#...uh hi fbi you have no jurisdiction where i live so bugger off

[the-silliest-idiot]

Mom, where do forearms come from?

AKA I have a lot of problems with superhealing

Sonju, you have no idea what you got yourself into

Whether characters would shit themselves when healing really fast or not does not matter. What matters to me is, where did that newly grown tissue come from? In this post I’m going to try and figure out how much energy it would take and how screwed anyone with superhealing would be. Unless they bring food. Lots of food

With this estimate I assume that Sonju has human proportions and not very long arms or two thumbs on each hand. This is to make things easier for me, Sonju will be screwed enough as is trust me.

Unfortunately I can’t find research on humans growing new limbs. For my sake, the amount of energy needed to regrow the bones, nerves and ligaments is the same as the amount of energy needed to gain that same amount of mass of muscle. 

Last but not least, this estimate just focuses on regrowing tissue. Part of the healing process includes sealing up the wound and removing dead cells. These processes require energy too but this is just an analysis for fun, not a research paper. I can’t be arsed

Now that’s out of the way, let’s go

First step is to figure out how much a Sonju weighs anyway. Luckily for me I already did so in an earlier post. I estimated his weight to be about 195 kg.

Next is figuring out how much weight Sonju lost by chopping off his forearm and how much energy it would take to regrow that limb.

It takes 3500 kcal to grow 1lbs of muscle [1]. Or in more sensible units, it takes 7716.18 kcal to gain 1 kilogram of muscle. Big numbers don’t say much so, 7716 kcal is either more than half a human baby.

Unfortunately for Sonju, his forearms do not weigh just 1 kilogram. One forearm is about 2.52% of his total bodyweight [2]. And that would be the case if he had human proportions and not wacky long demon arms. He would be so screwed if I could be arsed to calculate the new relative weight of his forearms.

2.52% of 195.36 kilograms is 4.92 kilograms. How much energy would it take to gain that amount of mass? 37987 kcal. To give you an idea of what 37987 kcal of energy looks like and why that’s an insane amount. It would be an entire seven year old human child. 

Oh wait no, that 7 year old child would only yield about 32966 kcal, bones and all. [3] 26 and a half chickens is a much closer estimate. And better include the bones too! The calcium from the regrowing bones has to come from somewhere! 

Else, be ware of the consequences of calcium deficiency as the body pulls calcium from the skeleton and other tissues to regrow the bones in that arm! [4]

But let’s say the sudden calcium deficiency or other possible complications from nutrient deficiencies are magically solved. Maybe he just drank his milk

Unfortunately Sonju does not eat after throwing his arm and just continues onwards. The energy for the regeneration had to have come from his own body. Which is unfortunate for him, considering that he is a lean guy. 

Sonju his abs are visible but not extremely so. This would mean he has about 10 to 14% bodyfat. [5] A bodyfat percentage of 12% is used in these calculations.

This leaves Sonju with 23.44 kg of bodyfat. Fortunately for Sonju, it would take only 6.63 kg of bodyfat to regrow one of his forearms. Assumption that fat yields 5726 kcal/kg. 

Actual weight loss/gain guides say that it takes the same kind of calorie deficit/surplus to lose fat or gain muscle but that’d mean 100% efficiency and I’m not all about that.

He can regenerate three forearms without losing all his bodyfat and forcing his body to start digesting his muscles. Good for him

I sure hope he didn’t have to rip off and throw his arm more than that while dealing with the wild demons. Don, Gilda, Ayshe, Musica and Hayato could deal with the wild demon too, right?

Nevermind, it looks like the group had no other way to deal with the tons of wild demons running around. They only got it after Sonju fed his arm to a degenerated demon. How else did the group deal with the fuckton of degenerated demons?

But worry not, both Sonju and Musica (she ought to have lost a ton of blood too..) look pretty good after they have dealt with the degenerated demons. I like to think they stopped for a snack somewhere during the battle. Or they might have found a way that doesn’t require hacked off limbs.

He lost and regenerated another arm while fighting Legravalima. Another 7 year old child worth of calories burnt! Not to mention the fighting, fighting takes energy too.

No wonder he was about to attack Emma after fighting his sister, he was probably really fucking hungry. You’re not you when you’re hungry, Sonju. Eat about 152 snickers bars to regain the energy lost from regenerating one cut off forearm. And a few more to regain the energy used during the fight

It’s also no surprise for me that he and Musica just ...fell over after finding the high priest. They, especially Sonju, must have been very exhausted and hungry. And that’s just from the healing, not even the running and fighting. 

During the capital arc we have seen Sonju run, fight and regrow two forearms. The amount of calories needed for Sonju to stay alive and fight is 7223 kcal a day maybe even more, add two times the energy needed to regrow a forearm (37987kcal each) and you have about 83199 kcal burnt in one day.

That’s more than the calories in an 11 year old child (62612kcal if you include the bones [3] ). Or in other terms, the recommended daily calorie intake for humans is 2000 kcal per day. 83199 kcal is equal to 41.6 days of food for the average human.

And then it’s not over for Sonju. Not only do he and Musica go to jail for a few days. Lewis has to show up at the last second to go and stab his little brother in the chest/throat. Time to regrow even more tissue! No calculations for this, I don’t know how much tissue is lost.

No time to rest yet because it’s time to rush to Gracefield and wave the kids goodbye! Fortunately for them, neither Sonju or Musica get stabbed or injured again after the kids leave. 

Moral of this story: If you are going to rip off and regrow your arm repeatedly in a short timespan, don’t be a moron and bring food. Lots of food and bones

References used in order of appearance: Not gonna APA these, there’s just links for you

[1] https://blog.voltathletics.com/home/2015/9/9/blm-part-4-when-how-and-how-much-to-eat

[2] http://robslink.com/SAS/democd79/body_part_weights.htm

[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/srep44707/tables/2

[4] https://www.algaecal.com/expert-insights/do-you-have-a-calcium-deficiency-10-signs-symptoms-to-watch-out-for/

[5] https://www.ruled.me/visually-estimate-body-fat-percentage/