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Nutrition

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PlushSpiffo.pngThis article is about nutrition as a game mechanic. For a list of item's nutritional values, see Nutritional values.

Nutrition is a game mechanic in Project Zomboid redesigned and implemented in build 34. Each item of food has a quality known as nutritional value which is defined by four variables: carbohydrates, proteins, fats and calories. Each of these variables currently only have an impact on the player's weight, in which can affect fitness experience gain, endurance, speed and fragility while proteins give the "Protein Boost" for exercise. However, there were previous mentions that it would change the player in various other ways, such as strength and mental state, which are not currently implemented.[1]

Occupations & traits

Occupations

Name Starting points Major Skills Description
Fitness Instructor Fitness Instructor -6 +2 Sprinting
+3 Fitness
Starts with the Trait nutritionist.png Nutritionist trait

Traits

Name Cost Starting Weight Description
Trait nutritionist.png
Nutritionist
-4 N/A Can see the nutritional values of any food
Trait obese.png
Obese
+10 105 Slower running speed. Tire from running more easily -2 Fitness
Trait overweight.png
Overweight
+6 95 Slower running speed. Tire from running more easily -1 Fitness
Trait underweight.png
Underweight
+6 70 Low strength, low endurance and prone to injury
Trait very underweight.png
Very Underweight
+10 60 Very low strength, very low endurance and prone to injury
Trait emaciated.png
Emaciated
N/A 50 Low strength, low endurance and prone to injury
Not available during character creation

The Nutritionist: Can see the nutritional values of any food. nutritionist trait is only available during character creation, costing 4 trait points, or can be picked up for free when choosing the fitness instructor occupation. The nutritionist trait allows the player to "see the nutritional values of any food", which can normally only be seen on food that is packaged.

Nutritional value

Nutritional value defines how healthy a particular food is and the effects they'll have on the player's weight. By consuming just one type of food, the player may find themselves suffering from weight loss or weight gain, therefore altering their effectiveness to perform certain actions.

See more: Nutritional values

Weight

Weight is a player statistic presented on the Info panel, which can be toggled with the J key by default. During character creation, the player can choose between one of four traits which will determine their starting weight; if none are chosen, they will begin with the default weight of 80. Over time the player's weight may begin to vary from its starting value, in which depends on the nutritional value of the food they have been consuming and the level of exercise they've been doing. As the player's weight fluctuates, their traits will also change depending on their current weight. The game recognizes that there are actually five different traits relating to weight, rather than just the four which can be picked up during character creation, whereas the default/normal weight is considered the absence of a trait.

The different effects caused on the player, along with their weight ranges, can be seen in the table below.

Name Weight Range
Obese
Obese
100 or more
Overweight
Overweight
85 - 99
Normal 76 - 84
Underweight
Underweight
66 - 75
Very Underweight
Very Underweight
51 - 65
Emaciated
Emaciated
50 or less
Degeneration
Degeneration
(Damage)
35

Note that the emaciated trait and degeneration currently only exists in the game mechanics and therefore have no visual representation in-game.

Having either of the five traits listed above (excluding normal) gives the player an attribute recognized as "has weight trouble". A player with this attribute will not gain any fitness experience beyond level 6, whereas having the emaciated, obese or very underweight trait, they will lose the ability to gain fitness experience altogether, regardless of the current level. Experience will return to normal upon losing/gaining some weight, i.e. removing the trait.

The game files (Nutrition.class) contain a base weight of 60 for females, with varying values for gaining and losing weight; however, this has not been implemented.

Gaining weight

Gaining weight is usually undesirable, as it grants the player slower movement speed and loss of fitness. However, weight gain may be needed if the player is already underweight, which has its own set of negative effects. While exercise doesn't directly affect weight gain, it does contribute to burning calories, and thus reducing weight. Therefore, gaining weight can be assisted by walking instead of running or sprinting, not climbing (either over fences or through windows), and sleeping often. Sleeping will expend the least amount of calories compared to any other activity. For this reason, taking the restless sleeper or sleepyhead traits is recommended for players that often have trouble with losing too much weight.

Food consumption for weight gain

The foods consumed by the player are the main contributor to weight gain. Calories must be above the minimumThreshold, which will scale with the player's current weight, thus making it more difficult to gain weight the higher their weight is. The minimumThreshold can be calculated with the following equation.

1600 + ((currentWeight − 80) × 40)

The amount of weight gained is affected by the amount of calories, carbohydrates and fats consumed along with the time that has passed. This can be presented as the following equation.

△Weight = weightGainFactor × calorieProportion × timeElapsed

weightGainFactor
The carbohydrates and fats that the player consumes will accumulate and decrease slowly over time. If the player's consumed carbohydrates or fats is 400 or less, weightGainFactor will be 0.000013, but between 400 and 700, it'll become 0.000026, and above 700 will be 0.000039.
calorieProportion
Like carbohydrates and fats, calories will accumulate and decrease slowly over time, which is directly affected by the amount of exercise and type of exercise performed. calorieProportion is calculated by dividing the currentCalories by 4000. 4000 is the maximum calories, therefore if the currentCalories is above 4000 the calorieProportion will be 1.
timeElapsed
This value is the amount of in-game seconds that have passed. Therefore, 1 hour would be 3600.
Example
A player with a weight of 85 maintains 3000 calories, 500 carbohydrates and 200 fats over 1 day.
minimumThreshold = 1600 + ((85 − 80) × 40) = 1800
As their calories (3000) is above the minimumThreshold (1800), they will begin to gain weight.
The amount of weight gained is calculated:
△Weight = 0.000013 × 0.75 × 86400 = 0.84
Therefore, they will gain 0.84 weight if these values can be maintained.

It should be noted that these values are after calculating for calories burned from exercise, and are not taken directly from the foods consumed, nor is it realistic that these values will remain static over a day. These values are constantly changing, and thus the weight gained is also updating constantly.

Losing weight

Too much weight loss can lead to reduced strength and endurance and the player can become more prone to injury. Losing weight is desirable if the player happens to be overweight. Weight can be lowered by climbing over fences and through windows, chopping trees, sprinting instead of walking and avoiding sleep, which can be helped with the wakeful trait. The biggest factor in losing weight is the type of food eaten; avoiding food would lead to death. The best foods to eat are those low in calories and high in hunger, such as the following fruits and vegetables: radishes, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, onions, strawberries, berries and cherries. It will often take the player a while before they begin to lose weight after dieting, this is due to any excess calories that were consumed previously being used first. In addition to gaining underweight traits from losing too much weight, if the player reaches a weight of 35, they will begin taking damage until some weight is gained. This is usually very rare, however, it can be caused by eating only fruits/vegetables for long periods of time.

Nutrients

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are used in determining potential weight gain. This value is ignored unless the player has consumed more than 400 or 1700 carbohydrates, resulting in a multiplier of 2 or 3, respectively.
Maximum: 1000
Minimum: -500
Proteins
Proteins surplus or malus affect the amount of strength experience gained by various tasks such as exercise.
Maximum: 1000
Minimum: -500

(As of b34.5, Protein values between 50 and 300 provide a 1.5 multiplier to Str XP gain. Likewise, values below -300 apply a .7 gain penalty.)

Fats
Fats, previously called lipids, are used in determining potential weight gain. This value is ignored unless the player has consumed more than 1200 or 1700 fats, resulting in a multiplier of 2 or 3, respectively.
Calories
Calories are the main weight determining nutrient. This value must be balanced with hunger consistently, or else obesity or starvation may sneak up on the player.
Maximum: 3700
Minimum: -2200

References

See also