The average person can go 40 days without food before drawing on protein reserves.

But let's see how much work you are capable of doing after that first week. I saw David Blaine sit in a box for 40 days without food, but how long do you think he would have lasted if he was working instead of sitting?

Try this: Don't eat anything for the next seven days. And during those 7 days, I want you to be doing physical labor. Then come back here and tell me how important food really is.

If you work, you'll last less. Once your body goes into a 'fasting' mode (a week to 10 days) you no longer feel hunger. Your body changes and feeds on itself.

I think what hes talking about is is a survival situation( he said "just in case the day ever comes when I need to.")if thats the case, I doubt the local game warden would have the time to track him down, he would be to busy taking care of his own needs.As far as learning now, I would suggest reading books, practice setting the snares, learn where the best places to set them are, learn from someone that already knows.
Raydarkhorse, Hacksaw and Blaze hit the nail on the head.

The biggest thing to learn beforehand is the habits, preferences, and tendencies of the animals you want to trap.

But why are you bothering with snares? I you're in the country already, you could lay in a store of proper quick-kill traps and start working with them.

For that matter, you could lay in some live-catch traps. If you develop techniques that work with those, you'll be well prepared for tougher times.

(Hmm, and if you could live trap hares, a buck and a couple of does, that's possibly an endless protein supply ...)

"Your body feeds on itself." That hardly seems like something that would increase one's chances of survival.

It seems to me that one who has eaten has a better chance of survival than one who is starving. Maybe the starvation in the 40 day period wouldn't be what directly caused an injury or death, but it is potentially a contributing factor.

I wonder if anyone here can provide a link to either studies or stories of survival and the role food played.

Anecdotally, I've gotten so cold in a non survival situation that I couldn't sleep and was miserable. I got up, ate something, warmed right back up, and slept soundly. It's hard to believe that food doesn't play a significant role in survival.

The knowledge that people can last somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 days w/o food does however seem like it might help the informed from giving up hope.

Lastly, while I definitely would not place food first on my list of survival priorities, I think it's a mistake to discount it.

Well, I just have one more thing to say in this thread, and then I'm done with it.

The longest I have ever gone without any food whatsoever was 72 hours. I was not in a survival situation. I was just testing myself. I do physical labor for a living. So during those 72 hours I did 24 hours of labor (8 hours a day).

I was completely worn out.

So let's imagine that it's been a week since I last ate. I've been working hard the entire week. I had to build a shelter. I had to collect firewood regularly. I had to search for water. And I've been putting a lot of effort into trying to get some food. Luckily for me the weather has been perfect so my life has been easy in that regard (god help me if I was both starving and freezing).

At that point my body is screaming, and no doubt my mental state is slipping somewhat. That's a BAD situation to be in. I don't give a damn what anyone says in their survival book. As far as I'm concerned, food is just as important as water.

A similar approach could also be taken when fishing, use a reel and rod to catch fish or use a Gill net. Gill nets are much more efficient ways of catching fish, indeed so efficient thats why they are illegal in many places.

Hunting using legal methods are there for a reason. Most inhumane ways of killing wildlife are illegal. The reasoning behind this is that any method of killing and capturing animals which is indescriminate is illegal, so is the long and lingering painful death of the animal, which has happened to come across your snare. The Gill net is indiscriminate and so is the snare. Snaring is a cruel method of hunting if it can be called hunting in its sporting sense at all.

I would suggest taking up Ironravens points. Take note of your local, state or national hunting legislation. Don't fall foul of the law and if the skills you require for long term survival are really required then legal hunting is probably the best way to go. Same with the legal methods of fishing using a rod and reel.
By doing this you will know the behaviour and locations of the animals and fish you are legally hunting in much more detail. This knowledge is much more important that knowing how to tie some wire to a stick pushed into the ground.

Rationing food is one of the worst things you can do. If you eat less than your body needs each day your body will begin burning fat but won't do so in a proper 'fasting' mode and you'll last way less than 40 days...and you'll always feel hungry and miserable. You should eat the food you have early and use that energy to build a good shelter and collect a boat load of firewood...then relax and conserve energy while waiting to signal that plane or boat. If you expect to be out longer than 40 days, then the whole scenario changes.

The information I have on this comes from the courses I've taken at the Boreal Institute. There is also a fantastic book about this kind of information but I forget the name...I'll post it when I get home.

Now that is the most counter intuitive thing I've ever heard, but if correct highly important. Please do post that book title.

HJ