What's the longest time you've gone without food?

[Ezlivin]

As the recession threatens to deepen into a depression, people are cutting back on all expenses, including food.

Have you ever missed more than just one meal? What is the longest have you gone without food?

I went 10 days with no food and drank only water. No vitamins, no juices: Just water. On numerous occasions I've gone two, three and four days with nothing more than water.

I was curious as to how many other DUers have experienced real hunger.

[peace13]

1. For years we used to fast one day a week,

We dark water only. It is doable.

[glowing]

2. I hate to say this.. because its kind of weird and not the most honest thing to do,

but hotels that offer a continental breakfast.. really don't pay attention. If you slip in for a bagel or some donuts and coffee, they won't really be the wiser. Its how I eat in the AM because I work for a hotel that offers this feature. I've only ate two meals most of my adult life because of the schedule.. and breakfast is free. It helps to keep the kid fed.

[sohndrsmith]

22. good answer... : ) It's not weird... It may not be ethical, but (especially

if there are children involved) I think your priorities are in the right place because they need your care.

My grandmother was born into a pretty darn affluent family - they lost just about everything in the stock market crash.

My grandfather was a chemical engineer when they married, and my mother was born right smack dab in the middle of the Depression... this refined young woman and her engineer husband from New York ended up in a trailer in Oklahoma, working with a traveling circus (how the circus managed, I've yet to figure out).

I will never forget the story my grandmother told me of stealing an onion. It plagued her with guilt her entire life, because it went against every bit of her integrity. I forget what she fed her family, but it was foul and monotonous, and she stole the onion just so she could attempt to make it taste more like food... it bothered her conscience into her 80's (she died at age 82). The one gift from it was that it was a great opportunity for me to teach my children about the harm that dishonesty(stealing, etc.) does to one's heart is infinitely worse than any outside consequence...

I would do just what you suggested, but if I ever got back on my feet, I'd send that hotel a check.

Sleeping at night is between me and my actions and if I don't square them up, they start to corrode my spirit... so I like to have a clear conscience... : )

[glowing]

25. I work at my hotel.. and staff is allowed to eat here.

Knowing my boss.. if someone was desperate, she'd hand the $20.00 as well.

[sohndrsmith]

31. that's lovely - really. I think there are more desperate people around

than most realize, because they look like "regular" friends and neighbors - we just don't know they're sleeping in their cars, or worse. It's easy to spot the people in need who "look" the part, but my guess is there is a huge number of people desperately trying to look held-together - just to get or keep a job, family support, etc. - but the rug has been pulled out from under them.

You have a nifty boss. : )

[madokie]

3. SERE training in the us Navy,

was the hungriest I've ever been. Several weeks with hardly any food

[recoveringrepublican]

4. maybe 8 hours? My MIL is teaching me how to cook her cheap and yummy meals though

I grew up in ND, spent weekends, holidays, and summers at my grandparents' farm, am wishing right about now that I paid more attention to my grandmother in her garden. My husband is a vested federal employee, so not too worried about his job, but damn, every time I go to Publix I get butterflies in my stomach watching the price go up.

[boozepusher]

5. Four days

[pitohui]

6. wow active in your anorexia much or you really didn't have food for 10 days?

i'm not going to answer the question, from my personal background i don't think it's healthy to promote fasts/doing without food intentionally -- too easy to make this kind of thing a contest

as for people who are doing w.out food unintentionally, that's a shame and a disgrace that it would ever happen in this nation

if you can "pass" in addition to the continental breakfast thing the other poster suggested, i'm afraid in days gone by since i was clean and knew how to dress OK -- i did such things as go on "art walks" and help myself to free food and wine -- also i knew all the grocery stores where you could go for food/wine tastings (coffee is often out at some stores and banks for most of the day, wine only certain days/times tho)

as long as you're not also homeless, there's always beans and rice or 10 cent ramen soup packets to keep you full at minimal price -- also i have now learned the ramen doesn't have to be cooked, do as hikers do, smash it up before you open the package, then you can eat it w.out cooking, hell it's calories

i'm not claiming these suggestions are approved by your local nutritionist, but when your local nutritionist has to spend a week providing food from change at the bottom of the sofa she can come back and yell at me :-)

i remember checking phone booths for forgotten change (hell anyone remember phone booths) and picking coins off the ground, and there was always enough for something like ramen at least, but to this day i still make mental notes of where all the free food stations are, down to which grocery store can always be relied on to have chips and dips out, which banks sometimes put out cookies and doughnuts (and i don't even eat doughnuts)

[CoffeeCat]

9. I think it's obvious that the OP...

...is talking about being hungry, due to a lack of food.

