what's the longest duration you went without eating?

[boomchakabowwow]

my wife challenged me to a 24 hours fast. (True story: not 10-minutes in, I saw her eating a bowl of cherry tomatoes - she forgot!)

anyways, D-hour is 5:00pm. (last night at 5:00pm) I ate a tiny bowl of soup and my soba noodles, when she threw down the gauntlets. had I known, I would have eaten more!! she went to work, where I believe she is safe. I am at home, surrounded by leftovers. some of which is dutch oven roasted pork with gravy.

you ask why? at the moment, I am asking the same question. I just want to see what it is like, I think.

this forum is proliferated with some of the best damn cooks I've had the honor of typing with...what is the longest you ignored food?

 

[RickH]

my wife challenged me to a 24 hours fast. (True story: not 10-minutes in, I saw her eating a bowl of cherry tomatoes - she forgot!)

anyways, D-hour is 5:00pm. (last night at 5:00pm) I ate a tiny bowl of soup and my soba noodles, when she threw down the gauntlets. had I known, I would have eaten more!! she went to work, where I believe she is safe. I am at home, surrounded by leftovers. some of which is dutch oven roasted pork with gravy.

you ask why? at the moment, I am asking the same question. I just want to see what it is like, I think.

this forum is proliferated with some of the best damn cooks I've had the honor of typing with...what is the longest you ignored food?

72 hours.

 

[Gongoozler]

Like 20 hours or so

 

[kdizzog6]

Man that's tough!

Strict dieter here, The longest without food is 8 hours while I sleep LOL, unless you count the times when I was a poor kid.

6-8 meals a day and always one before bed and right when I wake up.

I feel like I would die doing a fast now that my body is accustomed to a steady supply of proteins, fats, and calories..

Goo luck on your fasting.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

72 hours.

wow!!!.

that almost breaks the rule of 3, thing!!

 

[sumis]

15 mins.

.

 

[RonB]

never mind - @sumis beat me to it...

 

[WildBoar]

2 years.

I was living on campus in college. The stuff at the dining hall was definitely not food.

 

[Dave]

Not counting when i sleep, idk like 4 hours? I'm that guy that's always snacking on something and it doesn't help that my executive chef brings food to my desk like 3 times a day for "quality control".

 

[pavhav]

I've come to think that people respond differently to fasting. I've heard many good things . . .
The longest I've gone without food wasn't exactly voluntary; it was a recon mission gone long (sideways). Just over 8 days. No discernible benefits, but the negative experience may well have been compounded by lack of sleep, (and generally tenuous circumstances).
Voluntarily I did over 4 days of fasting because a pretty, hippy girlfriend told me I'd feel elated and pure. I'm (dumb) willing to experiment, so: I just felt hangry. Steadily hangry from 3 hours without food and onwards until I ate again. No discernible benefits despite decent sleep. Never a hint of elation.
One star, don't recommend.

 

[aporigine]

108 hours. The last twelve were gnarly.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

For the record: 24 hours is cake.

Tough part was prepping food to eat after the time limit was up.

 

[dchang21]

i considering involuntarily swallowing my own saliva a form of eating, so not very long..

 

[aporigine]

i considering involuntarily swallowing my own saliva a form of eating, so not very long..

the unsung food grouo

 

[Naftoor]

I believe my longest was about 84, ended up having to break it due to a migraine getting triggered. Used to do 48s pretty regularly, it was great for weight loss. Had to stop going past that though since it didn’t play well with the migraines and they became a trend. Pretty hard to do with a partner though, she’s constantly worried I’m going to die when not eating. The concern is appreciated but it means you aren’t just fighting your own will power

Once you start hitting the far end of 48 and into the beginning of day 3 it gets pretty easy, body seems to realize its in hunting mode and the hunger pangs aren’t gonna help you stab a mammoth. Most of the second day is really, really rough though.

Look into some form of fasting salts if you’re looking to do the longer ones regularly, just because you’re not taking in calories doesn’t mean you aren’t pissing out salts and that’s no bueno for many reasons. There was some absolute nut job who coined fasting long and eating big as the snake diet. Not really his original work, just copied stuff everyone else was doing and gave it a fancy label. He used to have a free recipe for salts that worked pretty well for me, swap the no salt for actual potassium chloride. The no salt they call for has anticaking agents which give the mix a VILE flavor. End result still isn’t great, but it’s better than the muscle cramps and such when you start going for longer numbers.

Good plan to not be around people either. You’re so deep into ketosis at that point that the ketones are coming out your pores and chewing gum is basically a lost cause. I went around my mom and basically gave the poor woman PTSD since apparently I was sick quite a bit as a kid and she associates the smell of ketosis with that

 

[sansho]

5 days (~120h). it wasn't so bad. it did seem to get easier and easier, but food was never that far out of mind.

i think it's interesting to try at least once just for the heck of it. starvation's part of the human condition. worthwhile life experience. it's no problem to go much longer than 5 days without food. we're built for it.

i don't think 24h is a challenge. it doesn't give you the full experience of fasting. that's basically just forgetting a few meals.

