Fasting, Starvation, & Survival

E

Evolute

Joined
Mar 19, 2001
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We all need food to survive.

It's easy to imagine an emergency survival situation where food is in short supply. Some prepare for this, by keeping a fishing kit, firearms, slingshot, snares, etc., in their survival gear kits.

Over this Summer (for reasons I won't explain, here, so don't ask), I went for a little over two months almost entirely without food. For more than five weeks, I ate nothing at all. For several more weeks, I ate an average of less than 100 calories per day.

While figuring out the exact results of this starvation are somewhat complicated by other variables (in particular: I went mostly without sleep during the same period), I learned a lot. Some of it might be of interest to you, from a food-shortage-during-emergency-survival perspective, so I thought I'd share my experience with you all.

You should know that, before stopping eating for two months, I was already rather thin to start... about 30 pounds underweight. You should also know that I normally eat a lot; most of my friends think I have the largest appetite they've ever seen.

• During ~2 months of starvation, I lost 42 pounds. That's certainly not negligibly small, but, at the same time, it was not critically life-threatening... even for someone who started out quite skinny.

• The progression of the weight loss was uneven. In the first 3 weeks or so, I lost 25 pounds. During the entire remainder, I lost another 17 pounds. Apparently, one's body quickly adapts to lose much less weight, during prolonged periods of starvation.

• Hunger was a non-issue. Really... no hunger at all, no hunger related discomfort, a complete non-issue.

• My energy level certainly dropped, but not as much as I expected. I remained quite functional, in regard to my energy levels.

• My skin became much healthier. Much clearer, smoother, tighter and firmer, almost "radiant". Perhaps there really is some substance to the notion of detoxification through fasting.

• When I started eating, again, I'd broken the cycle of the way I used to eat. The ways I used to eat haven't appealed to me since I've been eating, again. The way I've been eating, the last couple weeks has been odd (for me). Since I started eating, again, I haven't been eating dairy, or grains, or fatty foods, or sugary foods, or salty foods, or heavily processed foods, or even cooked foods. For the last couple weeks, I've been eating mostly fresh fruit, sashimi, freshly made vegetable juice, and stuff like that.


One thing I've learned from this, from an emergency wilderness survival perspective: I've always considered fishing/hunting/trapping gear to be relatively unimportant for short term survival situations, but now I think it has no importance, whatsoever (except for secondary uses, such as using fishing line to repair clothes). If I can start out 30 or more pounds underweight, and go for two months without foods, while remaining functional, and having probably enough reserves left for another month, if absolutely necessary... then (it seems to me) it's just a non-issue for short-term emergency wilderness survival. Of course, I did this in the warm Summer, and I also did it when I didn't need to do all of the physical exertion involved with wilderness survival. Nevertheless, I'm sure I started with enough reserves for at least several weeks, under more severe conditions. Perhaps fishing or trapping is good for keeping you busy and keeping up your morale, but... from a nutritional perspective... it's somewhat superfluous for a short-term emergency wilderness survival kit.

I actually feel somewhat liberated to know that, if I ever needed to go for weeks without food, in the future, I could do so, relatively easily.

If you have any questions or comments about my experience with not eating for a couple months, feel welcome to ask or add.

Cheers.
 
Ive toyed with the idea of a fast. I keep wanting to start a detox fast, but havent done so yet. Your info is really helpfull to me. I dont think I will go as long as you did. I was thinking of 3 weeks, with only water and organic fruit juice.

Of course my physician has been consulted, and I have a go ahead health wise when I want.
 
Thats interesting. I tried fasting once..I made it about 6 hours...seriously. I dont need food all that badly..but the thought of not having it made me want it more...so I guess you wouldnt want to be stranded on a lifeboat with me! It wouldnt be long before you looked like a chicken nugget.
Seriously, I came down with a really bad bout of food poisoning a few years ago..nothing would stay down..or in. Really gross...high fever, shakes and sweats. I lost about 20 lbs in one week...once the sickness had subsided..the feeling of hunger wasnt there.....I was bone dry, nothing but water in me for 4 days..and I felt fine. I think that the longer you go...the easier it gets. I have read this, and kinda experienced it on the short term.
I am glad you are eating again..we like having you around here bro. You do NEED food. Gene
 
My father has a saying "If you don't eat, you don't shit, if you don't shit, you die!"

Glad you're Ok and eating again.
I just got over a bout of food poisoning and like Gene lost about 10 kg in four days I found I lost muscle mass as I'm a fairly skinny guy at 6'4" and was 85 kg (now working back to that weight) I also found I got tired quickly, I'm a landscaper and the first few days back at work was feeling like I'd run the tank dry about half way thru the day.
I have no doubt food has a mental part to play in a survival situation but short term water and shelter is priority.
 
I've fasted for three days before taking in only liquid.I would agree that in a survival situation fluids would be much more important than food.However if the survival situation required a lot of physical activity food would be much more important than in a stay put situation.
 
Maybe the "radiant" skin effect was just the sunlight passing completely through your body..........:)
 
I've done detox fasts, and working-out detox fasts.

In fact, once this wedding trip is over and the equinox is done, I'm due for a biggie. I've been getting weird in my diet and some of the health issues again.

The energy level thing is... deceptive. If you were doing real hard physical activity- riding 50 miles a day, hiking 8-10, swimming a couple miles, snowshoeing, I think you'd feel it - fast. couple days. I know you can function through that to a point, but 5 weeks would be way beyond reasonable, I am guessing. For trail strolling or checking traps and hanging out doing lighter tasks- making bowls or mashing fibers or whatnot I think you're right. Think because I've never done more than 9 days. only 4 on a heavy workout fast.


