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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.
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 :/
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What’s dilaudid and why were you in hospital?
I don’t wanna doxx myself for hospital reason, but let’s just say it was very uncommon and serious and I was apparently in significantly more pain than I thought I was. I’m never birthing a child, but multiple doctors told me it was worse than childbirth. Yayyyyy! Luckily I’m 99% better and it is not likely to happen again.
Dilaudid is morphene but MOREphene. Like, extra mega strong morphene. They gave me morphene at first and decided I could use something stronger. I did not complain!
Damn sounds scary. I hope I don’t get that whatever it is.
Any tips on how to avoid that?
I kinda hate how quickly dilaudid fades, tho - but I have never had morphine to compare against, so 🤷♀️
but yeah, it's annoying having to ask the nurse to administer another dose of dilaudid so frequently, I think I had to do it three times when waiting in post-op to be discharged, and even then it was only moderately helpful - maybe my doses were too low (I should go check the paperwork and see if I can figure out how much I took).
EDIT: I was given 0.5 mg each time, and I had to request another dose roughly once an hour (it was administered by IV) - so, I don't know how that compares to your dose / experience ... I think the max amount they would allow was 2 mg.
Ahh mine was every couple hours. I’m not sure the dosage but it was two tubes most times. They gave me one tube occasionally and then asked a bit later if I wanted the other. I think I only declined once, it hurt quiiiite a lot. There weren’t any times where it wore off before I could have another, so that’s nice! Also the hospital my partner drove me to, I got fucking LUCKY. They got my vitals immediately when I got there, I was in a room within 10 minutes, a CT scan in maybe a half hour, and the were like “yeah you’re gonna have to stay for… some time. We’ll get you a room upstairs as soon as we can, but that’s gonna be the tricky part.”
My partner and I start watching stuff together on my phone while we wait (thank you headphone audio mirroring!) and we get a HALF HOUR IN and they’re like “corner room opened, we’re gonna get you in there NOW before anything happens to it”
Big ol giant room for us both to be in, nice tables I can move around without getting up. Bathe room mega close, and almost every time I paged a nurse for pain meds they were there INSTANTLY. It was honestly the best hospital experience I could have hoped for. After a few days on Dilaudid they asked if I wanted to switch to oral oxy when I could eat more, and that lasted much longer (but the whole IV thing was so neat.. I’ve done almost every drug but never touched opiates and I refuse to touch needles, so that was prolly (hopefully) a once in a lifetime experience for me)
By the time I got home, I didn’t even need the extra Oxys they gave me, but I had a lil fun with them after as a reward for my experience. I’ll for sure go to that hospital if I ever need to again.
I find opiates kinda boring tbh, and while they can be euphoric (sorta mixed for me) they can also make me feel sorta ill, so I don't really like to take them.
When I was depressed, though, that was a dangerous drug because I had so little "happiness" and it felt like a special treat - so I could see it being very dangerous if I didn't have other sources of happiness / mental well-being.
So glad you got that corner room and you had a good experience, that is such great luck and so heart-warming.
Also probably worth mentioning that recreational drug use of heroin is probably dosing more than the hospital is giving, if I had to guess - so stronger euphoria, but also stronger depressant effects, etc., so I'm not sure how accurate your hospital experience was to what recreational users are experiencing.
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,.
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.
Two days without solid food because my stomach is stupid. I was hydrated the entire time though and drinking ginger ale occasionally.
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
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?)
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 on a trail with a couple friends for about 4 hours. It was the middle of summer 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.
Did a week as a challenge/experience. I read up a bit beforehand and just made sure I got enough water and electrolytes. Was getting hungry during the first day and more during the second, but then it just kinda stopped. I felt tired and weak a bit but apart from that everything fine.
Around a day and a half without any source of food, limited water and building my own shelter in the middle of nowhere. Would not recommend on the thirst and hunger side, but it was quite peaceful. I ended up eating a little bit of my flavoured chapstick, I was quite hungry and thirsty. Thankfully weather was mild so no heat or cold related issues shelter wise. I've been camping in tents when it's gotten so cold that frost formed inside the tent, that's not fun either. Once I made it back to civilisation, I had a long shower, drank lots of water, and ate two full plates of food. Almost threw up afterwards from overeating.
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 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.
I have ADHD, I forget to eat and drink on a regular basis. However I have no clue what my longest record is. LOL
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.
Sounds amazing. Currently doing a 5 day.
About two days without food, a bit more if I remember correctly, and around one day without water.
I had to have a knee surgery with general anesthesia, so I wasn't allowed to eat several hours before and couldn't drink either. Due to the timing of the surgery the last time I would have been allowed to drink was like 1 am, but I'm a morning person and was anxious so I went to bed at my normal 10pm and also ate and drank at my normal 7-8pm or so. Or maybe I had to stop eating earlier, I don't remember exactly.
Anyway, the surgery happened, my parents picked me up and took me home. My mother had one of her many many meltdowns. They hadn't brought me snacks or drinks to the hospital and she just mocked me that I couldn't hold it together for the 1 hour ride home. We get home, I hobbled to my bed. My mother refused to bring me food or drinks and forbid my father from bringing me anything. I could come to the kitchen and sit at the table "like a normal person" if I wanted to eat. In the evening my spineles POS father at least brought me a bottle of water, much to my mother's dismay.
The next day I managed to hobble to the table, so I was allowed to eat and drink.
This wasn't entirely new, my parents had a habit of locking me up in my room without food or water for an entire day when I was little. They never thought that was a big deal. My mother even told me after the surgery that she wouldn't bring me food to not "enable my spoiled behaviour" and that it was a good chance to finally lose some weight. (I was just slightly overweight, maybe 80kg at 172).
In case you're wondering: yes, I've been no contact with my family for years.
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.