Nutrition and energy balance on the 'Footsteps of Scott' expedition 1984-86

Nineteen-Eighty-Seven marks the 75th anniversary of the expedition to the South Pole led by Captain R.F. Scott, during which he and his party died. Between November 1985 and January 1986, three men manhauled sledges 875 miles, following Scott's original route to the South Pole. They consumed an energy dense diet which provided 20.5 MJ/man/day of which 57 per cent came from fat. Despite the diet being well tolerated and allowing for dehydration, the men lost between 6.7 and 10.5 kg, indicating a daily energy expenditure of 25 MJ/man/day. Estimates from daily diary records of periods spent in different classes of activity and the literature values for energy consumption assigned to those classes, suggest a daily energy expenditure of 29 MJ/man/day. These estimates of energy expenditure were higher than expected and suggest that on Scott's last expedition, emaciation, secondary to a diet grossly inadequate in energy content, might have been a more important factor in his demise than has previously been thought.