 

[Upper Crust]

As a teenager, I embarked on an indigenous ceremonial coming-of-age vision quest in Death Valley, California. I took a gallon of water per day and a sleeping bag and fasted for 84 hours in the desert.

 

[mengwong]

10 days. I knew it was time to stop when I started teaspooning nutritional yeast.

The Zero app kinda gamifies it

For inspiration and to take your mind off:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cpxv...ey=8v79gqsx7a0bwuujbcl2q4c6r&st=hpfvs3p4&dl=0

 

[Jovidah]

Probably 24-36 hrs? Maybe more when I was sick but that doesn't really count. Never really 'tried' to make some kind of achievement out of it. Also not sure it's all that healthy either; for me, going too long without food would just kill my metabolism. So for me intermittent fasting is fine, as long as you at least eat every day.

 

[Just a DK]

Does IV fluid count?

 

[boomchakabowwow]

some of you guys are monsters!! or you spent time in a
Thai prison

I did a backpack trip for 60 miles, 10 days with very little to eat. we caught fish, and ate some freeze-dried stuff. that was hunger. burning tons of calories, and crazing to the nth degree. I lost 18lbs that duration and my brother lost 20.

my wife met us at the door of our home with clean bath towels. my bro went to guest shower, I hit ours. we came out to a HOT_POT meal rich in vegs and lean meats. it was the best meal of my life.

a 24 hour fast working on online training is pale by comparisoin

 

[NickMinton]

Ballpark…24-25hrs. Completely broke ($10 in my checking account) but had a catering job and would eat the leftovers.
My next meal was the next catering gig the next night

 

[cariocarj01]

42 hours.

 

[Rideon66]

Does a Jello count for a week and a half. Really it was forced. Had the Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty surgery. Basically had the uvula removed, adenoids removed, tonsils removed, fixed deviated septum and reconstruction of the palate. I feel like there was even more, but it was brutal. Slept for like 23 hours a day high on a concoction of pain killers and I think alcohol in a liquid I had to shoot down my throat from a syringe once or twice a day. Man that hurt. Lost like 20lbs without moving. Don't recommend. Plus after all that like 10 years later the sleep apnea came back.

 

[iimi]

I think 4 days? I was in college during the peak of covid and I was so tired from working 30 hours and classes and studying 80 hours a week that I couldn't be bothered to go stand in line for cafeteria food. I just forgot to eat and my head hurt more than my stomach did, so I didn't really feel hungry enough to get food until I watched a cooking show on YouTube.

That's probably why I became a chef, really. The winter of 2020 saw me lose 30 pounds in a few weeks, and also recognize the beauty of good food.

 

[M1k3]

Ballpark…24-25hrs. Completely broke ($10 in my checking account) but had a catering job and would eat the leftovers.
My next meal was the next catering gig the next night

Been in a similar situation. Broke line cook with wife and kids. Would make sure everyone else would have food in their bellies, before myself. I knew if I didn't eat, I could snack on fries and stuff at work.

 

[Chips]

I found that fasting is super easy to start if you're already doing a keto diet. The longest hard fast I did was 8 days with nothing besides water and black coffee. Like most people say, after day 2 or 3, it's easy street, and the mental clarity and energy is incredible. Brain-fog lifted and hunger pangs only last about 5 minutes then completely go away.

I found that I had to make the deliberate decision to end the fast, because I wasn't craving anything specific. I went to In N Out Burger and bought two protein style burgers and halfway thru my second bite I could feel the back of my throat swelling up in what I could only describe as an acute allergic reaction. It was borderline difficult to swallow and breathe. Thought that was odd. But it passed in about an hour and a half.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

too add: I recently met with a Dietician. I googled the diff of Dietician and Nutritionist, and learned stuff BTW.

I did ask her about fasting. she felt there was some merit for someone pre-diabetic. she believes a sensible diet using that half plate of veggies method was better, simply because it is sustainable. using smaller plates of course. with a snack in between. basically smaller meals throughout the day. she said, we naturally fast when we sleep. ave, 12 hours which is how we are wired.

I'm following my own rhythm. as of this morning, the number on my bathroom scale blew me away. so did the tape measure around mid-section.

 

[cooktocut]

I water fasted for 40 days once a few years ago. No broth or anything, went to work everyday I normally would. Went from 310 lbs to about 240. I’ve also done several 1 week fasts, 5 day, 4 day, etc. It’s a very healthy practice to work a regular fasting schedule into your life. There’s a lot of benefits, both physical and psychological. Having knives hanging on the wall that are constantly calling your name certainly doesn’t make it any easier.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

I water fasted for 40 days once a few years ago. No broth or anything, went to work everyday I normally would. Went from 310 lbs to about 240. I’ve also done several 1 week fasts, 5 day, 4 day, etc. It’s a very healthy practice to work a regular fasting schedule into your life. There’s a lot of benefits, both physical and psychological. Having knives hanging on the wall that are constantly calling your name certainly doesn’t make it any easier.

you keep that weight off?