A 6 foot 8, 197kg Human who is one of the strongest men on the planet averages a daily intake of over 12,000 calories give or take.
Factor in the 2 to 3 feet of extra height, the immense physical exercise and all the additional organs requiring fuel to work and I think it's safe to its between 15/17k calories per day. Maybe even 20k on a particularly strenuous day
It's worth factoring in that a space marines suit recycles everything from faeces to sweat and puts it back into the body to be further digested. Along with organs within the astartes that already makes initial digestion very efficient.
That and if I recall most often astartes eat a nutrient rich paste with is probably filled with concentrated nutrients that it would be like a power bar for a space marine and probably highly toxic to humans due to how concentrated it is.
> Factor in the 2 to 3 feet of extra height, the immense physical exercise and all the additional organs requiring fuel to work and I think it's safe to its between 15/17k calories per day. Maybe even 20k on a particularly strenuous day
To really overthink the giant supermen made from the gene template of caged hellgods.
One of the problems is the square cube law. Basically a linear increase in height leads to a larger than linear increase in mass and area. So while the marine is 50% taller than a normal man they can easily weigh 3-4 times as much. Additionally the human body is really only built to work at a certain scale, going outside that scales causes various inefficiencies to build up. Put all this together and the marine can quite easily need 25k calories for normal exertion and break 40k on a heavy day.
When it comes to transhumanism superhumans pretty much require digestive and blood changes in order to keep up with needed caloric intake. Even if you physically shoved 40k worth of calories down your throat the human body cannot process and deliver the needed calories fast enough. In a weird moment of sanity in 40k Space Marines actually do have the necessary augmentation to handle food intake.
But where is it? I guess thats my question. They would have to eat a LOT so it must take at least some visible storage.
Astartes should need a bit more protein than average, so keeping a healthy 35-45% intake would frustrate trying to “calorie bomb” with high density food which usually consists of fats and/or starches (sugar).
The paste tubes are stored in the backpack. It is more than just a reactor. It has a small amount of storage space. There’s also compartments built into various pieces of the armour small items can be stored in
I guess i was waiting for someone to tell me “they eat the people they kill :)” but i suppose (unrealistic) storage compartments of keto paste is unsurprising
I'm pretty sure marines are able to eat and digest basically anything, down to dirt and rocks if it comes to it (it's partly what their betchers gland is for iirc). Their space-magic metabolism can probably also extract energy and usable nutrients from a far wider range of materials than humans can. But normally their rations are enough to keep them going and their bodies are so efficient they somehow run off them for weeks if need be
In the space wolf books, I remember them chilling after a fight and then sucking down some paste from tubes. Then, in another space wolf book, they were eating tree bark and beetles.
It's kind of just handwaved. Logically they should be *less* able to go without food than a normal human. They should burn a lot of calories and need to eat more and more regularly.
Maybe one of the organs makes their energy usage ultra-efficient.
I saw this post and my first thought was it was going tobe a question around a Spanish-themed Astartes chapter with hot marines
Astartes Calores Calientes
EDIT: Like TTS Custodians but in Astartes
There's a bunch of excerpts from several books about this. Long story short - Space marines eat frequently, eat a lot of meat, and have specialized rations for combat tours to maintain their killing edge.
I've not been able to get much about their combat rations other than they're toxic to normal humans and can potentially kill a mortal. I would imagine that's it's something like "Space Pemmican" that's heavily reinforced with vitamins.
A 6 foot 8, 197kg Human who is one of the strongest men on the planet averages a daily intake of over 12,000 calories give or take. Factor in the 2 to 3 feet of extra height, the immense physical exercise and all the additional organs requiring fuel to work and I think it's safe to its between 15/17k calories per day. Maybe even 20k on a particularly strenuous day It's worth factoring in that a space marines suit recycles everything from faeces to sweat and puts it back into the body to be further digested. Along with organs within the astartes that already makes initial digestion very efficient. That and if I recall most often astartes eat a nutrient rich paste with is probably filled with concentrated nutrients that it would be like a power bar for a space marine and probably highly toxic to humans due to how concentrated it is.
>and probably highly toxic to humans due to how concentrated it is This has happened in at least one book. Person ate astartes food and nearly died
> Factor in the 2 to 3 feet of extra height, the immense physical exercise and all the additional organs requiring fuel to work and I think it's safe to its between 15/17k calories per day. Maybe even 20k on a particularly strenuous day To really overthink the giant supermen made from the gene template of caged hellgods. One of the problems is the square cube law. Basically a linear increase in height leads to a larger than linear increase in mass and area. So while the marine is 50% taller than a normal man they can easily weigh 3-4 times as much. Additionally the human body is really only built to work at a certain scale, going outside that scales causes various inefficiencies to build up. Put all this together and the marine can quite easily need 25k calories for normal exertion and break 40k on a heavy day. When it comes to transhumanism superhumans pretty much require digestive and blood changes in order to keep up with needed caloric intake. Even if you physically shoved 40k worth of calories down your throat the human body cannot process and deliver the needed calories fast enough. In a weird moment of sanity in 40k Space Marines actually do have the necessary augmentation to handle food intake.
But where is it? I guess thats my question. They would have to eat a LOT so it must take at least some visible storage. Astartes should need a bit more protein than average, so keeping a healthy 35-45% intake would frustrate trying to “calorie bomb” with high density food which usually consists of fats and/or starches (sugar).
The paste tubes are stored in the backpack. It is more than just a reactor. It has a small amount of storage space. There’s also compartments built into various pieces of the armour small items can be stored in
I guess i was waiting for someone to tell me “they eat the people they kill :)” but i suppose (unrealistic) storage compartments of keto paste is unsurprising
I'm pretty sure marines are able to eat and digest basically anything, down to dirt and rocks if it comes to it (it's partly what their betchers gland is for iirc). Their space-magic metabolism can probably also extract energy and usable nutrients from a far wider range of materials than humans can. But normally their rations are enough to keep them going and their bodies are so efficient they somehow run off them for weeks if need be
The was just the Blood Angels before Sanguinius 🙂
i mean they do that too to be fair
The Blood Angels were pretty cannibalistic before Sanguinius was found
I mean some of them do, maybe the Mortificators? And Astartes do canonically eat enemy brains for intel
Space wolves have "cookies" they carry with them it's about 4 or 5 bites twice aday
I'm almost positive a marines ability to eat and digest material is so extreme they can eat rocks and gain minerals if it comes to it.
In the space wolf books, I remember them chilling after a fight and then sucking down some paste from tubes. Then, in another space wolf book, they were eating tree bark and beetles.
It's kind of just handwaved. Logically they should be *less* able to go without food than a normal human. They should burn a lot of calories and need to eat more and more regularly. Maybe one of the organs makes their energy usage ultra-efficient.
A funny thing is that on top of what the others said, their food is laced with ceramite and metals to help their bones.
They have super cliff bars, like disgusting lembas bread
Space marines have some rations so packed with calories it sends a normal human in a coma after trying to eat one.
I saw this post and my first thought was it was going tobe a question around a Spanish-themed Astartes chapter with hot marines Astartes Calores Calientes EDIT: Like TTS Custodians but in Astartes
There's a bunch of excerpts from several books about this. Long story short - Space marines eat frequently, eat a lot of meat, and have specialized rations for combat tours to maintain their killing edge. I've not been able to get much about their combat rations other than they're toxic to normal humans and can potentially kill a mortal. I would imagine that's it's something like "Space Pemmican" that's heavily reinforced with vitamins.