The last thing I thought of, when I read the OP, is that the person was
promoting anorexia as recreation.

Geez.

[pitohui]

33. you can apologize now, thanks, see OP's reply to me below

it was indeed voluntary fasting and the poster has acknowledged this

you just can't go ten days in this country w.out food passing your lips unless it's voluntary, there is too much free food sitting out and i listed places where you could find some (where i myself have done it, not just "theory")

enough NUTRITIOUS food? enough health food? maybe not -- there's a big issue of MALnourished in this country

but when you're talking about nothing at all for 10 days except water, you are talking a very dangerous GAME and there are those of us who have the history/experience to recognize the game as such

[Ezlivin]

10. Voluntary fast/test of self

I'm not anorexic and I enjoy the hell out of food. Fasting for a day is not difficult; fasting for three days is a good challenge. But fasting for ten days was a very, very difficult challenge.

I don't encourage others to fast for I do not know their current state of health and fasting can be dangerous.

And I don't view the post as a challenge but rather a question. Many of us talk of hunger but how many of us have truly experienced it?

[sohndrsmith]

19. I didn't see this post when I wrote my other one, but I'm more confused...

because I think the opposite is true as far as range of difficulty, fasting for a day (or two) is hard - I'm guessing because you're body is setting off all it's alarm systems (sirens, bells: hunger), and doing everything possible to alert you to the fact that there is an emergency going on (physiologically). But the sensation of hunger then subsides, and can eventually manifest into an inability to eat, that ends up being an actual physical inability to eat, (not necessarily hunger related, but that's the catalyst) so that it becomes harmful, even life-threatening to eat in normal amounts... medical treatment is required.

I have never understood the process to produce increased hunger beyond an initial period. I've always understood (and experienced) the opposite. Then again, every situation is different. Fasting is harmful, as is alcohol or drug use. It may be "cleaner" in that one is not ingesting a toxin, but fasting for 10 days does not seem like a useful way to test your character... anymore than drinking to excess would be. You cause harm to yourself, potentially serious harm... there have to be infinite ways to test your resolve without damaging your body in the process, no? Of course there are... it depends on what challenges you.

Given that your experience had nothing to do with economics but was a self-competition, I'm even more curious about your question...

What question are you truly interested in resolving? I'm thoroughly confused.. : )

[pitohui]

34. everybody into ana says she's testing herself

it's the oldest rationalization in the book, isn't it?

if you found something valuable in fasting, i'm hesitant to crap on it BUT there is a very large population of people (primarily girls and young women) who shouldn't be taking this kind of "challenge"

i understand you don't mean the post as a challenge but unfortunately for many eating disordered, they can't help but see it as a challenge

hey if she lasted 10 days on pure water, why can't i do the same?

i don't think we can discuss this issue honestly without acknowledging this effect on some people and not really such a small minority of people either

[peace frog]

12. Speaking of scrounging for cash

Twenty four years we lived on my husband's paycheck while I was out of work on maternity leave, at home with a newborn and a pre-schooler. We pinched pennies until they hollered for mercy but even so, we were short on occasion. I recall walking head down through the supermarket parking lot, disheartened and wondering how I was going to make what little money we had buy groceries enough to last until the next payday. Lo and behold, right in my path was a $20.00 bill. Manna from heaven! There was no one else around and I desperately needed it, so I picked up that bill and gratefully, thankfully spent it on groceries. To this day, I remember the person who dropped that twenty in my prayers.

