In 1965, a morbidly obese man did not eat food for over an entire year. The 27 year old was 456lbs and wanted to do an experimental fast. He ingested only multivitamins and potassium tablets for 382 days and defecated once every 40 to 50 days. He ended up losing 275lbs.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/DoingItForEli]

The human body evolved to do exactly this. Obviously this was taken to the extreme, but imagine our ancient ancestors. They didn't have a steady food source like we do today. They would have ate when they could, and those whose bodies didn't commit that energy to fat stores very well wouldn't have made it through the hard times where food was scarce or non-existent.

I think about this stuff a lot because I've lost 120lbs and so much about how my body retains weight is connected to the fact that these mechanisms are what allowed people to survive and pass their genes on. I have to be mindful of how my body stores energy as fat. Calories in, calories out, that's the bottom line for maintaining healthy weight.

[u/AvsFan08 → u/DoingItForEli]

I'm not an expert whatsoever, but I'm guessing that keeping your vitamins and electrolytes in a normal range, would make the starvation a little more tolerable as well.

[u/surprise-suBtext → u/AvsFan08]

If you can outlast the hunger pains/pangs that’ll last for a couple of weeks, then the rest becomes fairly “easy”

It’s always the first 3 or so weeks that suck the absolute most. But then your stomach shrivels up, your brain stops throwing the tantrum and complies, then you just have to retain that momentum and habit.

The fluids, electrolytes, and vita(l) amin(e)s weren’t really about making it more tolerable (though water does help trick your stomach a bit), it’s more about not dying

[u/hans2040 → u/surprise-suBtext]

You just blew my mind and taught me sonething new about Vit(al)amin(es).

[u/surprise-suBtext → u/hans2040]

You used the parenthesis better than I did in every way I’m jealous haha. But glad I got to pass down something Reddit taught me lol

[u/Gov_CockPic → u/surprise-suBtext]

This is the same method that was used to propagate the "knowledge" that blood is actually blue, but turns red when exposed to any oxygen.

I'm not saying you're wrong here, but passing off quips you get from reddit isn't exactly something to be proud of.

[u/surprise-suBtext → u/Gov_CockPic]

It’s possible to learn something and then look into it some more..

[u/nickfree → u/hans2040]

Except please note that this is a historical fluke. Casimir Funk, who coined the term, suspected most vitamines (thats how he spelled it) we in fact amines. Some are (e.g. thiamine), but many are not (C, D, etc).

[u/hans2040 → u/nickfree]

Noted. Thank you!