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How long can a person survive without eating?

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  • zcb94
    zcb94 Posts: 3,679 Member
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    I have nothing constructive to contribute, but can say that I (barely) survived on nothing by mouth (no food or drink, hydration and sugar by vein) till Kingdom Come for about a week while we were correcting pancreatitis/partial bowel obstruction.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    singingflutelady wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    singingflutelady wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    Athena98501 wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    3bambi3 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Being in ketosis is not harmful, and I doubt they'd even monitor it for that specifically.

    Not having nutrition for that long while pregnant is, and I don't think any hospital would do that -- they have too many concerns about liability, as well as it just making no sense at all.

    I mean, after four months, wouldn't she have died from some sort of nutritional deficiency if nothing else?
    Athena98501 wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    and if in ketosis for that long couldnt a person end up with ketoacidosis even without having diabetes?

    If she had an elevated cortisol level, probably. Not before she died from the electrolyte imbalance, though.

    For the record (other posters), I wasn't implying that ketosis is harmful, merely that it would is have been an effect of the treatment she described, and she'd failed to mention it.

    ketosis isnt harmful for the most part no but from what ive read when in ketosis from starvation it can lead to ketoacidososis which is NOT a good thing even if you arent diabetic.

    True. People with ketosis from starvation, however, aren't being infused with sodium alone, which would greatly accelerate the electrolyte imbalance. The sorts of medical professionals who would subject a patient to such a treatment are straight out of the Nurses Who Kill tv show.

    I AGREE and those people should lose their license to practice medicine. I know anytime I ended up in the hospital due to dehydration(from flu or pneumonia) they always gave me glucose as well as saline.I wasnt pregnant either.

    For me in the er they run saline or ringer right away and after blood work add whatever they need to fix deficiencies (ie electrolytes)

    yeah but for me usually when I get dehydrated I end up needing glucose even though I dont have insulin issues(could be due to the dehydration) but I am not in the ER when this is done. Im usually admitted because my flu or pneumonia is so bad. but havent had either one since 2003/2004 thankfully

    I go to the er just for dehydration because I have an ileostomy (fluid is absorbed in the colon which I don't have so fluid balance is difficult. Have to drink more as I lose more. High output days I can lose 2+ liters from my stoma) and haven't been admitted yet for it thankfully. Just pump me up with fluids and go home.

    ahh ok well I can see why for you the er works. makes sense
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    MinuitMinuet wrote: »
    @TavistockToad
    @RuNaRoUnDaFiEld 40678514 wrote:
    MinuitMinuet wrote: »
    Had the same issue with my first pregnancy but wasn't hospitalized. I went from a 160 to 128 in a couple of months. Couldn't keep anything down. The doctor told me I was going to kill my baby if I didn't eat and gave me nausea medication (which I never took.) I forced my self to nibble food and fight the urge to run to the bathroom. It didn't end till second semester. I was so thin by then that strangers on the street thought I was homeless and would offer me food...which only made me gag and run to a trash can at just the suggestion. Sucked. An ultra sound at a specialist revealed my son would be born only 4 pounds. He was 8.6 pounds.

    As for how long you can go without food? I think it would depend on your body size. Jesus went 40 days. I went nearly 2 months while pregnant. I starved myself to lose weight after my second baby was born. That was about 2 months also but I was over 200pounds then. But 3 weeks I think would be average.

    Why on earth would you do that?

    Seriously, they told you you could KILL your unborn child yet you didn't take the medication. I can't wrap my head around a parent doing that.
    So you focused on where I refused to take anti nausea medication but not the part where I forced myself to eat. GJ. xwvsr41effy1.gif

    @MinuitMinuet why did you tag me in that?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    wackyfunster wrote: »
    In case no one has posted this yet: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/postmedj00315-0056.pdf

    TL;DR: 382 days with no food for morbidly obese man under medical supervision. As long as you get electrolytes, you can survive without food until you reach essential levels of body fat (2-4% for men, 10-12% for women).