[pitohui]

39. that would be scary with kids

a lot of my suggestions, such as hitting the free wine and cheese giveaways at the art galleries, or the coffee and cookies at the bank, don't work so good with an infant in arms, do they?

[peace frog]

49. We had a few scary moments

but we're proud and relieved that we got through it relatively unscathed. Never missed a payment on a debt nor were we truly hungry. Living with mild poverty was worth it to be home with the babies the first year of their lives.

[lunatica]

7. I went four days without food when I was 19.

During the Summer when I was in college and everyone had gone home. My money all went to rent a small hotel room and I started a job in a post office and I was waiting for my first paycheck so I could eat. But a friend showed up to ask me to go to dinner first. I got the worst headache!

[Ezlivin]

14. Breaking fasts can be tricky

The longer the fast, the more strict you have to be with yourself when breaking the fast.

Upon the completion of my ten day fast I wanted to just drop my face into a big plate of food; instead I broke it with some thin soup and then a bit of food an hour later. I eased into eating food over a period of about 48 hours.

I completely understand the term "ravenous hunger."

I never did undertake a 20 day fast....

[screembloodymurder]

8. Four days.

After the first two days, fasting was relatively easy and I felt pretty good. I think fasting three days a month is probably a healthy practice.

[panader0]

11. Does beer count as food?

My beer has 5 grams of carbs and .7 grams of protein.
Before I started drinking a lot of beer, I once fasted for a week.

[sohndrsmith]

13. on purpose? Never. Due to hardship/stress/grief... 3 days.

Fasting doesn't make a lot of sense to me, considering the way our bodies are programmed to fight it. Eons ago, (or maybe just a few decades - or for some people, minutes) not having food was serious business, and without it, our bodies learned to go into super-conserve mode, and if prolonged... would use resources not meant to be used as fuel. Just these concepts alone are enough to make me think that deliberate starvation (fasting) is really, really bad for all body systems, and wreaks havoc on hunger/sated brain signals to boot if we mess with it enough... that's a layperson's guess, though, nothing more... fortified with my personal experience through years of slow learning that diets are bad, fasting is an extreme diet (and bad), you want to avoid gaining unwanted weight (even casually, because new fat cells never go away, they can only shrink. If you don't "grow" them to begin with, you're ahead of the game...once they start accumulating, it is nearly impossible to revert back to your previous body type because you will always have the increased number of fat cells - it's WAY harder to lose gained weight than it is to maintain a constant weight) and the only way to be healthy (be it weight or tone or fitness of any kind) is through a life-long philosophical and behavioural lifestyle change...

Unfortunately, the issue of your post is somewhat different, in that you pose the question as it relates to economic difficulties.
I'm not sure why, but it leads to an equally problematic answer.

I have been in severe dire straights in my life, and (so far) going hungry was not the biggest issue, because it is possible to find/buy food with very little funds. The problem is, however, that this food is generally extremely unhealthy both in content as well as limitation. Case in point: Ramen. You can buy packets of Ramen noodles for about 33 cents... and there isn't much that will fill you up as well at that price, so if you're really in a pickle, it's all you can eat - maybe for long periods of time. Healthy variety and healthy preparation are what costs us big time, generally... Produce is becoming more and more expensive, making matters worse.

So, if you are in such a bad way that you can only afford Ramen, do you starve instead? I think eating the "food" (basically MSG flavored salt water - massively laden with salt - a few noodles with zero nutritive value and maybe one or two freeze dried peas (if you're lucky) is smarter than starving. Both are bad, but one is worse, more drastically and faster.

I'm curious about your question, and I'm curious as to why you went without food several times, so drastically. By choice or was it economic hardship, which you seem to be basing your question on?

If it was by choice... I'd be interested in your rationale...

[Ezlivin]

16. Caloric restriction seems to have health benefits, but fasting

is apparently also healthy as long as it's a short one and done on a regular basis. I've read that a one day fast once a week actually strengthens the body.

Each fast was done as a religious exercise but also as a way of "testing" myself with increasingly difficult challenges. After a series of one day fasts, I moved on to two- and three-day fasts.

