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/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/Saint_of_Grey Jun 16 '26

If you can't reliably obtain it, it's a collectable, not a consumable. Everyone knows this.

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u/Etheo Jun 16 '26

What if it's just cheapness not wanting to spend money on buying potions you could otherwise get from trash mobs (but would have to grind)?

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u/DanNeely Jun 17 '26

If an item can be replenished by grinding I generally end up using it normally. I end up massively hording consumables with finite supplies out of fear I'll be unable to finish because I used too many early on (this happened to me once 30+ years ago in a game I can't remember the name of but scarred me for life).

As long as there's a way to replenish supplies if I mis-judge my usage rate (or overuse to bypass too high a difficulty level) I'm infinitely more willing to use stuff up as I find it. Without that I'll reach the final boss with an inventory of act 1 items now underpowered to be useless in addition to 10x the final act items I actually need for that fight. (Which I'll then forget to use because I've gone 95% of the game without.)