Complete and Voluntary Starvation of 50 days

I did this too myself in 2013 with roughly the same numbers (initial body weight ~92kg losing 20kg in 7 weeks most of it body mass). Also I didn&#x27;t take supplements and cut down to tap water only (no food or soups or anything). Reintroducing my body to food was challenging to say the least.<p>I had prior experience doing such a diet once before (for 21 days a year earlier) knowing 8 weeks could be realistic for me to maintain at the time. I stopped a week early because even I boiled the tap water, the residual chlorine left over wasn&#x27;t properly broken down by my body (food helps with that normally) and caused strong reactions every time I tried to drink (nausea even vomiting in final week). So not being able to hydrate myself I needed to stop very abruptly.<p>After I reintroduced my body to food I ended up in hospital a week later due to kidney stones (presumably a side effect of the starvation diet and flushing them out)<p>The hunger goes away after the 3rd&#x2F;4th day and I was even able to go for a small run every other day until week 5. My motivation for it was neither religious nor to loose weight (although I had 10kg too much compared to my ideal shape 5 years before). People thought I was crazy for doing it (and I didn&#x27;t tell anyone about it while it happened and also refused to discuss it with my doctor). I wanted to see how my body (and mind) reacts to extreme pressure like that. Also I felt experienced enough at the time to do this I would not recommend pushing too far into the extreme especially if it&#x27;s your first time. Also worth noting that my weight never bounced back and I managed to maintain my ideal even after 5 years later (only gained 5kg mostly bodymass I lost not so much the fat).<p>My mental abilities (creativity, concentration, focus) were incredible especially until week 5. What I learned is as the body prepares for starvation it also releases huge amounts of energy that is stored up. Feels like having super powers. The body makes these reserves available so we can give it a final push for hunting or finding food (when homo sapiens is out in nature trying to survive I guess). It&#x27;s probably why fasting is such a big thing in every religion.

Related: Results of a 382 day voluntary fast <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC2495396&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC2495396&#x2F;</a> (1973)<p>This patient&#x27;s initial weight was 207 kilograms, and over the course of a year he lost 125 kilograms. During this time he only consumed water, yeast, and multivitamins. After ending the fast, he successfully kept the weight off and only regained 7 kilograms over the next 5 years. He received a Guinness World Record for the longest recorded fast.<p>While a successful example of weight loss, the paper does cite five reports of fatalities occurring during total starvation weight loss treatment. It is probably not the safest way to lose weight.

Last summer I fasted (intermittent) for 30 days. I had intended to do a pure fast (water only), but circumstances lead me to 1 meal a day.<p>I gained strength the longer I was in the fast. My running distance increased, and I lost on average .5 lbs a day. I weighed myself 4 times and day, logged all my meals and activity. I felt great. I gained back about 5 lbs on average, but this fluctuates some. (as is expected)<p>The key thing I learned from this, to maintain my weight loss, is to appreciate being hungry. It makes your next meal taste better, you have signal process to let you know you are burning fat, and it makes your stomach consistently smaller so you fill up easier. All wins...

&gt; Clear ethical barriers preclude structured research into the physiology of such stimuli.<p>I wonder why that is. The key point is &quot;voluntary&quot; starvation, read fasting. Why not make a study with consenting participants to fast for a specific time? Which &quot;clear ethical barrier&quot; is broken here?

Also see:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;fasting&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;fasting&#x2F;</a>

I started eating once a day about 2 months ago. Lost about 20kg. After a while you just stop getting as hungry as you usually would. Sometimes when I&#x27;m busy I actually forget to eat.

As somebody who is not familiar with medical research, can anyone tell me why the authors mention the BMI here at all? As far as I understand, the BMI is an indispensable metric for statistics on large populations. However, in a case study involving only a single individual, it seems to me that other markers such as body fat percentage for example, would be a better choice making the BMI more or less meaningless.

Of related interested, and possibly the only paper that has reached the NEJM with a magician as an author, is this paper that describes David Blane&#x27;s physiology having spent 44 days fasting in a box: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nejm.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;full&#x2F;10.1056&#x2F;NEJM200511243532124" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nejm.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;full&#x2F;10.1056&#x2F;NEJM200511243532124</a>

The unit of the BMI should be kg&#x2F;m^2<p>Will read the rest now but I&#x27;m not sure what to think of a paper with such an error in the first line of the abstract.

In the jain community, i see a lot of fasting around me. Everything from whitelist-of-foods, to total and complete fasts.<p>Some momore info: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Fasting_in_Jainism" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Fasting_in_Jainism</a><p>Enterprising researchers should collect data from above.

I lost over 40lbs doing this, not as extreme.<p>As everyone else reports, I felt more energy and focus, massive rapid weight loss.<p>Fasting is a miracle cure, I tried nearly everything else. More people need to know about how effective it is.

So, at the end they found out it&#x27;s bad?