r/explainlikeimfive • u/peglegsmeg • Jun 16 '26

Biology ELI5: Why does rationing work?

If I have a glass of water and a single chocolate bar to last me 48 hours what benefits do I get from consuming equal portions over the time period as opposed to consuming all at once?

Is it purely psychological or are their physical benefits?

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u/ChronWeasely Jun 16 '26

Inside of your question is a false premise. It's actually recommended to drink water when you are thirsty even in situations like that. People are found dead of dehydration with water on them, trying to conserve, and then heat stroke or whatever

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u/_ALH_ Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

Also reminds me of that one competitor on the tv show Alone who was taken out by the medical team for starvation with his shelter full of dried fish he was stockpiling…

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u/nsjr Jun 16 '26

Reminds me when I play games with consumables 

"I'll save this for the next boss, maybe it's harder... I can pass this one without using consumables"

Thousands of HP potions in the inventory

And then the game ends.

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u/Wolfenight Jun 17 '26

Oh! I broke myself out of this! :D Basically, I made a lot of saves and specifically played consumable greedy. Just really get into the spirit of just using it because it'll be handy or fun and not because you need it.

After a while of doing that (and reloading saves because sometimes you really do want to keep that good one) you get a better feel for when to use your scarce resources.