    Would that also support the growth of another human being inside her? I certainly wouldn't think so. Not sure if the OP was morbidly obese either.
  • Jessamine
    Jessamine Posts: 226 Member
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    I have fasted from food for religious reasons. I went 16 days on ONLY water during one fast. On another fast I went 14 days on only water follow by 12 more days on 4-8oz of either orange or grape juice a day.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    My son has a grey line that runs through his teeth because I took antibiotics at one phase of my pregnancy. One teeny, tiny deficiency.
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
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    Athena98501 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    wackyfunster wrote: »
    In case no one has posted this yet: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/postmedj00315-0056.pdf

    TL;DR: 382 days with no food for morbidly obese man under medical supervision. As long as you get electrolytes, you can survive without food until you reach essential levels of body fat (2-4% for men, 10-12% for women).

    Would that also support the growth of another human being inside her? I certainly wouldn't think so. Not sure if the OP was morbidly obese either.

    She looks it in her picture, but you are correct. Not only would it not support the growth of an unborn baby, but not supplementing a fair number of nutrients would cause birth defects, and so would not be done by medical professionals. There is a good reason that women are strongly encouraged to take a multivitamin formulated specifically for pregnancy throughout said pregnancy.

    Multi-vitamins with folic acid are what health care professionals encourage women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant to take to help prevent birth defects to the brain and spinal cord. Many women have severe morning (all day for many) sickness. I did through the first trimester into the beginning of the second tri. I was overweight, but not obese and lost weight during that time. It really is not that unusual, and I gained about 17 pounds after that.

  • Athena98501
    Athena98501 Posts: 716 Member
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    missysippy930 wrote: »
    Athena98501 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    wackyfunster wrote: »
    In case no one has posted this yet: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/postmedj00315-0056.pdf

    TL;DR: 382 days with no food for morbidly obese man under medical supervision. As long as you get electrolytes, you can survive without food until you reach essential levels of body fat (2-4% for men, 10-12% for women).

    Would that also support the growth of another human being inside her? I certainly wouldn't think so. Not sure if the OP was morbidly obese either.

    She looks it in her picture, but you are correct. Not only would it not support the growth of an unborn baby, but not supplementing a fair number of nutrients would cause birth defects, and so would not be done by medical professionals. There is a good reason that women are strongly encouraged to take a multivitamin formulated specifically for pregnancy throughout said pregnancy.

    Multi-vitamins with folic acid are what health care professionals encourage women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant to take to help prevent birth defects to the brain and spinal cord. Many women have severe morning (all day for many) sickness. I did through the first trimester into the beginning of the second tri. I was overweight, but not obese and lost weight during that time. It really is not that unusual, and I gained about 17 pounds after that.

    Folic acid was the only one I knew of specifically as well, but a lack of almost any specific nutrient can cause various birth defects (some fatal). A lack of protein can too, and dietary fat is well known to be very detrimental to brain development from the get-go, and up through the years.

    https://healthrow.net/top-birth-defects-due-to-pregnancy-diet/
  • Athena98501
    Athena98501 Posts: 716 Member
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    Lol. I was unusually tired when I wrote that last one. In my last statement, I meant to say *an inadequate amount* of dietary fat. Wow. Oops.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    missysippy930 wrote: »
    Athena98501 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    wackyfunster wrote: »
    In case no one has posted this yet: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/postmedj00315-0056.pdf

    TL;DR: 382 days with no food for morbidly obese man under medical supervision. As long as you get electrolytes, you can survive without food until you reach essential levels of body fat (2-4% for men, 10-12% for women).

    Would that also support the growth of another human being inside her? I certainly wouldn't think so. Not sure if the OP was morbidly obese either.

    She looks it in her picture, but you are correct. Not only would it not support the growth of an unborn baby, but not supplementing a fair number of nutrients would cause birth defects, and so would not be done by medical professionals. There is a good reason that women are strongly encouraged to take a multivitamin formulated specifically for pregnancy throughout said pregnancy.

    Multi-vitamins with folic acid are what health care professionals encourage women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant to take to help prevent birth defects to the brain and spinal cord. Many women have severe morning (all day for many) sickness. I did through the first trimester into the beginning of the second tri. I was overweight, but not obese and lost weight during that time. It really is not that unusual, and I gained about 17 pounds after that.

    Severe morning sickness is a world apart from eating not a single solitary item nor any drip/line fed nutrition for 4 whole months. Throw in pregnancy and, uh, no.
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