How long can you go without food?

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I'm not talking about if you were forced to. Obviously you'd go as long as you could before you died. I'm talking about intentionally depriving yourself of food.

I knew a girl who tried to go without solid food for 3 days. I thought that was kind of crazy. It's funny people think doing things like this will "cleanse" them. Why are women so obsessed with clean bowels anyways? :) Us guys do it the easy way. Around 12 beers, and a plate of the hottest chicken wing you can find. If that doesn't cleanse you, nothing will.

Back on topic. How long can you ignore your stomach pains and go without food? We'll assume two scenarios. One with nutrition provided with drinks, and one without.

I've actually gone the past 9 hours without food. And I only had a small sandwhich this morning. I"m actually proud of myself for going this long without food. Sometimes I get a headache or dizzy if I go even 3 or 4 hours without food (especially when I'm working out, I have to eat at least 3 meals a day). I'm actually not too hungry right now, which leads me to wonder. How long could I go?

I think 24 hours would be my limit. Even if I had nutrion in other ways, I would still have the desire to feel full. Like when I work out, I have my protein drinks, but they don't really fill me up. I need solid food.
 
three days, but why would I?
 
I can go a day without food, but that's about it.
 
I have gone without solid food for 40 days before. Vitamins, juice and milk were all I had during the period. Toughest part is the first 3 days, then your hunger subsides a bit and you get into a routine. By about day 30 you gotta be careful as you get dizzy easily so you have to rest a lot. I have attempted it 3 times, but only hit the 40 day mark once. The two other times I got to 34 days and got ill once, and got to 38 days on another attempt, but had to come off the fast to donate plamsa to a co-worker that had the same blood type as I did.
 
Any particular reason why you did that?
 
Any particular reason why you did that?

I'll repeat the question, however I'd assume it was a fast or something?

I'd never try it, ever...

It was part of a national event a lot of churchs participated in. Totally voluntary. It was basically fasting the 40 days prior to Easter to honor Jesus own 40 day fast. It didnt have to be food, but you could have given up something else to fast from as well.

I guess you might say I wanted to test my will and see how far I could go. The lesson I learned is that you can make your body do far more than you think you can.
 
My bro managed one week without food. I think I could beat that.

I have not tried it but I have good endurance, so I'm thinking the outer range of humans.
 
My bro managed one week without food. I think I could beat that.

I have not tried it but I have good endurance, so I'm thinking the outer range of humans.

Well, I will tell you one hint. You gotta keep your mind busy. I had to stop watching tv just because of all the dang food commercials. Its one thing to be able to get the idea of food out of your mind and not think about it....its entirely another to try and succeed at something like that while being blasted by it 24/7.
 
It was part of a national event a lot of churchs participated in. Totally voluntary. It was basically fasting the 40 days prior to Easter to honor Jesus own 40 day fast. It didnt have to be food, but you could have given up something else to fast from as well.

I guess you might say I wanted to test my will and see how far I could go. The lesson I learned is that you can make your body do far more than you think you can.

Interesting and :goodjob:

Why did you stop the other times? And, can you tell when you are actually near death?

Also, when you break a fast like that, do you just eat like normal or do you eat abnormal amounts.
 
Interesting and :goodjob:

Why did you stop the other times? And, can you tell when you are actually near death?

Also, when you break a fast like that, do you just eat like normal or do you eat abnormal amounts.

I was never near death. Trust me, you can get a lot more out of juice and milk than you think you can. A 'meal' would usually consist of a big glass of tomato juice with a ton of ice. I would 'eat' the ice and crunch it up like it was solid food and that would actually satisfy hunger cravings very well.

I hope you also learned that doing that is insane, and you should never do that again!!!
:)

I dont think it was insane, but it was indeed an interesting experience. My health was never in jeopardy, and although I did lose a lot of weight in only 40 days, it wasnt that big a deal. If I had felt like I was really hurting myself, or causing some kind of signifcant damage, I would have come off it immediately. I just took each day one at a time and took it easy. 40 days goes by pretty quick regardless...

Well, this could be made fantastically simply by just tossing all your solid food in a blender to render it non-solid.

Heh, yeah, but sipping a burger through a straw would be kinda cheating at what I was trying to accomplish. I had my parameters set, and I abided by them and made it through.
 
One time I had lunch at 12 pm went on a plane and landed at 9 PM, and went straight on a night long bus. I arrived at 9AM, but my family insisted on eating brunch, so I ended up eating at around 12 or 1PM the next day.

So it was a full day without food.
 
About a day without food, 6 hours without water.
 
My record is two days. But that was after I had a large meal at a place called Kokopelli's in New Orleans....the large meal plus the summer heat meant I wasn't hungry again that whole time.
 
My dad has done 40 day fasts at least twice, I think 3 times since I was born. The first time he consumed absolutely nothing but water, but the more recent times he had plenty of grape juice and a meal replacement shake once a day.
 
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