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I’ve gone three weeks and change without a single calorie of food. Not by choice - medical thing. Lost about 30 lbs give or take. Was hard to start eating again once I did. Lost additional weight beyond the 30. Went from fat to skinny. Took years to eat properly again. Now I’m fat again :)
Was interesting for many reasons.
- it’s possible if you’re injured to not be hungry and starve to death without feeling any hunger whatsoever
- while I lost fat, I lost more muscle. Crazy how the body canibalizes itself.
- still need water, that you can’t go without. But you can go a long time without food. I could have easily gone weeks longer I think without food.
- Hug your family and always tell them you love them. I lived through my ordeal and gained perspective, but many young people die without saying and doing the things they should.
How long do you think you could go without water as well as food?
No idea. I didn’t drink for three weeks either but I had an IV feed of saline. I think you die of thirst in a few short days.
Yeah the general rule is about 3 weeks without food, roughly 3 days without water.
Had ulcerative colitis. Went about a month on Gatorade and clear vegetable broth. Another month or two on TPN after surgery with very little to no veggie broth.
Went from 175 to 115. 0/10 would not recommend.
Wow that’s amazing. I think I might have UC. Did it help your symptoms?
What’s TPN?
I hope you don’t. In my case nothing helped so I had my lower intestine removed. The made a facsimile with a section of small intestine and re-plumbed me. It was during that recovery period that I went on TPN to effectively reduce the usage of my digestive system.
TPN is Total Parenteral Nutrition. Basically it’s a large bag of glucose, lipids, vitamins and minerals that is fed through a PICC line (in you upper arm) directly above your heart for thorough dilution and distribution through your bloodstream. An external peristaltic pump doses it into you throughout the day. It’s a trip, albeit cumbersome. Oh, and it does spikeTF out of your blood sugars so you have to take insulin during the process, which sucks.
I have UC too and was put in the hospital for 5 days on a broth diet. It was weird seeing how skinny my legs became.
Ha, oh man. When I finally got unplugged from everything, about two weeks later, I sorta sprinted up a small flight of stairs and felt every muscle in my legs tearing. It was a very strange and uncomfortable feeling. It probably hurt a lot but they had me on some gnarly painkillers. I did feel it the next day though when I got home. That was about 13 years ago. I hope they have better treatments for it now than surgery. It seemed like a better option than Remicade at the time. Oh well, what’s done is done. Basically back to normal after all this time.
Went two days without food. It was pretty horrible and I slept more to cope.
How come you went without for two days?
I was on vacation in a foreign country and my wallet and phone were pickpocketed.
Oh no :/
84 hours without food (that's 3 full days plus the extra night after). Didn't feel too bad since after 24 hours my body gave up asking for food so I felt kind of lethargic but not hungry. I did it as a kind of personal challenge, probably ill-advised, but it wasn't too bad for me. I still drank plenty of water throughout that time. I wasn't even that hungry when I broke the fast, I just had a light salad, then I felt really hungry in the hours afterwards..
I had terrible stomach cramps one night. I was so sore that I didn't eat after that for 4 days. It's actually way easier than I would have thought, no real consequences.
Do you know what triggered the cramps?
No idea. Never before or since, no terrible results in the bathroom after. It was very strange.
I fasted about 48 hours to experience a semi ascetic acid trip. Was a good time; had some incredible break throughs. Dived into a pool, and it felt like I was diving into a kaleidoscope of colors. Can't recommend anyone experience it that way, nor would I say I'd do it that way again, but taking your mind and body through moderated extremes can be pretty profound; assuming you have people around you to make sure you're not doing anything particularly stupid to hurt yourself or others.
Four days with a migraine is the longest I have gone. Even if I put a spoonful of water in my mouth I'd puke. That was back when they would give you opiates to break the migraine, they don't work as painkillers for it but make you high enough to finally sleep - pain felt so far away - and I would wake up with no headache. It's happened about 7 times total in my life, now they won't do that but they do IV fluids to prevent damage and some antihistamine to make you sleep but it doesn't break the migraine. Hopefully it never happens again.
On purpose I have fasted 3 days but would NEVER purposely fast without water. Water with electrolytes if going more than a day or so.
Never really been without water, but I've avoided eating for ~3 days due to illness a couple times. It's kinda easy when there's a reason for it (nausea, mostly) - when you know the alternative is worse, short-term hunger is only mildly annoying.
Five days without food. I had a bout of gastritus (damage to the stomach lining) and never once felt hungry during that time. I was going about my normal routine and felt completely normal otherwise. Kinda surprised by that.
About 15 years ago I got my first colonoscopy and back than the prep was just horrible.
You basically went without food the entire day before, while at the same time take these prep meds that made you shit every hour or so. Good lord it was horrible as hell. If memories serves I was allowed to drink the day before but nothing the day off.
