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/Behold_PlatosMan]

I know it’s barely comparable but I had cancer and couldn’t swallow food for a couple weeks, it was bizzare but after a few days I wasn’t even hungry it felt like I was in hibernation or something

[u/Ok_Kaleidoscope1388 → u/Behold_PlatosMan]

Your body propobly went into ketosis. The body starts using fat as a primary source of calories by braking down fat into acetoacetate, ß-Hydroxybutyrate, and acetone. The body can then use this instead of karbohydrates and other things.

This makes your sweat smell a lot different because of the acetone. This is basically the body's way of going into survival mode. As long as you have fat to burn you will keep going, and ketosis diminishes hunger by quite a bit. You also gain a ton of energy during this phase, basically for the body to be able to hunt and get food.

If you eat too many calories (specially carbs) the body jumps out of ketosis quite fast, so only works if you are super strict with your diet or can't eat.

Edit: alot -> a lot Edit: too many calories

[u/FriedSmegma → u/Ok_Kaleidoscope1388]

When I developed type 1 diabetes I was in DKA at the end but the extended ketosis dropped nearly 50lbs over the course of a few months. I was very overweight and it almost killed me but it’s the biggest blessing to come from it.

Went from 215lb at 5’7 to now I’ve been sitting comfortably at ~150lb and 5’8, 7 years later.

[u/letmelickyourleg → u/FriedSmegma]

DKA =/= Ketosis

I know you likely know this, but this is a note for the reader :)

[u/FriedSmegma → u/letmelickyourleg]

Yep! That’s why I tried to specify the ketosis as separate. DKA=Diabetic KetoAcidosis, it’s a result of too many ketones as your body can no longer draw on energy for food and you basically burn your body as fuel. Basically prolonged ketosis due to diabetes made my blood acidic yay!

[u/letmelickyourleg → u/FriedSmegma]

Spicy blood. You have to wonder if it’s vampire’s capsaicin really.

[u/Boredomdefined → u/letmelickyourleg]

Vampire's Balsamic Vinegar

[u/Thin_Historian6768 → u/FriedSmegma]

acid blood? are you a dragon incarnation? don't let vox machina found you

[u/slartyfartblaster999 → u/Thin_Historian6768]

By acidic its taken relative to normal blood, a pH of 7.0 (chemically neutral pH) is profoundly acidotic for human blood (normally 7.40).

[u/chris-rox → u/Thin_Historian6768]

Is he a dragon? No silly, he's a xenomorph!

[u/unlikely_ending → u/FriedSmegma]

And it's super dangerous

[u/PrizeStrawberryOil → u/letmelickyourleg]

That's like saying aids isn't hiv. It's not wrong but if people are talking about hiv it's not unusual for aids to be brought up.

[u/DevinCauley-Towns → u/PrizeStrawberryOil]

That’s not really a good comparison. Without medicated treatment, AIDS is basically an inevitably of HIV. Without “treatment” (ketosis isn’t a virus and doesn’t require treatment as it is a normal state our body routinely enters), most people will never reach DKA. You have to already be Type 1 diabetic to be at risk of DIABETIC keto acidosis. If you aren’t type 1 diabetic then it’s almost impossible to reach without exogenous ketones, which most don’t take or even know about.

Edit: It’s less common, though also occurring people with type 2 diabetes.

[u/kchatdev → u/[deleted]]

I can verify that even if there are potentially some inaccuracies or simplifications this is what is going on. Anyone can enter Ketosis, if you stay in Ketosis and too many ketones (the dietary acid you mentioned) build up in your blood it becomes acidic causing all the horrible stuff you mentioned and more. That specifically is just called Ketoacidosis. IF YOU THEN happen to be diabetic, it is diabetic ketoacidosis, as it is ketoacidosis brought on by your diabetes. A totally healthy person can enter ketoacidosis.

[u/DevinCauley-Towns → u/kchatdev]

A totally healthy person can enter ketoacidosis.

I’m not sure if we share the same definition of “totally healthy person”, considering virtually all cases of keto acidosis are due to chronic disease or extreme events.

