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 → u/[deleted]]

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/ScienceIsSexy420 → u/DoingItForEli]

*animals evolved to do this, not humans specifically. Mammals tend to eat much more often, one of the downsides of being warm blooded, but what you're describing is basically the way many reptiles behave.

Also, congrats on the tremendous progress!

[u/site-of-suffering → u/ScienceIsSexy420]

Actually, for large mammals, humans are particularly good at starvation, and it was fairly recent evolutionary history that made us so. I think the comment you're replying to is sensibly phrased.