I’ve seen a ton of AskReddit articles in my day, and I can’t remember anything quite like this one…

Because it’s pretty weird and it’s something most people have never thought about before!

So the answers promise to be pretty interesting!

What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without eating and why?

Check out what folks had to say.

That’s rough.

“For ten days I only had water when I had glandular fever and couldn’t swallow anything without a lot of pain.

I’d have to dip the water on my tongue and let it be slowly absorbed to the back of the throat. I was given crushed up soluble vitamins and even that I’d just sit in my tongue without swallowing and just let it dissolve.

Honestly, the pain of swallowing was like eating glass mixed with barbed wire.

It’s strange because hunger kicks in after 24 hours and is quite overpowering for the next 2-3 days – then once you get passed that it sort of disappears entirely and just comes and goes in short bursts.”

Seven long days.

“Because of a gastroenteritis, I was 7 days without being able to eat and keep anything down.

On another occasion, due to anxiety, depression I was without eating for 5 days.”

Wow.

“I didn’t eat for 7 full days after my ex husband left me for someone else.

The divorce diet is real.

I lost 40 pounds in a few months.”

Breaking up is hard to do.

“7 days.

Went through a breakup that hit me disproportionately hard compared to time spent together (I really liked the guy, still do). Just too wrenched to eat.

By day 4 the lack of food didn’t even phase me and I just carried on. Finally came back around to eating after losing 10 lbs.”

On the mend.

“7 days.

I was suffering with anorexia at the time.

Fully recovered now.”

On the street.

“3 days.

Homeless and s**king Crack. Didn’t even like Crack.

S**ked it to stay awake because I woke up on multiple occasions with different strangers trying to r**e me.”

Learned the hard way.

“6 days. I was water fasting.

Without electrolytes so a bad idea.

Also, never trust a fart when on a fast, learned that the hard way.”

Sick.

“I got Covid a week after right after I had my first does of the vaccine, had 103 degree fever and was coughing up a lot of stuff.

I thought it was something else till I got tested at a clinic and it was positive.

Eating wasn’t a concern for me for like a week I did lose like 7 pounds though.”

In pain.

“I had a GI bleed and needed a bunch of scans to find the source (one a day). Ended up not being able to eat for four days.

Made the colonoscopy prep fairly easy because there was nothing in there but blood, so once that was out I could stop drinking the laxative.

The liquid diet dinner I got that 4th day was basically Heaven.”

Fasting.

“I did a 10-day medically supervised fast.

Went in at 215 and was 192 on the last day.

Gained 5 lbs back immediately, 4 was water weight and 1 lb is bacteria in the microbiome.”

Yikes! It’s crazy how much weight people can lose in such a short period of time.