This story has some interesting ideas but it has one thing that really bothers me. Thomas is fed just three apples a day and is forced to exercise extremely vigorously for more than ten hours a day. Three very large apples would only have about 300 Calories. That much exercise would require at least 5,000 Calories. Thomas would DIE long before his seven weeks of exercise was over.

I thought something was a little off just as curious-guy did. I didn't catch WHAT until now. It is a interesting premise and well written. But then, maybe Thomas is obese and the headmaster (?) wants to get him down to a desirable weight and physique so he will fetch more on the slave market.

Maybe the apples are dosed.

They could have enough calories and vitamins infused into them to do the job, but there is also something in them to make him more compliant. Maybe they only give him an apple at each mealtime, because they want to be sure he consumes all of it?

gandalf (imported) wrote: Wed May 18, 2011 5:33 am I thought something was a little off just as curious-guy did. I didn't catch WHAT until now. It is a interesting premise and well written. But then, maybe Thomas is obese and the headmaster (?) wants to get him down to a desirable weight and physique so he will fetch more on the slave market.

If he was obese the author should have said so. Also, I do not think that even an obese boy could survive.

I am not a biochemist but I think the the human body cannot metabolize fat efficiently when it does not have adequate supplies of carbohydrates. Under those conditions, the body only gets some of the energy of the fat.

The brain and nervous system cells cannot use fat for energy. Under starvation conditions, the body has to make glucose from muscle protein to keep the brain alive. This includes the muscles in the heart. This process is very inefficient. The limiting factor in how long a human can survive is how much muscle they have. A 13 year-old would not have that much muscle.

If Thomas was eating 300 Calories and expending 5,000 Calories per day for 49 days, His energy deficit would be equivalent to the energy contained in 65.8 pounds of fat if his body could burn the fat efficiently which it could not.

Protein has about a half of the calories per pound as fat does. Thomas would be getting less than two grams of protein from his three apples. This is less than 5 percent of his minimum requirement.

Maybe an extremely muscular adult man could survive those conditions but I do not think a 13 year-old boy could.

Actually, I was remarking tongue in cheek. I agree with the remarks on 3 apples being a poor idea.