How bad is not eating for you?

The Guid · Post by **The Guid** » 2006-04-05 09:22am

It might be a stupid question but how long does it take for taking in only water to really screw with someone?

WyrdNyrd · Post by **WyrdNyrd** » 2006-04-05 09:33am

Four hours for me, give or take. But I have blood-suger problems, and I start shaking and shivering if my blood-suger drops too low.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-04-05 10:10am

If I recall correctly, the maximum for an average person is somewhere around forty days.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2006-04-05 10:16am

Surlethe wrote:If I recall correctly, the maximum for an average person is somewhere around forty days.

Depending on how much you ate recently, you'll have serious hunger pangs within about six to nine hours. You'll be ravenous for about a day or so after that point. After that though, it kind of wears off.

And Guid, if you're thinking of doing something along these lines, I *really* don't recommend it...

haard · Post by **haard** » 2006-04-05 10:48am

Depends a lot on activity as well. After two days of activity and no food, everything takes an effort. You can still do stuff, but you get exhausted really quickly.

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2006-04-05 12:22pm

How bad is not eating? Fatally bad.

From what I remember, two or three weeks will cause death from lack of food. However, this conflicts with the forty day figure given earlier. One or both of us is wrong.

TheBlackCat · Post by **TheBlackCat** » 2006-04-05 12:23pm

I have maybe 10 hours tops before I get a serious migraine, although I can get one after as little 5. Fluids are worse, if I get the least bit dehydrated I can be out of comission for up to a day.

nickolay1 · Post by **nickolay1** » 2006-04-05 01:24pm

Usually six to seven hours prior to the start of abdominal pain and cramping. However, I've never had a headache from hunger.

The Guid · Post by **The Guid** » 2006-04-05 01:25pm

And Guid, if you're thinking of doing something along these lines, I *really* don't recommend it...

Quite agree, friend of mine is doing this for the sake of art, and I am seriously against it, was just seeing if I was being paranoid or not.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2006-04-05 01:29pm

The Guid wrote:
And Guid, if you're thinking of doing something along these lines, I *really* don't recommend it...
Quite agree, friend of mine is doing this for the sake of art, and I am seriously against it, was just seeing if I was being paranoid or not.

What kind of retard could possibly think that starving themselves is somehow artistic? Well, minus supermodels of course.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-04-05 01:38pm

The Guid wrote:
Quite agree, friend of mine is doing this for the sake of art, and I am seriously against it, was just seeing if I was being paranoid or not.

If he incurs massive cell apoptosis as a consequence and malnourishment, ask if you can display his corpse for your own art piece to monumentally stupid ideas.

Darth Lucifer · Post by **Darth Lucifer** » 2006-04-05 02:30pm

General Zod wrote:What kind of retard could possibly think that starving themselves is somehow artistic?

David Blaine.

Stormin · Post by **Stormin** » 2006-04-05 04:29pm

David Blaine is not a good example of how long a person can last without eating, he is an actor not someone in a famine.

How long you can last depends on your level of activity and what condition you were in beforehand. For the best documentation of the effects of starvation, look into the German death camps of WW2. This example has the benifits of being very well recorded and large in scale.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-04-05 04:34pm

The longest I've gone was 36 hours. After the first 24 hours you really stop noticing the hunger apart from the general weakness and dizzyness.

I did have some very awkward dreams involving the Seven Dwarves and dancing sandwiches. No joke.

Darth Lucifer · Post by **Darth Lucifer** » 2006-04-05 04:35pm

Stormin wrote:David Blaine is not a good example of how long a person can last without eating, he is an actor not someone in a famine.

How long you can last depends on your level of activity and what condition you were in beforehand. For the best documentation of the effects of starvation, look into the German death camps of WW2. This example has the benifits of being very well recorded and large in scale.

Agreed. IIRC, I thought I had heard somewhere that he fattened himself up before his little 40 day stunt. Also, inactivity in a box is much less toll than the conditions you describe.

