The occasionally weight loss in PZ is total BS

[Unamelable]

I think the game has an illogicality in weight loss/gain. Because player doesn't look to stick to the diet all the time (doesn't make the character starve to stage 2). He still always loses weight anyway. Despite the fact that in many ways the character has eaten well and almost always gets a positive mood related to food. And to stop that, the character.. Needs to stuff himself with food. Literaly. Not to mention that most of the time he needs to eat a whole freaking can of ice cream, butter and food that has a lot of fats like fish.

 

I think you need to change the calorie burn values because this is absolute lie. I had from real experience that in spite of high physical activity, and two 10 hour work breaks. I've lost five kilos from 100 kilograms. And that's in two months. Not to mention that I ate mostly standard lunches that didn't have a lot of fat.

 

And no I'm not going to talk about how "elaborate" the game's nutrition system is. Because to me the only thing that actually means is the fact that my character doesn't starve on moodles. And if it's working the way the developers intended. Let them add easier ways to stop weight loss. Not to mention gaining weight (which is easier to gain towards the end of the game after all)

 

This becomes a problem for me as I play on a save with "extremely low loot" and finding food that would give me the ability to adjust my weight is not possible. At least early game.

[puppers]

In one of my playthroughs I disabled cars and I just ate fish and it seemed to solve any problems i had regarding weight loss , there are also sandbox settings for stats decrease which i turned to very slow since I was walking a lot.  And there is nutrition option you can uncheck if you really dislike nutrition. 

 

I would wait until 42 drops since we will have animals and other food sources, I doubt it will be problematic then. 

[Ichinin]

How weight gain/loss works is poorly implemented.

 

There is a serious discrepancy between being full and having your nutrient needs fulfilled. Install the SimpleStatus mod and see how many calories you eat. You need at least 350-ish at least Calories per day to maintain your weight if you are home at your base planting crops and sitting around farting while reading books. IRL a worker (like an industrial worker, not an IT consultant) would need to consume around 1500 Calories to maintain weight.

 

You can see your current weight gain/loss on the information screen of your character, there is a Up or Down arrow shown there which indicate where your weight is heading. If you are keeping your weight just right, there won't be any arrow there.

 

Basically this: Eating food and being full (moodle) has nothing to do with sustaining your weight. If you keep running around and killing zombies - which you probably do, then you burn even more Calories and need to eat more.

 

As mentioned, the only way to see how much you need to eat is the Simple Status mod, install and use that and it will be easy to maintain weight. I try to reach zero, then i eat 1500-2000 calories and then i can just forget about food for the rest of the day.

Edited July 27 by Ichinin

[Unamelable]

11 hours ago, Ichinin said:

How weight gain/loss works is poorly implemented.

 

There is a serious discrepancy between being full and having your nutrient needs fulfilled. Install the SimpleStatus mod and see how many calories you eat. You need at least 350-ish at least Calories per day to maintain your weight if you are home at your base planting crops and sitting around farting while reading books. IRL a worker (like an industrial worker, not an IT consultant) would need to consume around 1500 Calories to maintain weight.

 

You can see your current weight gain/loss on the information screen of your character, there is a Up or Down arrow shown there which indicate where your weight is heading. If you are keeping your weight just right, there won't be any arrow there.

 

Basically this: Eating food and being full (moodle) has nothing to do with sustaining your weight. If you keep running around and killing zombies - which you probably do, then you burn even more Calories and need to eat more.

 

As mentioned, the only way to see how much you need to eat is the Simple Status mod, install and use that and it will be easy to maintain weight. I try to reach zero, then i eat 1500-2000 calories and then i can just forget about food for the rest of the day.

 

I take a big break from PZ so i right now have full vanila save just to "remember" how game works. And jeez, weight problem hit me like a truck lmao

Im on the stage of min-maxing Carpentry and Metalworking, and in 1 mounth i already lost from 80 to 72, and after 2 weeks i found butter and ice cream. I don't remember but you starting to lose health at 65?

[GodHatesHaloWaypoint]

Calories is what makes me end playthroughs early. I don't want to turn them off because realism plus not wanting to disable the weight mechanic, but at the same time they're such a constant source of annoyance with how unrealistic they work in-game that I want to disable them. In my last playthrough I cooked up a bunch of massive steak and potato stir frys and turns out that despite the massive hunger value they provide my dude gets nothing from them. Eating steak and potatoes in the apocalypse on the daily is eating like a king in my books. How can you starve to death from eating steak and potatoes? Crazy town.