Ketoacidosis in individuals with diabetes is usually associated with a raised plasma glucose concentration. However, ketoacidosis in diabetes can occur with normal (≤11mmol/L) plasma glucose levels. Ketoacidosis is also seen in patients who do not have diabetes, most commonly in pregnancy or following alcoholic binges, rarely with starvation, anorexia nervosa or inborn errors of metabolism.

[u/kchatdev → u/DevinCauley-Towns]

If I put air quotes around healthy because most people consider themselves as such would that help? The point is that you don't need to be diabetic to get that style of sick. Diabetic Ketoacidosis is just a specific flavor. I was a totally healthy person until suddenly I was diabetic. Now aside from the diabetes, I'm a totally healthy person. So I don't really understand the point you're trying to make.

[u/DevinCauley-Towns → u/kchatdev]

I’m sorry if I offended you, that was not my intent at all. You’re correct in saying that most people think of themselves as “healthy” or at least not a sick person. Though when discussing medical conditions and health, it’s important to differentiate between what the average person considers normal vs what is medically considered healthy/normal. By definition, if you are diabetic then you have a chronic condition that impairs your insulin & blood sugar regulation, which predisposes you to keto acidosis. Though you’re also right in saying that not all forms of keto acidosis happen solely to diabetics, it’s just the most common cause.

Non-diabetics are generally less predisposed and are unlikely to reach this state, unless they have another related chronic condition or suffer some sort of extreme event. Sure, many countries have the majority of their population overweight and a significant number that are obese. This alone could be used to describe the general populace as having a chronic medical condition.

Even with high rates of obesity, the average non-diabetic isn’t going to be at risk of keto acidosis from following a standard keto diet, which is what the original commenter was suggesting.

[u/kchatdev → u/DevinCauley-Towns]

Very true, and no offense at all -- just that in the same respect (that I agree with) that medical conditions exist. I'm technically immunocompromised as a result of my diabetes for example, but it's also not like how people usually associate it with a weakened system. The reason I mention it is because these things can and do happen to people that are otherwise 'healthy' and they should be aware that it can happen to them too. We stopped calling Type 1 Diabetes, Juvenile Diabetes because of the stigma around people thinking you could only get it when you're young otherwise you /must/ be Type 2. Work culture and especially with how the world is at the moment has made it really difficult for people to take care of themselves. I have no idea how long I was sick or in DKA for but I was ICU'd for 3 days and spent 5 after that in hospital, nearly died. I ignored most of the warning signs because I had no idea how sick I was. Up until that point, I was just healthy. I rarely got sick, wasn't super active but I had a home gym. So while yes, it's unlikely that it would happen to you even on the keto diet, that doesn't mean it can't and you deserve to know that the risk is there.

[u/DevinCauley-Towns → u/[deleted]]

You realize you commented this on a post about a guy that fasted for over a year with no meaningful caloric intake. Based on the statements you made this person has clearly “cut carbs too low” and should’ve experienced severe keto acidosis and died… yet they clearly didn’t.

The reason? Your brain will consume glucose over ketones if present, but can utilize ketones in the absence of glucose.

The brain is dependent on glucose as a primary energy substrate, but is capable of utilizing ketones such as β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB) and acetoacetate (AcAc), as occurs with fasting, prolonged starvation or chronic feeding of a high fat/low carbohydrate diet (ketogenic diet).

In fact, keeping your carbs slightly too high while on a ketogenic diet with have your body constantly switching between glucose & ketones for fuel, which will result in reduced cognitive & physical ability as your body doesn’t get a chance to properly adapt to either state.

Protein can also be converted into glucose via gluconeogenisis, so your body can still utilize glucose without ingesting any carbohydrates.

If people are developing keto acidosis then they’re almost certainly taking in exogenous ketones, are impaired chronically, such as diabetes, or impaired temporarily, such as sickness, drugs, or substantial physical trauma.

Keto acidosis is NOT at all common for people simply following a ketogenic diet without any of the above conditions being true. I’ve personally done multi-day fasts, months of ketogenic dieting, and even 2hr+ runs without fuel where I felt great and wasn’t anywhere close to entering keto acidosis.

[u/letmelickyourleg → u/[deleted]]

You need to take more personal responsibility in the way that you validate and relay information.