Nope. 24 hours? It’s not that long really? Sometimes it’s more like 36 hours. The human body can cope.
I did the 40 Hour Famine twice in high school. No exciting sleepovers. I think we got a raw deal compared to the 30 Hour Famine people. Just raise the money then slog it out. Well, some kids did get exciting sleepovers, but not in my remote locale. But, you get water and you can suck on hard candy, so I dunno. I was very hungry at the end. One of those years, my parents had a huge dinner party planned for the last day of the famine, and they made greek pastries from scratch. THAT tested my will-power. It was worth it when I was done with the fast and could stuff myself on pastries though.
I went without solid food from the first week of october until december 28th. All I could keep down was plain water, plain black tea and homemade chicken broth without salt or strong flavors. I went from 135 down to 94. I had some stupid virus that made me incredibly nauseous. I did end up hospitalized around thanksgiving. None of the standard nausea meds did anything for me. That year my birthday really sucked.
When I was doing chemo, I would regularly go 3 or 4 days without eating, and I still have to remind myself to eat now - being diabetic having to get the snacks sucks because I pretty much am rarely hungry, I think that extended illness driven fast burned out my hunger reflex.
Right now I have nausea issues from a combination of byetta and Furosemide [being used to force my body to shed excess calcium until I get my parathyroids yanked out wednesday] so I am barely eating, and I think if I see another can of chicken with noodles soup I will hurk. [it was one thing I could eat until I seem to have reached my lifetime limit last week]
I once went a week without eating, but I had two fully-anesthetized surgeries in that time and was so full of morphine the rest of the time that it probably doesn’t count. It did screw up my metabolism a bit though.
When I was younger I would occasionally go more than 24 hours, usually due to bad hangovers. 
:smack:
Wow. I can do 24 hours no sweat. In fact I often don’t even realize it until my next meal, “Damn it’s been a while since I’ve had food.” I head to work after dinner at 5PM, get home at Midnight screw around on the Dope or watch a movie until 3-4. Sleep until noon. Then run errands until dinnertime.
My personal long was 3 1/2 days. I was having some anxiety issues at the time and just didn’t feel hungry. I knew I SHOULD have been, but I felt full. Happened on a Friday night and I didn’t eat anything until lunch that next Tuesday. Wasn’t pretty.
I get dizzy and weak after about 12 waking hours not eating. It isn’t something I just forget to do. The only time I can remember going 24 hour or so not eating was due to illness.
I once went about 5 days without eating. Just drank lots of water and nothing else. I pretty much just wanted to see if I could, and found it remarkably easy after like the second day. I wasn’t doing much at the time, which probably made it easier. For the record I’m a little overweight and in no way anorexic or anything.
For a few month I didn’t take anything but water on days with a “t”: no food on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday.
Saturday was the toughest adjustment because of the lack of eating as a leisure time activity.
But boy, did I notice the food commericals on TV! Especially those ones for Pringles potato chips or KFC pocorn chicken, where somebody has food and all of a sudden it’s a party and everyone’s happy. Before, I’d hadn’t paid attention, but it really drove home how food = human contact and hunger = lonliness are used as advertising tools.
Ever since then, I’ve also noticed how people assume that eating is an accepted social activity, even though we don’t really need all those calories to enjoy the companionship. While were’re at it, why not go back to the Romans, where shitting and fucking were group activities, too?
(BTW, I quit alcohol, too. Yes, I spend a lot of time alone at the computer 
)
14 days, involuntary.
I’d say probably 3 days, easy. I pretty regularly would go most of the weekend without eating. Up until a few years ago I was pretty underweight; I just never had an appetite really. I didn’t have any eating disorders and it wasn’t to stay thin, I just wasn’t ever hungry. I would often get lightheaded and felt generally crappy, but yeah after the first day hunger was never an issue.
Then I went on a migraine preventative about 3 years ago and boom, metabolism shift. (I also hit 30, so that might have something to do with it.)
Maybe 8 hours? I usually eat something every 4.
For religion: 24 hours. I used to fast once in a while for my religion. Sometimes I think I should still do it, even though I don’t believe - clears the head.
Sickness: I had malaria when I was fifteen. I don’t remember how long but there was a period of at least three days when I could not even keep down 7-Up and drank only water. I lost 10-20 pounds in two weeks.
Gosh. Uhm. When I was a teenager, being told (at 5’1" and 105 lbs) that I was a “total lardass” (I was a size 3) who would never amount to anything…uh, yeh. One summer, I went for 12 weeks with no solid food. Every calorie I consumed came from either alcohol or the occasional diet soda (this was before 0 calorie diet sodas) I believe that was the longest I went without “food.” To my credit, I did take vitamins during that time.