[kevincalori]

I agree, the weight loss/gain system in Project Zomboid seems off. It’s frustrating to lose weight despite good food intake and positive mood. It feels unrealistic to have to eat excessive amounts of high-fat foods to stop weight loss, especially in low loot scenarios. If the system is as intended, perhaps the developers could adjust calorie burn rates or add easier ways to manage weight.

[EnigmaGrey]

People who do intense fitness end up needing to eat a lot. Far more than you'd expect.

[Hugo Qwerty]

7 hours ago, GodHatesHaloWaypoint said:

Calories is what makes me end playthroughs early. I don't want to turn them off because realism plus not wanting to disable the weight mechanic, but at the same time they're such a constant source of annoyance with how unrealistic they work in-game that I want to disable them. In my last playthrough I cooked up a bunch of massive steak and potato stir frys and turns out that despite the massive hunger value they provide my dude gets nothing from them. Eating steak and potatoes in the apocalypse on the daily is eating like a king in my books. How can you starve to death from eating steak and potatoes? Crazy town.

 

Vanilla steaks have very few calories in them (just 220). I assume you're using a mod to supply them into the late game, if so you might want to ask the modder to provide more steaks and/or adjust their calories to make them viable.  I know this used to be an issue in Hydrocraft, you could kill a cow and eat it all and still not get many calories because it was just giving vanilla steaks.

Alternatively, using Rabbit or Fish instead will dramatially increase the calories in your meals.
 

[GodHatesHaloWaypoint]

7 hours ago, Hugo Qwerty said:

 

Vanilla steaks have very few calories in them (just 220). I assume you're using a mod to supply them into the late game, if so you might want to ask the modder to provide more steaks and/or adjust their calories to make them viable.  I know this used to be an issue in Hydrocraft, you could kill a cow and eat it all and still not get many calories because it was just giving vanilla steaks.

Alternatively, using Rabbit or Fish instead will dramatially increase the calories in your meals.
 

Nah, it was early game in vanilla. I had raided the grocery store and a bunch of fridges before the power went out, so I had a large stockpile of perishable food, while also having the obese trait to extend how long it'll last. I was just shocked by how low the calorie gain was from what I had made. It just doesn't make sense.

 

I can understand the calorie burn based on what activities you're up to, but the gain from some food items just baffles me.

[EnigmaGrey]

Burn 6k cal through intense activity: eat 7.5 kg of potato or 2.5 kg of steak.

 

Lot of food you'd have to eat. Some of it is going to pass on through due to the undigestible fibre and starches in potatoes.

 

Maybe throw in some butter or oil? ... 0.3 - 0.5 kg would get you there by itself ... Hence why the classical meat and potatoes tends to be smothered in gravy and butter, not naked. It's easy to get fat that way ... not so much on meat and potato alone (ignoring blood sugar issues this would cause).

[Axiomatic]

Hunger level and short term effects -vs- Caloric intake and long term weight are two different things, both in real life, and in game. The game actually models the difference pretty well. The more experience you have in PZ, and if you pay attention to types of food, the more you'll understand which foods are good for calorie levels, and which are good for hunger issues. Protip: eat/save all the ice cream you find until elec goes out, always take/save butter, and start fishing after you've got yourself partially secure in a base location. Peanut butter, cereal and a few other non perishables are a great source of calories. 

 

I will add, a mod that lets you see exact values of your characters various states will really quickly help you understand what foods in game do what. That doesn't come with vanilla unless you have a certain perk/cooking level, so its certainly one of the harder learning curves of the game.

Edited August 17 by Axiomatic

[Unamelable]

14 hours ago, Axiomatic said:

Hunger level and short term effects -vs- Caloric intake and long term weight are two different things, both in real life, and in game. The game actually models the difference pretty well. The more experience you have in PZ, and if you pay attention to types of food, the more you'll understand which foods are good for calorie levels, and which are good for hunger issues. Protip: eat/save all the ice cream you find until elec goes out, always take/save butter, and start fishing after you've got yourself partially secure in a base location. Peanut butter, cereal and a few other non perishables are a great source of calories. 

 

I will add, a mod that lets you see exact values of your characters various states will really quickly help you understand what foods in game do what. That doesn't come with vanilla unless you have a certain perk/cooking level, so its certainly one of the harder learning curves of the game.

 

Im right now playing as a female. And for some reason, she does not have double arrow down for weight lose. Even if character starve to death it still never goes down more than 1 arrow. I literaly have 96 kilos just because i had to heal myself by eating. And that really weird.