For anyone thinking about it, the detox effects are amazing. Really unvelievable. After the first 6 or 7 days. Getting through that can be rough. I sually get a 2nd and 3rd day headache that makes me rather unpleasant to be around. You can burn that out the second day if you are exercising enough, but you'll feel it.

For survival I generally don't do a huge amount of food storage in the bags. We have the 6-9 months in the house, but I think the OP has a good point about it. And a couple hundred kC a day of foragables could extend the comfort zone for me - as an aware adult- out for several weeks in the local environment. (no snow) I mostly carry feel good stuff like cocoa and tea and a couple granola bars because of the kiddos.

My 5 year old has a little tackle box in his backpack with bandaids and alcohol wipes, a whitle, orange "banada" and a dozen packs of honey. The honey packets are awesome as kiddo trail snacks.


Evolute- I really am curious what went into this particular fast, I'm working on planning my next one and there's more to it than simple detox. *IF* you are willing to share :)
 
Damn bro, Glad your back to eating that is a long time w/out any food. What climate wee you in during this? I am wondering if warmer climates would be asier that colder climates.

Everybody is unique in how they handle lack of food, some people like yourself can make it that long, but others just can't. Doesn't the body start eating away muscle tissue after the fat reserves are gone? If thats the case, I would think I would be severely weakened after only days without food.
 
i have also noticed that if i dont eat dinner, then go to sleep, the next day i am suprisingly not hungry at all. so in a survival situation of a few days, past the first day hunger definatly wouldnt be an issue unless you were straining yourself physically.
 
holy hell man, would you mind sharing what your height/weight was beforehand, if you were 30lbs underweight and then lost another 42?
Assuming that I'm *correct* weight at 5'11'', the 30+42 would put me down to 83 lbs, and I really don't think my body would function at that point.

I've noticed that if i eat less for a few days my stomach will shrink enough that eating normal portions is uncomfortable.
Also noticed that exercise prevents me from being hungry, ditto for being busy with a project- maybe there's a lot to be said for a busy mind & body.
 
Umm, if you don't eat and continue being active, which would be required in a survival situation, your body will take what it needs from your reserves won't it? Fat reserves should go first, but if you are active, won't the body eat muscle mass? Lots of questions, because I've been considering a fast as well.
 
in my limited experience, I've never reached a point where I lost any noticeable muscle mass
 
intersting results, thanks for sharing.

I used to big wall climb, i would spend weeks eating fatty foods prior to the climb (fat is a LONG term energy source. during a climb i would eat bricks of cheese, whole spicy salamis, can after can of oily sardines, peanut butter and Nuttela (chocolate hazelnut spread) and drink copious amounts (4-5 GALLONS) per day during the climb. I would weigh in at around 180 lbs prior to the climb and about 140 - 150 lbs after the climb. I would piss maybe once. I would eat like horse after the climb and could'nt get enough water.

EDIT: on multi day climbs or major exertion (summer) climbs, i did notice pain in all my muscles, there is a medical term for it, when the body feeds on itself...cant remeber?
 
I fast quite regular for both spiritual and health reasons. After getting through the first two days (usually get a headache due to detox and caffeine withdrawal) I find that my head becomes clearer and I actually have more energy on medium strenuous tasks. I would recommend a three day fast for starters, then try a seven to ten day fast a few months later.

There are lots of benefits.
 
Hey Evolute, I too am interested in fasting. I am with Koyote as far as wanting to know the parameters of what you ate, when and how much.
 
now, i understand if you don't want to share the non technical details out in public too much, too.

I definitely have been feeling a bit grunged up mentally and physically and could go for a good fasting, but before now I've had a nursing mother and/or a toddler who would stop eating if I didn't eat for a few days. So this up and coming is my first chance in a longish time to try something more than a half week.
 
Rockywolf said:
Hey Evolute, I too am interested in fasting. I am with Koyote as far as wanting to know the parameters of what you ate, when and how much.
Click to expand...

First, I want to be clear that I did not do this for the purpose of fasting. It had that effect, but that was not intended.

As for what I ate:

For more than five weeks, nothing whatsoever.

For the following few weeks:

There was a day when I had a few bites of pizza, and there was a day when I had a few bites of risotto, and a day when I had a glass of grapefruit juice, and so on. Most days, nothing, except for a scoop of some green vegetable based nutritional powder in a glass of water.

By the way, a few more comments:

1) There were a number of days during this period when I was modestly physically active, including hiking more than 6-8 miles... as is a necessary part of my job.

2) I did lose a lot of muscle mass, as well as most of the scant amount of fat I possessed.

3) Like everybody, I normally get very hungry after several hours without eating. At least in my case, a prolonged period without food involved less discomfort than a few hours without food.
 
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wow.. that is pretty wild...:eek: i'm glad you're allright after all that... that is some serios info. to process...

i have done a few weekend long fasts and i thought that was hard...:o
 
Evolute,
I can relate to your experience and conclusions, although they seem counterintuitive. I've lost about 45-50 lbs in the last year by simply not eating very much or very often. Food now does taste differently. Highly caloric, i.e. rich foods, can be a little too intense for my palate, and I frequently have more energy in a light eating or fasting period than for several hours after eating a little too much. I feel like I eat more for psychological reasons like reward rather than for actual energy needs. I also find it IS very freeing to not be quite so obsessed with food.
 
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