How Long Can a Person Live Without Food
How long can a person live without food is a question that has been coming up more and more recently. Could be because of the Jericho TV series on CBS or reality TV shows such as Survivor or it could be because of recent diet fads or even a homework assignment. What ever the reason, people seem to want to know how long they can live without food and some even want to know how long a person can live without water.
The Short Answer:
So how long can a person live without food? Well the answer may surprise you, but a healthy person can actually live for many weeks even possibly up to 2 months without food. But with out water is a different story. The average person can only survive around 3 to 5 days without water. So now we have to ask why can some people live longer without food then others?
First of all I want to stress that not eating or drinking is a very dangerous thing to do. Without food or water your bodies internal organs will start to shut down, you become weak, dizzy and pass out and you will die. In other words EAT FOOD AND DRINK WATER OFTEN ! (check out these other helpful diet and health sites below)
The Long Answer:
A person can live without food usually for many weeks because your body will use it’s fat reserves and the protein stored in your muscles to help keep your body functioning and help you stay alive. The human body is an amazing machine. Every time you eat your body stores fat just in case your body ever needs it. If a person isn’t eating regularly the bodies natural reaction is to start storing more fat from the food that you consume. That is one reason why not eating to loose weight never works. Your body feels at risk so instead of burning the extra fat it stores it. When you are eating regularly, (ideally 5 to 6 small meals a day) your body knows it can afford to burn all that extra fat. So one way to loose weight is to actually not to eat less large meals but eat more smaller meals throughout the day.
So How Long Can a Person Survive Without Food?
The answer is different for each person. Obviously a larger person with more fat reserves will be able to survive longer then a thin person with less fat that their body can feed off of. The size of the person how ever, has nothing to do with how long someone can survive without water, everyones body will start to fail after just a few days and everyone will die.