Of course, I had good early training, being as how our family was Mormon from the time I was 7 until I was ex-communicated at 13 – so yeh, once a month 24 hours/day I fasted. I have been thinking I would like to start fasting – not starving, I don’t need to do that – at least once/month. I know many Indians do it as a cleansing thing, and I think it is a good idea. Perhaps I should start that this month.
Of course, I point out that with my vagal nerve severed and my duodenum out of the loop, as it were, I don’t ever actually feel hunger anymore – I eat because I know I am supposed to and need to, so if I had to, I am sure I could go quite a while without eating – at least until I became weak from lack of caloric intake. Since I only drink water and the occasional coffee, I don’t get calories from liquids anymore.
Like nongoog, I’ve gone the eating disorder route and went weeks eating a one inch square of cheddar cheese and five saltines. Thankfully, and with a lot of hard work, those days are behind me.
I have gone a full seven days on nothing but water (recovering from a wicked virus–even commercials for food had me running for the bathroom), and just last year I had to go four days with no food in preparation for some medical tests and then surgery later that same week.
As others have posted, when not eating I do get to a weird place where I know my tummy might be interested in food and my mouth says no way. I don’t really get headaches, but do get very light-headed if I stand up too quickly.
Just curious, were you Baha’i? I only ask because it’s the only thing that makes sense in terms of the “19 days, sunrise to sunset”. Don’t meet many fellow Baha’is (even former ones) on this board!
Even though I’m still a practicing Baha’i (I practice it because I’m not very good at it yet 
), I can’t do the 19-day fast any more because of some intestinal surgery I had last year that makes it a very bad idea to go for more than a few hours without food. Even prior to that, I couldn’t observe the “no drinking” aspect of the 19 day fast because my kidneys suck.
When I had the intestinal (weight loss) surgery, though, I didn’t have anything for three days afterwards but ice chips. Fortunately, I didn’t want anything but ice chips. Ever since the surgery, though, I still get physically hungry, even when I’m really sick with kidney stones (I used to lose my appetite for days at a time at those times; I don’t count them as answers to the OP, though, because I always drank a lot of cranberry juice at those times).
I find it interesting how many people still feel actual hunger post-WLS. For me, my old stomach will actually growl occasionally, but I never feel “hunger” – I just know it’s time to eat. Even at 2.5 years post-op, I will occasionally forget to eat (just being too busy) and will realise when my blood sugar bottoms out that I forgot something very, very important. In a way, I am glad that my vagal nerve was severed, but sometimes I do feel a bit of jealousy for people who actually feel hunger, I mean eating when I am not physically hungry makes me feel guilt – NOT a good thing, ya know?
There seems to be some difference of experience in regards to which surgery you have. I had the duodenal switch, which produces different side-effects than the RNY or gastric band.
I will say that I didn’t feel hungry at all for about 3 months post-op, but my surgeon assured me my appetite would return, and it did. I will also say, though, that hunger (as well as fullness) are very different than they used to be. For one thing, they happen very quickly. I go from “gee I probably should eat something soon” to “OMG I’m starving” in about two minutes flat. Likewise, when I’m full, I’m done. If I try to “finish the last two bites on my plate”, I will throw up. There have been times when I didn’t realize I was full until I had a bite of food in my mouth, and had to spit it out into a napkin (that hasn’t happened recently, though; I’m about 16 months post-op and have gotten better at recognizing the signs of getting full).
I don’t think I’ve ever gone 24 hours without food. Like **AuntiePam **suggests, I get light-headed and weak if I go more than 6 hours or so without eating (during the day). I skipped breakfast this morning and I’m feeling a little shaky now.
Before having my gall bladder out last year, I couldn’t eat anything without intense pain. For about a week I lived on plain corn chex, then for about 3 days I ate nothing while undergoing tests and having surgery. After about a day and a half though, I was admitted to the hospital and got IV fluids so I don’t know if that counts. I didn’t feel hungry at all. Then about 12 hours after surgery I could eat little bits again.
The longest I’ve gone voluntarily and while in good health is probably about 24 hours, in college. When I used to smoke I would skip meals more often for some reason, I think cigarettes are an appetite supressant. I would smoke instead of eat.
Before I had ecclampsia, the longest I had ever gone without food or water was about 24 hours - sundown to sundown - for Yom Kippur. However, post-ecclampsia, they’re worried that you’ll have another seizure and asphyxiate on your own vomit, so they wouldn’t let me have solids for the better part of a week (probably 4-5 days, but I don’t recall exactly). I had a migraine for the entire time (and for a week and a half after), so I really didn’t notice. Although, after getting home, I did notice that I’d lost almost 50 pounds, though I’m not sure how much of that is due to water retention since I had swelled quite a bit (oh, yeah, and the little person and other stuff in my uterus).