How Long can the Body go without Food!

how long can the body go without food – When I was young, I watched in a children’s program – Sinbad I think – a short answer to this question, which is three days without water and 30 days without food. Well, it’s a good attempt for a children’s program but not appropriate as a science thesis. In fact, I cannot answer this question accurately as it lacks some details.

The state of a person’s health, weight, and weather all play a role in how long we can go without food or drink. But what I can answer quickly without asking about the details of weather, weight, etc. is that it is possible to try abstaining from food (as long as there is water) but I would not advise anyone to try abstaining from water, and with that I will tell you, dear readers, for the period in which our body can endure Refrain from food or water.

When we talk about abstaining from food, the image of the late Indian leader “Gandhi”, who fasted for 21 days in the fall of his life at the age of seventy or more, immediately comes to mind, as well as the strikes of prisoners and others. Now we return to our question, how long can a person survive without food? There is almost unanimity among doctors that a healthy person can go without food for 8 weeks, however, some people may stay healthy for more than that. Conversely, others may die in less than this period. Why this difference?! 

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This is related to several factors, such as the psychological factor (the will), and we also have the amount of fat in the body – the more it increases, the greater the ability to survive – and this is due to the fact that the body stores the energy needed for its work in the form of sugars, fats and proteins. When a person abstains from food, he starts consuming sugars first, then fats (and as we said, the longer the stay), and finally proteins. And I will not keep you a secret, if you happen and try to abstain from food and reach the limit of consuming proteins, you will be in an unenviable position, and your bodies will not be in good health.

Another important factor is metabolic rate, but what is metabolism? It is the processes in which food is converted into energy, the lower this rate, the less stored food is converted into energy and thus is kept for a longer period (and therefore longer stay without food). However, the metabolic rate will automatically decrease once you stop eating.


What else do we have? Weather, and in this context I have good and bad news. The bad is that either hot or cold weather will speed up your death if you abstain from food, as high heat means faster dehydration (water loss) and extreme cold means a high metabolic rate to provide sufficient heat in order to maintain a constant body temperature (37 degrees Celsius). 

As for the good news, whoever will refrain from food, assuming that the temperature was as we described (very high or low), it will eliminate him without suffering from hunger pangs. Some may prefer to call this news very bad instead of good.

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