The 10 day fast was the longest I've undertaken, though I had pondered a 20 day fast. Before I started fasting I read extensively on the subject. My wife (who was not fasting) kept an eye on me.

I've read many books wherein the people endured privations and wondered if any DUers had also endured such hard times. From my understanding of the Great Depression food was scarce and people were forced to go without at times. If we do indeed enter an era of food shortages many of us may face involuntary fasts of varying lengths. I was curious as to how other people coped and what lessons they learned about themselves.

As a side note, I read a short story by Stephen King where a man starved to death after 10 days. I thought it was ironic that I had read that after I gone 10 days without food. We are made of sterner stuff than many of us realize.

[pitohui]

37. calorie restriction seems to have health benefits for rodents, it kills girls

do we really need to have this discussion again?

we have a large body of experience w. people who voluntarily restrict calories, and they do not enjoy a long life expectancy or wonderful good health while they're here

[Ezlivin]

41. I'm not into killing girls, boys or rodents

All I said was that caloric restriction has been shown to have benefits. I didn't recommend it as a course of action or suggest that young girls incorporate it into their lifestyle.

Regarding your statement that there is a "large body of experience w. people who voluntarily restrict calories" do you have any links or sources for those studies? Or is that an indirect reference to eating disorders? I would differentiate between an eating disorder and a controlled experiment with calorie reduction.

[pitohui]

43. it isn't indirect at all, it's a direct statement of known fact

we have a large body of empirical evidence with people who voluntarily restrict calories, they don't do so well, many of them die, therefore it would be sort of immoral to expand that to "controlled experiments" on living human people

your "controlled experiments" show that starvation has benefits on rats, period -- worthless and cruel to apply to that people when we already know better

[Ezlivin]

50. How do you then respond to the various books and organizations exploring calorie restriction?

For instance, here are some links that cover aspects of caloric restriction and its effects upon the quality of one's life:

Calorie Restriction Society

The Longevity Diet: Discover Calorie Restriction

Mechanisms of Dietary Restriction in Aging and Disease

Mayo Clinic - Calorie restriction: Is this anti-aging diet worth a try?

Live Science - Live Longer: The One Anti-Aging Trick That Works

WebMD - Want to live a long and healthy life? You could try calorie restriction.

Science Daily: Calorie Restriction Appears Better Than Exercise At Slowing Primary Aging

[underpants]

15. 10 days

The Lemon-aide diet or the Master Cleanse diet

http://www.thelemonadediet.com/

Basically you have a saltwater wash in the morning - stay near a bathroom

then you consume 6-10 mixes of water, lemon juice, and real maple syrup

then you have a laxative tea at night

I don't know how much weight I lost during that time because I wasn't weighing myself until a specific date months away but my energy level went through the roof-something about the body releasing some enzyme or fermone or something. My wife was just sure that I would be passing out at the wheel in the latter stages but she was amazed at my energy, my tongue was pink like a newborns, and my eyes were just sparkingly.

I haven't done it since because I have been in some kind of marathon or swimming training and that really isn't a great idea (as I have read)

It takes two days to come off it-you eat a vegetable stew for the first two days and then ease back into regular food. I craved peanuts and a tuna melt for some reason.

As per DU rules I can't endorse this diet but it was quite an interesting 10 days. I knew a woman who did it for 20+ days but that does seem a bit excessive.

BTW the whole diet is available on line (at link I think). I ordered the $10 book and found that it was the same thing as was on line--the recipe and the come-off diet.

[Ezlivin]

18. I don't consider that a true fast

Don't get me wrong: It would be difficult to do, but the difference is between zero calories and all the calories provided by the lemon juice and maple syrup. What you describe sounds like a fairly short, intense weight loss diet.

A few hundred calories a day will really help keep up your energy levels and provide enough fuel to keep going. Your body reacts differently when it receives absolutely no nutrition/calories at all.

I know that my wife said that my weight loss was apparent in my face after the 10 days.

