> so losing 20 lbs is probably a good thing. True, but you'd almost certainly die before you got to a sustainable point. Most of these experiments end because they're life threatening. Before you starve you'll run into a failure spiral. I conducted an experiment where I ate nothing but fish, foul, eggs and greens 6 days a week, and 1 day I ate normally. Combined with walking a minimum of 5 miles a day to simulate a living off the land situation. First week was fine. 2nd week I was tired all the time. 3rd week I was disoriented, couldn't concentrate and even walking a normal pace was like dragging a ton of lead. By the 4th week I had to give up because I was constantly light headed and in danger of passing out. I could barely walk up a flight of stairs. I'd only lost 15 lbs. Had this been a real situation I'd be unable to put the work in to collect enough food. This is almost certainly what happened to Chris McCandless who became too weak to get out of bed long before he died.