How long would it take a person to starve to death...?

Question

if they stopped eating completely....... [and no I am neither sucidal nor suffering from Anorexia ].

I was just pondering this question having come across an article on Wikipedia... and was wondering whether a person would die within weeks or rather months if they just drunk fluids and ate nothing.. I also read somewhere that if you went without sleep for more than 5 days you would die??

Answer 1

No fluids and no food = aprox 14-30 days
water only and no food, no nutrients= 30-65 days

Answer 2

There are a lot of variables to consider such your amount of bodyfat, your basal metabolic rate (the amount of energy you consume at rest), your activity level and the type of fluids available.

By the way, you can live a long healthy life on just fluids if you take the right kind of fluids. Lets assume that you have water only. I can't imagine anyone holding out for more than a month though it could be possible. Several months would be out of the question. A skinny weak person might die within days.

Answer 3

Your brain would go into a sleep state while you were awake so the no sleep for 5 days is impossible and your body would digest itself if you didnt eat food so you could last about 3 weeks if you are in top shape and also had a very nutrient rich food intake right before you started your fasting and you can survive longer if you dont exercize during the fasting because your energy works like your breath if you can hold your breath underwater for a minute without moving you will only last half that time if you move around

Answer 4

If there is no water involved then 1 week. If it is just no food but liquids then about a month give or take.. If it is only water and no foods then probably 2-3 weeks. And yes you can die from lack of sleep.. It has been proven is many cases especially where people are awake and on the computer.

Answer 5

Assuming water is available and there are no other stresses, its over a month & varies depending on starting health You can stay awake much longer than 5 days.

Please don't try either, it causes a lot of work for some poor b;stard.

I dieted once, going down to 300 calories a day - didnt lose any weight though. The body goes into an "emergency" metabolic state for quite a while. Its much better to eat say 2000 cals and increase exercise a lot.

Answer 6

You won't die if you go without sleep for 5 days. Your brain will become extremely slow and disoriented resulting in not thinking clearly and rapid tiredness. The only real scientifically proven fact for the die part is posted here:http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/41162. Preferably I would assume that you can go without food for more than 21 days because I believe in the different concepts. It all depends on how far your willing to go I suppose.

Answer 7

There are allot of aspects in touch. yet in case you're taking 2 human beings of a similar high quality of wellbeing, yet one has more desirable body fat than the different. the single with a lot less body fat will start up burning protien earlier to the fellow with more desirable body fat. starving to lack of life is a procedure at the same time as the body starts to feed on this is own oregons for protien. Then the oregons start up to close down. as long as you both had a water source, threat is the over weight human being would proceed to exist longer than the underwieght human being. yet! If the thinner human being is healthful with alot of lean muscle, and the heavier human being has little or no muscle. there is an threat that the heavier human being will start up to interrupt down before the thinner human being.

Answer 8

Most people can go three weeks without eating, longer depending on the person's weight. Some of those in Ireland lasted about a month when they fasted until dying. Sleep deprivation can definitely kill.

Answer 9

If an average person, in good health, is drinking plenty of water or fruit juice but eating no food, s/he can go about 28 days without significant detriment to health.
Fasting completely from food causes the body to slow down its metabolism, allowing it to last longer.
People who have gone on "hunger strike" as a protest in prison, have died in about two months.

Answer 10

I've known several people to get all hopped up on METH and they won't sleep for days and days, and it never killed them. But they do get paranoid and have hallucination!

As for how long it will take to kill someone by starvation. It depends on how much fat they have on their bodies, and whether or not they are drinking water. If you are drinking water, then you are keeping hydrated and you'll live longer. But when you cut off food and water, then you starve and Dehydrate, and you starve faster!

It can take 7-14 days for someone to starve/dehydrate to death!

People do it in nursing homes all the time. It's called *comfort care* and it's not comfortable at all, it just means that they are starving them to death!

Answer 11

Sixty days.
I learned this from an unsympathetic GP. My dad was ill and had been unable to eat for over a week. When consulted the GP said 'don't worry, people can survive for 60 days without eating'. Since then that fact has always stayed in my memory!