This Project Zomboid guide will provide you with all the essential tips on how to lose weight. This must be done carefully, as you can’t simply starve your character. If you lose too much weight, the consequences will be even harsher than being overweight.
How to Lose Weight in Project Zomboid
Understand Weight Traits
All foods in Project Zomboid have nutritional value, which is determined by calories consumed from the three types of nutrients:
Carbohydrates Proteins Lipids
This means that each item of food you find in the world has these specific qualities, as well as calories, which can be observed only if you have the Nutritionist trait, available to all players who start the game with the Fitness Instructor occupation by default.
Players need to make sure that their weight stays in the range between 70 and 95 kilos. Otherwise, you will be tagged with the following traits in the game:
Obese: over 105 kilos Overweight: over 95 kilos Underweight: under 70 kilos Very Underweight: under 60 kilos Emaciated: under 50 kilos
Players need to make sure that they eat a whole variety of foods to keep fit, or one of these traits is inevitable. If your weight drops below 35 kilos, you will start receiving automatic damage.
Losing Weight
Your default weight at the start of the game is 80 kilos if you don’t choose any weight-related traits. From there on, it starts fluctuating depending on your food consumption. That’s why it is important to regularly check your weight at the info panel, which can be toggled with the “J” key.
Below you will find a list of the three main methods of losing weight in Project Zomboid, but if you wish to focus on one simple thing, then try to avoid foods with a high amount of calories. You’ll be safe and don’t have to worry about getting overweight.
Performing Physical Exercises
If you happened to gain weight and now want to lose it, one of the the best ways to do so is to perform physical exercises, including:
Climbing over fences Climbing through windows Sprinting constantly Avoiding sleep
The last one can be effectively used along with the Wakeful trait, which allows you to sleep 30% less than usual. This trait not only promotes weight loss, but also increases your productivity.
Choosing Right Foods
If you take your time and learn about the nutritious characteristics of various foods in Project Zomboid, you will never have trouble with weight. But if you happen to become overweight, the following foods are considered the best for losing weight:
Radishes Tomatoes Broccoli Carrots Onions Strawberries Berries Cherries
These specific fruits and vegetables have almost no calories, but are highly nutritious. They can quickly help you reduce weight and give you enough energy to keep going.
Almost all of them can be farmed in huge quantities with the help of their corresponding seeds. The only vegetable from the list you can’t farm is onions, and the only two types of fruits are berries and cherries. But you can always find them in the wilderness and forests.
However, the fruits and veggies alone will not sustain you enough, as they mostly consist of carbohydrates, while you also need proteins and lipids to function properly. Fortunately, there are some protein and lipid-rich foods with low amount of calories as well, such as:
Bacon Bits Sunfish Worms Insects
You absolutely need to combine these various types of foods for proper functioning of all your traits, so do keep this in mind.
Counting Calories
With all that said, losing weight may take a long time. That’s why it is highly recommended to control your weight from the very beginning by knowing the number of calories in the foods you choose to consume.
The easiest way to count calories in regard to your gain weight is the following:
If you perform general physical exercises and sleep no more than 8 hours per night, then you should gain around 1 kilo per 500 calories and the same amount of proteins and lipids consumed in a day.
For example, if you consumed a variety of foods, including carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids that summed up to about 3000 calories, then you should gain around five to six kilos a day.
You can easily drop off back to your default weight by simply consuming fruits and vegetables the next day or two. After that, you can once again consume more foods with plenty of calories in them.
If you didn’t choose the Nutritionist trait at the start of the game, you will never know how many calories you’ve consumed. So just use our cheat sheet below for a complete list of all foods in Project Zomboid with their corresponding calories count.
Project Zomboid Calories Cheat Sheet
Carbohydrate Foods
Fruits
Apple: 95 Banana: 105 Berry: 8-23 Cherry: 5 Grapes: 62 Lemon: 17 Orange: 65 Peach: 58 Pineapple: 452 Strawberries: 4 Watermelon: 1355 Watermelon Chunk: 271 Watermelon Slice: 135. 5
Vegetables
Avocado: 227 Bell Pepper: 30 Broccoli: 11 Cabbage: 178 Carrots: 25 Carrots (Canned): 10. 5 Chili (Canned): 260 Corn: 88 Corn (Canned): 315 Eggplant: 114 Leek: 54 Lettuce: 54 Mushroom: 36-38 Onion: 28 Peas: 119 Peas (Canned): 280 Pickles: 5 Potato: 70 Potatoes (Canned): 175 Radish: 1 Tomato: 14 Tomatoes (Canned): 90 Zucchini: 33
Grains
Bolognese (Canned): 540 Bread: 532 Bread Dough: 532 Bread Slices: 137 Cereal: 2306 Can of Oats: 1500 Instant Popcorn: 120 Ramen Noodles: 52 Pasta: 3360 Rice: 2880
Protein and Lipid Foods
Lean Meat
Bacon: 160 Bacon Bits: 10 Bacon Rashers: 40 Corned Beef (Canned): 720 Dead Mouse: 30 Dead Rabbit: 373 Dead Rat: 50 Dead Squirrel: 161 Ham: 1560 Ham Slice: 260 Meat Patty: 380 Mutton Chop: 234 Pork Chop: 150 Rabbit Meat: 323 Small Animal Meat: 161 Steak: 220
Poultry
Chicken: 150 Dead Bird: 161 Small Bird Meat: 261
Fish and Seafood
Little Bait Fish: 30 Bass: 184 Catfish: 181 Crappie: 111 Fish Fillet: 205 Frog Meat: 66 Perch: 111 Pike: 207 Salmon: 270 Sardines (Canned): 150 Sunfish: 11 Trout: 219 Tuna (Canned): 270
Eggs
Egg: 63 Wild Eggs: 63
Nuts and Seeds
Peanuts: 161 Sunflower Seeds: 155
Legumes and Beans
Beans (Canned): 170 Tofu: 30
Insects
Cricket: 20 Grasshopper: 25 Cockroach: 30 Worm: 3
Dairy (mostly lipids)
Butter: 3200 Cheese: 113 Ice Cream: 1680 Milk: 110 Processed Cheese: 170 Yogurt: 30
Confections (mostly carbohydrates and lipids)
Cake Slice: 70 Candy Package: 500 Chips: 720 Chocolate: 850 Cookie (Chocolate): 160 Corndog: 180 Cupcake: 305 Fried Chicken: 260 Fries: 203 Hotdog: 100 Juice Box: 60 Lollipop: 40 Mint Candy: 60 Modjeska: 60 Pancakes: 210 Pizza: 990 Orange Soda: 400 Pie Slice: 404 Pop Soda: 140 Raspberry Shortbread: 160 Sandwich (Peanut Butter): 250 Sandwich (Cheese): 135 Waffles: 80
Alcohol
White Wine: 481 Red Wine: 510 Whiskey: 1500
Herbs, Spices, and Sauces
Grape Leaves: 73 Honey: 660 Ketchup: 1480 Mustard: 510 Marinara: 350 Mayonnaise: 3000 Peanut Butter: 2660 Rosehips: 81 Violets: 27
Cooked Foods
Soup (Canned): 125 Soup (Pot): 125 Dogfood (Canned): 498 Soup (Mushroom) (Canned): 160 Oatmeal: 300 Cereal Bowl: 300 TV Dinner: 670 Cake Batter: 800 Pie Dough: 800
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Now you know exactly how to lose weight in Project Zomboid. If you are looking for more Project Zomboid tips and tricks articles, then be sure to check out our dedicated hub page.