You get dehydrated so fast and it wild how terrible that makes you feel. Add to that, the taking a shit contstantly and almost immediately you are not shitting, it is more like pissing out of your ass.
The prep you have to do now is not that intense and really isnt that big of a deal, comparatively,.
15 years ago is 2011 but you made it sound like 1911.
Besides all that, how would a doctor let you be dehydrated? If oral fluid is off the table, what stopped you from an intravenous one?
How much the process has changed in the last 15 years it may as well have been 1911.
Have you ever been put under a general anesthesia as part of an outpatient procedure?
You are always dehydrated when that starts.
As far as I know the fast today is the same as it ever was. Different doctors have different protocols though. One reason I have not done another colonoscapy is because of the prep but I want to find a doc that will do the prep with pills. My wife after he last is in agreement with me.
The fast is the same but the process of making you clear your intestines is so much better, you don’t have to keep drinking that stuff that makes you shit every hour. That helps with the dehydration and the total misery of it all.
The prep really isn’t that bad.. now.
Three days, no food, no water. Nothing by mouth. Was in hospital, so I had an IV bag at least. And tons of dilaudid the whole time… it was quite the experience. They fixed me, though! Was in there for almost a week and a half tho. Getting to eat again was as awesome as the Dilaudid was.
There was a period where I would fast every thursday into friday, 24 hours, but I allowed myself water. No real issues. Less impactful than a single beer or smoking some pot.
That being said I have huge respect for those keeping Ramadan.
Two days without solid food because my stomach is stupid. I was hydrated the entire time though and drinking ginger ale occasionally.
Without food, just shy of 24 hours. Slept around 12 hours after almost pulling an all-nighter, then never got hungry enough to get out of my room until late in the night. Was groggy all day, didn't feel hungry for several hours, then it nagged for another few hours until it gnawed at me and I couldn't do anything without thinking about food. So I ate, surprisingly only took a normal-sized meal to satisfy the hunger.
I've gone without water or food for about 9 hours at a time on several occasions. Mostly just makes me lethargic at the end. But the most memorable time was when I went hiking with a friend for about 4 hours. It was the middle of summer on a trail in an arid climate and I realized I forgot to bring water about an hour in. Was very parched and heart racing by the end, but didn't bother me too much. Then chugged about 3x 500 mL bottles as soon as I got back in the car.
Without food, I think 2.5 days (somewhere around 2.5 days). Wasn't bad, although I sometimes get dizzy when standing and it exacerbated to the point I was worried I might actually pass out (but I didn't; just felt like a had a very low-grade fever for a couple minutes after?)
on the day to day I regularly do 12h during the day without food (almost every work day)
I've done a few 2 and 3 day fasts for various reasons
I've done 3 or so day stints when sick with rotavirus and when I fucked up my shoulder and waiting for surgery
All in all going with out food for 3 days is not too hard
I do at least one 30-day juice fast and one 10-day water fast each year. As well as 3-5 day fasts every month I am not doing those. I think I may have gone a day or two without water before, but I don't recall ever doing it intentionally.
72 hours for food. It was a keto fast it was miserable.
So generally I do the following fasting schedule
- Daily: 18hr fast
- weekly 24hr fast
- monthly 48hr fast
- quarterly 72hr fast
- yearly 120hr fast
I don't water fast as hydration is really important for good health and prolonged fasts make it really easy to get dangerously dehydrated.
How is it for me? Often the 24 hr fasts are the most difficult for me as a lot of hunger signals persist for me during that time, generally after that point I am all gravey.
For the quarterly and yearly fasts I try and line these up with time off from work because I like to do a lot of reflection and creation during these times for me. The reflection is usually pretty good, creation... well... results have varied.
I had an ear infection that had me lose my balance completely and start projectile vomiting anything in my stomach, including water. It was probably a good 36 hours before I was admitted to hospital; I was so dehydrated I was put on a drip. It turned out to be shingles, so no wonder the antibiotics didn't work. I can't remember how long I went without eating, maybe 48 hours? I was so ill I didn't care.
I've done just shy of 2 weeks without food. I've never gone more than like 10 hours without water though, at least not while awake.
Fasting is fine. "Hunger" is usually anticipation of food. Once you push past the initial feeling it simply goes away.
Not drinking water sucks. Everything feels awful after a day without water.
I think, 16 hours.
without water. no idea. I was fasting tuesdays and thursdays at one point so like figure I ate last 8pm one night and started eating 8am the day after so something like 36 hours. I was drinking unsweetened tea, diet soda, water, and maybe other no calorie liquids, but no solids.
Without food, ~2 days, give or take.
I fast (no food) yearly, sometimes multiple times a year. I just finished a 6 day fast a couple weeks ago. It was amazing, one of the easiest fasts I've done, and I hiked every day, read a couple books and taught my book group about fasting and all of its benefits. I highly recommend EVERYONE fast for at least 5 days. It will change your life.