage brush fire all night.
By day 4 I was damned hungry and decided that my cousins cows looked real good. I thought it was nice that I picked out the smallest calf I could find. After that I wasn't hungry.
The next morning I decided I really had no idea how far the upper trail really was but I knew it was 4 days back to the lower trail and another day to my grandparents ranch. So I turned around and headed home.
I was within 2 miles of my starting point when I saw a plane up very high fallowing the canyon. I lit a huge smoky fire. About an hour later a helo came down the canyon and flew me out to the top and the search party.
One of three time I ever saw my dad cry.
Funny thing, the thing I craved was fruit cake!!
We got back to the ranch and my grandmother made me sour dough flap jacks with ham and eggs.
I took a shower and went to bed. By the time I woke up my grandmother had the fruit cakes baked. ;-)
Turn out the distance in a straight line from the lower trail to the upper trail is about 47 miles of hard wlking in a straight line, if you are on the top of the rim. If you are in the canyon and have to wade the creek conctantly , getting wet every time it adds to the time and the actual distance in the canyon is 74 miles of damned hard walking. I'd actually made it within about 5 miles before I turned around.
It did teach me a very valuable lesson. After that I nevr went out hunting or hiking without being prepared to stay and survive. So I carried a small fanny pack with a space blanket, parachute line etc. It's saved my bacon and made the inadvertent stay over night a lot more comfortable.
Not even Ranger School or Jungle Survival School seem all that bad after that.
RWT
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