My Math Must Be Wrong

So, if the Calorie Restriction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction) people are right - or even partly right - let's say someone who would ordinarily live to 70 on a 2500 calorie diet would make it to 90 on a 2000 calorie diet. (This is actually a pretty tame claim compared to what some CR people say.) That means those 70 years of 500 surplus calories a day took 20 years off of Scenario A's life. 70 years * 365 days/year * 500 surplus calories/day = 12,775,000 calories. Cost him 20 years. 12,775,000 calories / 20 years = 638,700 surplus calories / year lost. 638,700 calories/year / 365 days/year = 1750 surplus calories / day lost. 1750 calories/day / 24 hours/day = 70 surplus calories per hour lost.

WHAT? That extra slice of bread just cost me an hour of my life? That's worse than smoking! (They say a cigarette takes anywhere from 3 - 20 minutes off, depending on who you ask.) Here's an idea - smoke that cigarette to keep your appetite down so you don't eat that highly toxic slice of bread - you just added forty minutes to your life.

Did I forget a divide in there somewhere?


In a side note, Kurt Vonnegut died of an accident despite smoking all his life. One of those guys where smoking turned out to be the right choice all along - it didn't take a minute off his life (although maybe it gave him a nasty cough or something)! He got to enjoy that nicotine rush for all those years and didn't have to pay for it. Kind of like the guy who goes for the inside straight and actually wins - Kurt got a bad beat over on us all.