Military MREs to gain weight?

[Muddog]

If I'm not mistaken each meal has about 1200 calories, like half of our daily recommended?

Now if I just wanted to bulk up then why not just go get a big mac and a large, right?
Well not a big fan of fast food and while mre's might not be the healthiest choice for lunch I think they could be better then fast food per calorie anyways.

So I'm gonna try having MREs for lunch whenever the get here.
Other options would be ensure and boost, but gah do those drinks pour right through me. I'm hoping just to break even with what I burn during the day at work.

Also I blame my redneck friends for giving me sloppy joe in a pouch out in the woods for this idea..Best sloppy joe I've ever had... even if it wasn't real meat.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

What is an MRE in the context of food?

 

[mnsun]

Dried foods, being completely depleted of any enzymes fresh foods have to aid digestion, probably aren't going to help much. Maybe loading up on healthy fats is the best bet: coconut oil, avocado, nut butters, some meal replacement drinks, chicken, fish...

 

[Muddog]

It would be but I'm having issues with time. Just moved outta mom's house last year, my roomies make my diet look so healthy. Ah perhaps it's time to sit down and make some time to cook up pasta with oil or cook a roast more often.. Not really sure what to cook for greens that will sit ok.

Anyways the boxes of chemically altered plastic wrapped food is in the mail and I'll give a week of eating them for lunch a go and see how the old belly deals with it..
I just hope it goes over better then beef jerky did...

 

[AlliRuns]

Each meal contains 1200 calories if you eat everything, including the sugar packets. I don't know about US rats, but the Cdn rats are extremely difficult to digest.

 

[Ya noy]

I would eat a Big Mac first - maybe 2.

And some twinkies. Oh, wait....

 

[Muddog]

They honestly didn't phase me the one camping trip I had two meals and that was months after having my ileostomy done. They did slow things down but that's a positive in my book.

They are sorta like those *completes* the microwavable dinners that aren't frozen but found on the soup aisle of the supermarket.

 

[Price]

I guess you could, if you don't find it too taxing on your system. Though I assume if you were to get a stricture these packets would let you know fairly quickly!

Have you looked into the macros behind the rations? Like how much proteins/carb/fat it has? Only reason I ask is because (without much knowledge of these rations) I assume it's probably not balanced very well.

Either way, so long as you get more calories than you're using up you'll gain weight, so if your only goal is to gain weight then these would work so long as you eat enough of them. That said a long-term goal of a healthy diet is probably preferable. I'd still suggest gaining weight through normal foods because once you do reach your target weight you'll have already adjusted to the diet, rather than do what most dieters do and go back to something that can't sustain that weight gain/loss.

 

[Muddog]

dI'll see what the packages say when I get them. I'm guessing high protein any fat is most lightly is saturated and processed, with a relatively high sugar count as well.

I was looking into bulking diets and understand the basics of how they use them to build muscle. The disconnect is my friend's father is a retired OR nurse and has been telling me to take it easy for another few months before becoming active and going back to riding dirtbikes.

It stinks when 3 or more doctor's all give different advice!

Oh and the package of them should be here on the 5th.

 

[Price]

Awesome, definitely give us a shout if you feel like they're any good. I'd assume high proteins too considering. I know most the UK rations are fairly ok nutrition wise.

Haha, yeah it's important you find something that works and works in the way you want it to. Like my diet is different to a lot of people's here but it works for me so it's all good.

Definitely keep us updated with your weight gain once you get the packs and any problems you run in to, we might be able to help!

 

[AlliRuns]

Cdn rats are high fat, high sugar, medium on protein, and lacking on anything nutritionally sound and also lacking on taste. Never had the pleasure of trying a US rat, though heard through colleagues that they actually taste worse than ours if that's possible. Most people get constipated on rations; I had the opposite reaction and they sent me straight to the blue rocket.

I'm with the above suggestion in consuming normal foods to gain weight. Anything that is meant to have a shelf life of 3 years isn't good to put in your body.

 

[Ya noy]

Cdn rats are high fat, high sugar, medium on protein, and lacking on anything nutritionally sound and also lacking on taste. Never had the pleasure of trying a US rat, though heard through colleagues that they actually taste worse than ours if that's possible. Most people get constipated on rations; I had the opposite reaction and they sent me straight to the blue rocket.

I'm with the above suggestion in consuming normal foods to gain weight. Anything that is meant to have a shelf life of 3 years isn't good to put in your body.

There are videos on YouTube showing people opening, and consuming army rations that are 40 and 50 years old. I wouldn't trust them, but judging from the subsequent videos posted by the same individuals, they seem to have survived.