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2006-04-05 04:48pm

I have a history of going an entire day without eating without really feeling it. Of course I usually do have my fill of water and have something that I am distracted with.

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2006-04-05 04:48pm

I've gone for a day or two without food, but generally not by choice. Ever had Norwalk?

Anyways, if I do go more than, say, eight hours without eating, in my experience the hunger pangs go away in 12-15 hours. My wife, however, has much more trouble with food deprivation than I do. She has an excuse now (she's eight months pregnant), but she's like that even when not in a gravid condition.

Stormin · Post by **Stormin** » 2006-04-05 05:09pm

Mario1470 wrote:Agreed. IIRC, I thought I had heard somewhere that he fattened himself up before his little 40 day stunt. Also, inactivity in a box is much less toll than the conditions you describe.

You do know how magicians work right? I very much doubt he is going completely without any form of nourishment, it's just not going to be televised or even very noticeable to anyone else who is watching.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2006-04-05 05:15pm

In an interesting coincidence, I currently find myself in this very predicament. I have gone eleven hours without food (a small snack in the first place) and about eight without drink. Oddly enough, I'm not thirsty at all. My hunger can be described as 'very hungry,' but not really painful or anything, no headache or cramps.

Needless to say I am currently seeking to rectify this.

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2006-04-05 05:20pm

It depends entirely on how much body fat you have, and whether or not you're taking supplimental vitamins/minerals/enzymes. There won't be any permanent damage until the body fat is completely gone, then you must RESUME EATING or you will die. Your cells just can't not respire; if there isn't any readily available carbohydrates (ideal) or lipids (okay) your body will turn to its own protein (lethal). You will be weak and grumpy for the duration, though. I'm speaking from experience.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2006-04-05 05:25pm

I haven't had lunch today, and that's really annoying. My stummy is growling at me.

Now, the time when I didn't eat for four days, it got really really bad for the first two days, then the effect kind of wore off. Of course, I wasn't sleeping either, so I may just have not been very aware of my own physical feelings and whatnot.

From what my anorexic friends have told me, if you don't eat for a long time, you start to lose focus, and everything starts to feel really distant, like how I feel when I don't sleep. They also say that there's a general dull ache in all of your muscles, but it almost feels kind of good. Of course, this is second-hand shit, and I have no ideas what effects prolongued lack of food might have, although I know one of them is eventually death.

Bertie Wooster · Post by **Bertie Wooster** » 2006-04-05 05:43pm

General Zod wrote: What kind of retard could possibly think that starving themselves is somehow artistic? Well, minus supermodels of course.

They do eat something. Cottonballs, actually.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2006-04-05 08:40pm

Darth Raptor wrote:It depends entirely on how much body fat you have, and whether or not you're taking supplimental vitamins/minerals/enzymes. There won't be any permanent damage until the body fat is completely gone, then you must RESUME EATING or you will die. Your cells just can't not respire; if there isn't any readily available carbohydrates (ideal) or lipids (okay) your body will turn to its own protein (lethal).

Actually, you can go awhile burning your muscle tissue before death sets in.

I have an uncle who almost starved to death in a POW camp in WWII. He was definitely into the point of the body utilizing major muscles as fuel. He managed to recover as well - but it took several years for him to regain the muscle mass he had lost.

Starvation isn't something folks should be playing around with. It can have some severe consequences.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-04-05 08:43pm

I sometimes forget to eat for a whole day, and I'm a pretty wiry guy. When I'm working I don't get the hunger feeling, and if I'm involved in something it never occurs to me to go eat. I figure most of the time I'm eating because I consciously decide to - the hunger thing only kicks in when I want something nice like Monoglian lamb or whatever, so it's probably learned.

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2006-04-05 09:07pm

Breakfast doesn't count for me because I never eat it.

But missing Lunch or Dinner once will give me a migrane within an hour or so that lasts until about half an hour after I eat to correct it and makes the sides of my head around my temples feel like they're seceding from the rest of my face.

I have problems with migranes and other things like that, though, so I'm probably atypical.