How Long Can You Live Without Food

Many of you might have already heard that humans can survive for a longer period without food, but water is essential for living. In simpler terms, the body can function with water alone for many days, even if it is deprived of food. Is it just an assumption? Or is there any scientific proof for the statement?

When it comes to survival essentials, oxygen and water top the list, followed by food. We cannot even think of spending 5 hours without drinking water. Thus, living without water is a critical situation. After oxygen, it is a basic necessity that the body needs for performing normal metabolic processes.

Water is lost from the body via sweating, respiration, urination and defecation. And to survive, it needs to be compensated by drinking potable water.

Going without water for a single day causes dehydration and other severe medical complications. A person living without water for a week is considered as a miracle. The minimal amount of water that one needs per day is 2 quarts.

Speaking about how long can you survive without food with water, it is true that the human body can survive for a surprisingly long period (about 8 weeks) only with water. Some opine the survival days to be as long as 80 days. However, there is no medical data that supports this claim.

Coming to living without food, skipping meals or not eating any healthy food is not as critical as being deprived of water. This is evident from the survival rate of starvation protesters, who intentionally fast for several days to weeks to meet their demands.

According to medical doctors, a person can live without food for 4-6 weeks. In the early days, war prisoners survived somewhere around 4 weeks to 40 days with no food. In a 1981 record, it is noted that political prisoners of Ireland survived for 46-73 days, before they succumbed, because of starvation.

When food as an energy source is not supplied to the body, the starved cells and tissues break down the fats, proteins and muscles to carry out metabolic activities. Presence of these energy reserves determine the length of time that a person can survive without food.

Thus, how long can a person live without food depends on the overall health, accumulated fats, amount of muscles, speed of metabolism, physical activities and environmental conditions.

Healthy individuals, overweight people and those with high amount of muscles can survive for a longer period without food. Optimal environmental condition adds to increased survival rate, as the body need not spend extra energy to cope up with the prevailing condition.

The symptoms of going without food (even for a single day) include physical weakness, disorientation, confusion, irritability and weak immune system. These medical conditions negatively affect the ability to live.

As stated above, the exact length of time that a person can thrive without eating or drinking anything depends on certain attributes present at the time of fasting. Thus, there is no accurate answer pertaining to the number of days or weeks that an individual can survive without food.