[Uben]

17. I'm considering it.......

....I started a life-changing diet and exercise program two months ago. After discovering I had dangerously high cholesterol, the doctor told me also that I should lose 15-20 pounds. So, I cut out all fried foods, eat only whole grain breads, and eat a lot of chicken and fish. I walk two miles every morning at a very brisk pace (4 mph) because I cannot run due to a knee injury a few years ago. I call my diet the "gorilla food diet" because I am eating mostly leaves, nuts, grains, and fruit.

I was wondering what the benefits of fasting one day a week would be. I have dropped half the weight I need to already. I am 6 foot one inch tall and weigh 185 pounds currently. I am finding it increasingly difficult to lose additional weight on my current regimin, and have considered the fasting thing as a tool to reach my goal. I am going to increase my walking to three miles a day, first, as that will be easier for me than fasting.

When I was told I need to lose weight, it came as a shock. I have always had one of those metabolisms that allowed me to eat anything and as much as i wanted without ever gaining weight. But, retirement and the knee injury have reduced the amout of exercise I did, so I gained the extra pounds. Getting old sucks.

Anyone with experience in using fasting to lose weight? You input would be valued. Thanks.

[Evoman]

28. 6 ft 1 and 185 sounds like a good weight. I don't think you need to lose more weight.

Especially if you have any sort of muscle mass.

[pitohui]

35. why don't you just get the wheat out of your diet first?

whole grain breads are just as many calories as white bread, as long as you're eating the whole grain breads you're sort of kidding yourself anyway

also a lot of people have a wheat or gluten sensitivity

don't give up all food, give up the frickin' wheat is what i would try first!

[Lorien]

20. seven days

I lost over a dress size. I was unemployed and both too poor and too depressed to eat.

[SmileyRose]

21. About 2 months.

I was a very physically active teenager that thought I was fat and faked out my parents for that long. I fainted in the middle of church and then everything hit the fan.

[hunter]

23. I've got some kind of borderline eating disorder probably.

I can be sort of indifferent to food.

When I was a young man, wild and free, I used to put a a few gallon bottles of water in my car and wander off to places without food. I could go entire weekends without eating, Friday evenings to Sunday evenings easily.

I also used to eat one large meal in the middle of the day, and not much else.

I'm not sure what my longest fast was at the moment, but it was probably a three day weekend, Friday morning to late Monday evening.

Grinding hunger, day in and day out with not enough to eat, with no opportunities to eat until I felt satiated, that would be an entirely different thing. That's what real hunger is, and I imagine it would be like when I once got a really bad pneumonia and was pretty much a skeleton-man by the end of it. Once the infection and fever were gone I had no energy and and my thinking was fuzzy simply because I didn't have enough calories in reserve.

[Gwendolyn]

40. When I was in school, I often went a few days without eating.

Not sure why, too much going on, anxiety over exams, forgetting meals. I don't think it's indicative of an eating disorder. People just don't always feel the need to eat. I've also heard stories from my relatives who went through WWII, and going without food for days was not that uncommon. People in love also sometimes forget to eat. :)

[The_Commonist]

24. I went for 5 days...

...on a hilltop in Death Valley with nothing but a few gallons of water, a bag of weed and a bunch of psilocybin mushrooms.
I sat and watched the moon travel across the sky, and the sun followed again by the moon and the sun again.
I had a nice conversation with the coyote, she just wanted me to stay away from her pups.
I had a little jam session on the ocarina with the birds hanging around the rock formation.
From the north end of the valley, you can see the curvature of the earth.
The flat tire was a drag, other than that it was great.
Lots of insights...

[Ezlivin]

32. Long fasts can induce visions

I didn't "see" anything on my water-only 10 day fast, but I've read that longer fasts can trigger visions.

[FedUpWithIt All]

26. Hard to say. Happened a lot when i was a kid. At one point, 3 brothers and myself shared an MRE

a day.

Hunger is rough.

[azmouse]

27. Probably never more than 12 hours or so.

I've always had something to eat. I consider myself very fortunate.

[Evoman]

29. Probably about 8 hours. Anything significantly longer than that, and I would be committing crimes

to get food.

There is no way I'm not going to eat, and I would do anything to get the food I needed. Anything.

