Project Zomboid: How to Lose Weight

Project Zomboid has a complex system of weight control, and knowing how to lose weight is important. Players can’t just consume any food in limitless amounts and experience no consequences. If your character becomes overweight, as a result, you will experience the loss of endurance and speed, and your general vulnerability to damage will be increased. 

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.