Subsistence Level Diet

Overview

When you live at the subsistence level, you have just enough food to keep yourself alive. The subsistence level of calories you need for basic bodily functions will vary depending on your activity level and weight. While many folks in the United States may elect to eat the minimum necessary calories, some people do not have a choice when it comes to eating at subsistence level. The U.S. poverty rate in 2009 was 14.3 percent. Worldwide, some 1.3 billion of world's 5.7 billion people live in poverty, which is 23 percent, according to the United Nations.
Identification

You can estimate your basic subsistence level of calories for one day with a simple formula. Multiply 1.3 by each 2.2 lbs. of your body weight. Then multiply this by 24 -- the number of hours in a day. Utilizing this formula, you'd need 2056 calories a day if you weigh 145 lbs.
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Considerations

If you are an active person you will need more calories. Add in 8.5 additional calories per 2.2 lbs. body weight for each hour you are active. That means a 145-lb. person who is active for two hours needs to add 1120 calories to his total, which brings the total calories to 3176.
Daily Calorie Expenditure

Daily calorie expenditure tends to be higher in populations with subsistence-level diets, according to "Evolution in Health and Disease," by Stephen C. Stearns and Jacob C. Koella. A man on average burns 3105 and a woman 2294 daily. In contrast, a man in an industrial population burns 2873 calories daily on average while a woman burns 2234. The lack of activity that brings about calorie expenditure is a large contributing factor to the obesity epidemic in the United States, whereas the additional activity in subsistence populations can contribute to under-nutrition, the authors note.
Features

Subsistence level agriculture populations have a low consumption of animal products compared to people living in industrial societies. In some of these populations, animal foods make up less than 10 percent of the diet. In America, animal foods make up about 27 percent of the diet. In Japan, animal products make up about 20 percent of the diet.
Types

The type of carbohydrate consumed in a subsistence-level population differs from the typical type consumed in America. Simple carbohydrates such as sugar or refined flour make up a minute portion of the diet in most subsistence populations. In the American diet, most of the carb calories come from simple carbohydrate sources. In fact, simple sugars make up 19 percent of calories and refined grain 20 percent. Refined grains and sugar cause much quicker rises in your blood glucose levels than whole foods, note Stearns and Koella. Eating this way, over time, can lead to metabolic syndrome, characterized by diabetes, overweight, high blood pressure and heart disease, the authors note.
Effects

In subsistence-level populations, people weigh less on average. The average weight for a man is 127.6 lbs. and the average weight for a woman is 113.5, according to Stearns and Jacob. That compares to 154.2 lbs. for a man in an industrial society and 129 lbs. for a woman in an industrial society.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/322930-subsistence-level-diet/#ixzz1QG67F9LK