Don't get me wrong...I've been poor. I've been hungry. But I've always had SOMETHING to eat, be it toast or noodles or rice. Sometimes it wasn't enough to be sated..but there is no way I'm going without.

Honestly, if we have another depression, and I'm hungry.......rich people need to be FUCKING SCARED.

[Tashca]

30. Only by choice...never because I was forced too.

I had read about different cultures and their beliefs in fasting. I decided to try it for three days. I have since done it several times. I would only drink water.
The first day was hell....I think it was just the thought of doing this for two more days. When you think about not eating food....of course all you can think about IS food. The second day has always been easier. Then the third day was a no problem at all. Maybe because I knew I would be eating soon. I've never tried a fourth day and think I could do it, but beyond that I would fear problems.

[carlyhippy]

36. a couple of days..

I did a quasi-experiment today. It seems that after drinking 2 cups of coffee only and no food at all, I performed my household chores better with no fatigue. I have a problem with overeating at meals, and I always feel like I am easily fatigued afterwards. I may try this again tomorrow, just to see I feel better while at work.

[Gwendolyn]

38. 7 days after getting 4 impacted wisdom teeth extracted.

I was too pain-wracked to even take in juices. Only water. It was hell. :P

Also, another 5 days when so sick with some fever-fueled flu, I was too hallucinatory to eat or drink anything. My mother splashed water into my mouth and fed me ice cubes. It too was hell.

Severe hunger is never recommended. Having spent some time with several cancer patients, it is possible to subsist without food for some time. Without water, we die very quickly.

[MazeRat7]

42. Excluding fasting (imposed by self or medical types) a day max by most standards...

Of course it would have been much longer had I relied on food from a grocery store. So I figure I need to count berries, wild onions, cat tails, and assorted other "wierdness" I'll not mention.

This (no food) may be a problem for the urban types, it certainly is not for anyone that can get to a really remote area.

Peace,
MZr7

[LeftyMom]

44. Probably a week or more- I was in bed with pneumonia as a teenager.

I was trying to stay hydrated with water and some gatorade (which I could never stand afterward, after drinking so much of it) but I wasn't able to keep fluids down and wound up in the hospital after the few family members who were taking care of me put their heads together and realized nobody'd had to help me down the hall to the bathroom in days, and that I was very seriously dehydrated.

[noamnety]

45. a week or two when I was pregnant

couldn't keep anything down, lost 20 pounds in about 2 weeks, couldn't get the army docs to admit me to the hospital despite a few trips to the clinic where they kept telling me "it'll get better after your third month." They didn't quite grasp the extent to which I couldn't eat anything.

Finally we had an inspection where I didn't feel I could cope with standing up for it. When the sgt came in to inspect us, I was sort of information - in my row ... but lying flat on my back while everyone else was upright. I told him go ahead and inspect me, just please please let me lie here on the floor. I thought that was a reasonable compromise. He seemed to think it was abnormal, and made the person next to me take me to the ER where I stayed on an IV for a few weeks.

Other than that, I haven't gone without food for too long, excepting when I had the flu and couldn't eat. But I've eaten roadkill and a bit of poached meat and some other scavenged stuff from the wild when I was poor. Most places I've lived, I've figured out where the nearby food sources are located, whether it's nut trees, fruit trees, berries, mushrooms or fish.

[rvablue]

46. Kick, this post is very interesting....don't think I've ever gone a day without eating.

Sounds like I am making a bad joke, but this thread really is "food for thought."

And really makes you think.........

[Ilsa]

47. I dunno, 4 or 5 days. I've had various surgeries and been on liquids

or only IV fluids for days at a time. Yes, I got hungry during some of those occasions.

[readmoreoften]

48. 250 calorie per day fast (all calories liquid protein) for 15 days at a time. 3 months total in 2001

Couldn't keep weight off due to unknown medical issue. Fasting was the only way I could stop gaining weight.

[riqster]

51. When I was homeless, I ate every day and a half or so

..if I was lucky. Got through it eventually, but I STILL am grateful for every bite I eat.