They say you can only live without food for a few days?

Question

I remember back in grade school they would teach us that you can only go a few days without water and only about a week without food. Does it depend on the weight of the individual? Say a fat person was stranded in the woods, would they survive longer without food and water since they have so much stored fat in their bodies? A friend and I are debating this topic, so any insight you can give would be helpful.

Answer 1

yes, fat people will survive longer w/o food.
The body needs food because cell metabolism is only 40% efficient, and we need to grow and do work and stuff.
Lipid (fats) are easy to digest. They are split into glycerol and the hydrocarbon chains. Since both of these are easy to digest, fats are hard to burn off, to the anger of dieters.
So fat people would burn the fats w/ their metabolism, and since they have more to burn, they would survive longer.

Answer 2

It is water that is crucial fat or not, a person can only live few days without water, but can last up to a month without food. As for being fat I don't think that those extra stored energy works to much of an advantage. Maybe a person 10 pounds over weight would have a couple of days advantage but a person really overweight would have other problems, things like blood pressure or diabetes all kinds of things would make them a lot weaker a lot quicker then a person that was fit.

Answer 3

Yes, it would depend on the individuals health to begin with. Someone of an average healthy weight could probably last a week to two weeks with no food, and with a little food every now and then they could perhaps make it a month. Someone who has a larger store of fat or muscle would probably last a bit longer (probably a few days at best) because the body has more stored reserves.

The amount of activity being performed would also increase or decrease the amount of time they could survive. The more strenuous the activities you're doing the less time you'll survive.

Answer 4

Yes, I believe a fat person can live longer w/o food, because once the body is starved it will start eating itself starting w/ the most organic compound in that persons body. Since fat is the most abundant compound in a fat person the body will eat that first. Then the other 3 will be eaten if the person doesn't eat before that occurs.

Answer 5

A person can only live for 94 hours without water. A fat person wouldn't survive for a longer period of time because he needs to metabolize enough food in order to carry out the process of cellular respiration.

Answer 6

Yes, a person with more fat stores in their body would theoretically survive longer without additional caloric intake.
However, their metabolisms may be higher than those of others, so these stores may be used in rather quickly, especially in the abscence of additional water to facilitate the breaking down of adipose tissue.

Answer 7

It totally depends on the person's size and other details like a sickness.
Me for example about like 3 weeks ago on my b-day it was like the last day to turn in late works so i only ate a salad and by the end of the day it turned out this girl i was supposed to meet turned out not to come and from waiting for her outside in the cold I just about fainted but didn't by holding on something.

So it depends on the person's size, weight, and other details. As for my 5' 9" 155 pound body, I don't think i can make it one day without eating.

Answer 8

I know people (including my brother) who fasted for 40 days. I'm talking about no food, but drinking juice. I wasn't living nearby at the time, but I heard he looked like a cancer patient by the time it was over.

Answer 9

A fatter person might be able to go a little longer, but in the end I think it really up to each individauls metobolism

Answer 10

it does depend on your weight also becuz if u are fat, u have store extra fats in your body that wil be burn for energy. as a result, u will live longer.