13 seconds per Calorie

[Guest guest]

I am not sure we are looking at the problem correctly. Of course,

there are many ways of looking at it. Here's my take on it:

If you live another 50 years then you will be consuming calories for

all those years. So, let's compare total calories consumed during a

lifetime.

I am going to assume the average male on this group consumes about

1850 calories. Assuming they consumed about 2500 before, this is a

reduction of 650 calories, or 26%. Most don't start until later in

life (30+), so let's assume that they only get an extra 20 years on

average - which may be more reasonable. I think average age for a

male is about 75, so this makes our CR male who started at 30 living

to an age of 95.

This makes our calculations as follows for Ad-Lib:

75 (years) * 365 (days) * 24 (hours) * 60 (minutes) = 39,420,000

minutes.

75 (years) * 365 (days) * 2500 (calories) = 68,437,500 calories.

Therefore, an Ad-Lib person has a C/L (calorie/life) ratio of:

39420000 (minutes) / 68437500 (calories) = 0.576 minutes per calorie.

Doing similar calculations for our CR male after he begins CR

(obviously his numbers are the same before that), we find:

95 (years of life) * 365 (days) * 24 (hours) * 60 (minutes) =

49,932,000 minutes

65 (years of CR) * 365 (days) * 1800 (calories) = 42,705,000 calories.

Plus the pre-CR part:

30 (years of AL) * 365 (days) * 2500 (calories) = 27,375,000 calories.

For a total calories consumed of: 70,080,000 calories

Therefore, our CR male has a C/L ratio of:

49,932,000 (minutes) / 70,080,000 (calories) = 0.7125 minutes per

calorie.

So each calorie saved after age 30 will give us an improvement in C/L

of .0875 minutes. So we are saving 5.25 seconds per calorie over the

lifetime. However, it may well be that my initial assumptions about

lifespan are off slightly, and the total calories consumed for both

AL and CR lives are exactly the same. This implies that we all eat

the same numbers of calories in our lifetime, which I highly doubt.

However, it would be prudent to re-do the calculations for just the

CR portion of the lifespan to see what time we gain once CR begins:

This makes our calculations as follows for Ad-Lib:

45 (years) * 365 (days) * 24 (hours) * 60 (minutes) = 23,652,000

minutes.

45 (years) * 365 (days) * 2500 (calories) = 41,062,500 calories.

Obviously, their C/L ratio is still 0.576 minutes per calorie.

Doing similar calculations for our CR male after he begins CR, we

find:

65 (years of CR) * 365 (days) * 24 (hours) * 60 (minutes) =

34,164,000 minutes

65 (years of CR) * 365 (days) * 1800 (calories) = 42,705,000 calories.

Therefore, our CR male after he commences CR has a C/L ratio of:

34,164,000 (minutes) / 42,705,000 (calories) = 0.8 minutes per

calorie.

So each calorie saved after age 30 will give us an improvement in C/L

of .224 minutes (13.44 seconds). So we are saving 13 seconds per

calorie, which seems like a more reasonable number to me. And I

think this is a number that is real and practical to the people

practising CR. Obviously, your own number will change according to

when you started CR. This is like the sleep number adverts :-)

What's your CR number?

All this, of course, is assuming we gain 20 years for a 26% reduction

in calories. I included all of my workings so people can tell me

where I went wrong.

Katrina.