In preparation for the upcoming zombie apocalypse, my husband and I do have some long term food storage items, which we buy from the Mormons. Their facilities are open for public inspection, and their prices are a lot more reasonable. When sealed and stored in an oxygen free environment, no chemicals or artificial preservatives are needed or used.

from this link: http://www.millennium-ark.net/News_Files/Food/MRE_Fast_Facts.html

"MREs are designed to withstand harsh military transportation requirements, including airdrop with and without parachutes and storage at -60oF (-51oC) up to 120oF (49oC). Chemicals and preservatives are not used to extend the shelf life of the MRE."

MREs are not freeze dried. They're fully cooked and sealed in air tight foil packaging. Only the included drink powders need to be reconstituted with water. Most of the menu items are made using real food ingredients. They're even prepared using real sugar, instead of high fructose corn syrup. At least the ones We've used.

But MREs are also made by different manufacturers and the ones available to the public are generally not made in accordance with the same standards, or even produced by the same manufacturers, as the ones prepared for military use.

Anyone who's ever spent 10 hours, lugging a 75 lb. backpack pack straight up a mountain, will tell you that there is absolutely nothing better, than sitting down at the end of the day to an MRE. When you are starving and exhausted, MREs are ever so filling, and "melt in your mouth" scrumptiously delicious!

Much better than the Mountain House freeze dried meals, which, when you're starving and exhausted, are also pretty darn good!

 

[Muddog]

Ya Noy, is correct they are much more like the meals you find at a grocery store then the sorta stuff that came in C rats of the 80s.

The box I brought was packaged in 08 with a inspection date of 11.. So they aren't the freshest meals.

So far I've opened two up a beef patty type make your own sandwich deal with fortified breads.. and that one was well it had a smell of tuna which was a bit of a turn off and tasted like well unremarkable. I ate about half of it and said bah. The sides were mac and cheese and cheese crackers both tasted like their store brought counter parts.

I also had opened a pasta with meat sauce the pasta dish had kept well and was pretty much what you would expect from a canned pasta. The sides dear lord was hot spicy bread with cheese spread.. which was overbearing in heat.. I'm used to spiced foods and that bread was whoa.. and a cherry cobbler which had nuts in it and I have an allergy to nuts so I gave that to a roomie.. he said it was alright.. as he licked the packet clean lol.

So these have been a bit of a let down.. but I did just order some food from some guy off ebay and it's been sitting god knows where for the past 6 years lol.

Fresh MREs taste better!

 

[Ya noy]

So these have been a bit of a let down.. but I did just order some food from some guy off ebay and it's been sitting god knows where for the past 6 years lol.

Fresh MREs taste better!

I'm sorry your MREs aren't very good. They're really best for emergency survival situations, that require a high caloric diet to maintain energy levels needed for strenuous physical exertion. At the end of a physically exhausting day, where you can hardly move, much less cook, they're wonderful.

But I just cooked up a big ol pot of split pea soup with ham, candied yams with butter, honey and walnuts, along with some cinnamin apple fritters.

For breakfast, we made egg muffins with crab avocado and chia sprouts, broiled grapefruit with honey, served with homemade raspberry/banana kefir. (Kefir is similar to yogurt, only better, with more probiotics.)

All from scratch, packed with vitamins and nutrition, and OMG, so incredibly delicious, you'll want seconds, and maybe thirds. Cheaper, healthier, and after the initial learning curve, even the prep work doesn't take much.

With some experimentation, many with digestive issues have been able to minimize or even eliminate their need for meds., and controling it instead through diet/juicing/herbal supplements, as others on this sub forum are doing.

Everyone's different though, so you do have to experiment to find out what works best for your particular body chemistry, and there are no guarantees. But there aren't any guarantees with meds. either.

So after you finish up the MREs, you might want to try going Paleo, SCD, GAPS, and/or juicing.

Makesure to weigh in, so you can tell us whether the MREs helped you gain any weight.

 

[Muddog]

Heh oh I'll weigh in but I'm not expecting much.

See I don't mind cooking real food but with work and school it's hard to make time for it.

Then when I do cook my roommates never help eat it! Both of them seem to rather go eat garbage take out food then beef stew, or pork roast with green beans and yams.. I hate throwing food away!

 

[Ya noy]

Yeah, most college students live on the "beer and pizza" diet. Not bad on the short term, but will catch up with you eventually.

Trying to cook healthy for one can be a challenge, and buying in smaller sizes is far more costly on an ounce-for-ounce basis. Having to throw out food is such a waste. We make big pots and freeze most, but there's only so much room in most apt. Freezers. No easy solution, is there?

I can see why you decided to try MREs. Even the military only resorts to using them when they are in terrain where a portable kitchen isn't an option though.

My husband and I go on long distance cycle trips, several hundred miles at a time. We usually plan out a route, but it's more fun to just take off and see where we end up. Sometimes we try and find a hotel, but doesn't always happen, so we pitch a tent off the trail instead. In those situations, freeze-dried foods and MREs are light weight, and not too bad!