How long can a person live without food

Living without Food

This has always been a mystery. We haveall heard of people who managed to live without food for longerperiods of time, for one reason or the other. Either way, most of usare not even sure if this is true, let alone if people are capable oflasting without nutrition. Still, these stories are quite intriguingand we need to look further into the facts behind living withouteating in order to be able to set a time limit for such a life.

Motivation Is the Key

Throughout history, we have hadsituations where people refused to eat or were not given food forvarious reasons.

Quite often, the longest periods ofliving without food are connected with people who were protesting orwanting to prove a political or a social point. These people, usuallywell motivated, managed to live up to 25 weeks without eatinganything, just by sipping minimal amounts of water.

Here, determination and physicalfactors are crucial. Namely, if you were in good shape beforehand,having a good metabolism and healthy layers of body fat, you wouldlast longer than most other people who lack these. However,motivation is a very important factor as well. People on protests,fasting for a belief they hold tightly to, had all the motivationthey needed to last for weeks without eating. Those who do not havethis hope and persistence are likely to die faster.

Also, during many wars we waged againsteach other, especially WWII, many people were held in concentrationcamps and were given insufficient food for survival. However, thereare people who survived this regime and managed to recuperatecompletely after the end of the war.

Additionally, patients in hospitals,who suffer from terminal illnesses, in some cases, are not capable ofeating, near the end of their lives. Then, when properly hydrated,some of them are known to life for two weeks without food.

Other Factors

If you have a slow metabolism, it willslow itself down even more once you start losing fat reserves in yourbody. Also, people who were starving in mild climates managed to livelonger than those who did the same in extreme conditions.

Finally, there are people likeanorexics, religious people prone to fasting and those who claim tolive by consuming sun energy and water. Some of these truly livewithout food for longer periods of time.