How long can a human go without food? Do crash diets REALLY work?
Crash diets work well.
That is, until you start eating again. Then everything you consume is stored as fat as your body's defense in case it should happen again. During times of starvation your body feeds off of fat cells and muscle, so after a cycle of starvation it 'thinks' that it may happen again so you gain weight faster than ever.
July 19th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Crash diets work well.
That is, until you start eating again. Then everything you consume is stored as fat as your body's defense in case it should happen again. During times of starvation your body feeds off of fat cells and muscle, so after a cycle of starvation it 'thinks' that it may happen again so you gain weight faster than ever.
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:19 am
hell no they don't work they damage your body irreversibly
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:19 am
I agree…crash diets work for just the time you are on them, than you gain the weight back super fast.
If you just stop eating your body will take it as something bad is happening and try to hold onto all the fat and stuff you have and you will actually lose less than if you eat small meals 5 to 6 times a day and drink lots and lots of water.
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:21 am
There's an old mariner's saying: 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, 3 minutes without air.
It's pretty close to the truth, physical condition, training. etc. will either delay or reduce the time frame.
Crash diets do not work, weight is best lost slowly but consistently to give the body a chance to adapt.
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:21 am
i read a readers digest story of a guy that ran off a closed snowy road in the mountains and lasted three months without food before he died..he keep a diary…
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:21 am
The duration of survival without food is greatly influenced by factors such as body weight, genetic variation, other health considerations and, most importantly, the presence or absence of dehydration. Mahatma Gandhi went 21 days with only sips of water, and there are reports of people going as long as 40 days.
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Crash diets do not work. You need to read the book " 6 Day Body Makeover " by MIchael Thurmond. Drop one whole pant or dress size in just 6 days- and keep it off. I read this book and it's great because you can eat more and excercice less. You need to get this book and read it.
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:22 am
The human body can go up to weeks without food… However that is not recommended and has only proven to work when in starvation situations (such as being stranded without access to food).
Crash diets do not work in the long run… as soon as you start eating as you did before, your body will regain the weight and then some, supplementing for the next time you put your body in starvtion mode.
The best way to lose weight is to change (gradually and only one to two things at a time) your intake and/or implement a regular exercise regimen. You will lose the weight more gradually with this HOWEVER it will be more permanent as crash diets never lead to permanent, healthy weight loss.
Best of luck!
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Crash diets don't work. You gain back whatever you lost in a matter of weeks. If you really want to lose weight, check out weight watchers. They can teach you how to balance eating and exercise to lose weight in a heathy way and keep it off.
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:23 am
if you go with out eating for a while your body See's it as something bad so it goes into like a famine mode where is stores fat and slowly uses it for energy etc. then when you start eating again your body will automatically store food and put on fat as a precaution because you went without food for so long. so you put weight on way quicker even if you start eating healthier after the crash diet your body will try store what ever fat it can….
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:25 am
the above answer is true. But there are much greater risks involved, note the term crash diet. Your entire body will cease to function properly. Your immune system may crash, which is like getting AIDS for that period of time. The bottom line is that by removing food all together you will remove the necessary nutrients as well.
Maybe you can crash diet while taking multi-vitamins and other nutrients. But as soon as you resume your normal life, it leads back to the above answer.
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July 19th, 2007 at 8:30 am
How long someone can survive without food would have to take into consideration various factors such as the weight and health of the individual to begin with, so that part of your question would be impossible to give an accurate answer to… Read the provided link for more information.
Do crash diets really work? The answer is yes, initially they do, but you pay a price with your health AND the majority of people who lose weight by crash dieting not only gain back the weight they lost, they gain more besides because of the way your body reacts to what it interprets as starvation.
Anytime you drastically reduce your calorie intake, your brain thinks that there is no food available and starts taking action to conserve calories. The problem with that is, when you do go back to eating "normal", your body stays in calorie conserving mode. That means that even if you now eat less, your body will turn everything it can into fat stores against what it has registered with your previous calorie cut as famine times.
That is why the best way to lose weight is not to diet, but to actually change your eating habits and increase your movements. Easy to say, very hard to do.
A major change you can make is to cut out all fast food and restaurant food which is very heavily laden with transfats and sodium. Cut back greatly on processed meats like lunch meats, hot dogs and sausages. Cutting back on meat in general is a good idea because of the growth hormones they give animals to make them gain weight faster. It does they same thing to you.
It can be done, and it's a life long commitment to eating healthy, but you will always be glad you made the effort.
Good luck.
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http://www.slate.com/id/2102228/
July 19th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
One of the most famous hunger strikers of recent time, Bobby Sands, was a thin strip of a lad in his twenties when he went on hunger strike. He died after 65 days.
People with a higher BMI could last considerably longer than this.
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