Eating the Butter

When humans are in polar environments trekking across ice, they have to burn massive calories to stay warm and fueled for the activity. There are lots of options for calories but only a few efficient ones. Butter is one of those calorie sources. It is suggested, based on experience, to consume 6,000 calories per day to maintain weight. Much less than that and the body begins shedding massive amounts of weight.

Prior to my butter going bad, I had only lost 5 pounds. Once the butter died (went off, in British vernacular), I dropped 20 pounds in a mere two weeks. I lost 10-15% of my calories per day when the butter failed. It was amazing how rapidly the weight came off. However, Antarctica is a place where losing weight is really bad.

When the weight burns down, staying warm becomes difficult. Fat reserves really do work well for insulation. And, once the stuffing comes off, the harness begins to dig into bones rather than riding on a nice layer of fat. My clothing ended up being two sizes too big, too. It looked absurd, really. As though as I was a little kid wearing my dad's clothing.

Every day up until the butter failed, I was eating an 8 ounce block of butter every day. That is, the equivalent of two American sticks of butter. One block for breakfast and then one during the day. For the snack time butter stick, I ate the butter directly, not spread on toast or anything. Just like a block of cheese. A la the Zits comic above.

Yum!