# Longest Time without Eating **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 4, 2001, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-without-eating/48340 "2001-01-04T03:08:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-without-eating/48340/21 "2001-01-05T06:21:18Z")
5 days, Sunday-Thursday. Fridays and Saturdays I would eat a TON, then be sick. I was trying to lose weight; it worked. It was mucho unhealthy though, especially since I was playing soccer and basketball at the time. I finally saw what I was doing to myself and quit. ---
**Author:** ![Killuminati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/50afbb/32.png) [@Killuminati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Killuminati)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-without-eating/48340/22 "2001-01-05T07:24:02Z")
I once lived for 10 days lying in the garbage eating my own feces. ---
**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2001, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-without-eating/48340/23 "2001-01-06T04:44:29Z")
10th grade, depression, two weeks without eating. –Tim ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2001, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-without-eating/48340/24 "2001-01-06T05:41:59Z")
Whenever I get sick enough to be put on antibiotics like Zpack, I just don’t eat. The pills make me lose my apetite and I can’t stand the smell of food. Usually this will last about a week. I think the longest I’ve gone would be about 9 days tops. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2001, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-without-eating/48340/25 "2001-01-06T19:26:39Z")
My first semester at college (the worst depression of my life) I lost 60 lb. In that time, I fasted for periods of 10-14 days several times. Now I fast 24 hours several times a year, unrelated to depression or weight-loss goals. It’s not hard. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2001, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-without-eating/48340/26 "2001-01-06T19:43:21Z")
For me it would be the week in Africa when it was thought I had Malaria and I ate nothing of substance for 8 days -yucky times all around. I wish that when I was depressed, I didn’t eat! I’d be skinny. I go the other way and am at the breaking point. I won’t do a NY resolution but after tonite (DopeFest) I will stop drinking completely and severely cut back on bad food. I want to lose about 40-50 pounds that have been sitting here since my back injury and divorce and it is time to say goodbye to all of that. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalMuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DigitalMuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalMuse)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-without-eating/48340/27 "2001-01-07T04:23:56Z")
I weighed myself and found that I gained a pound, so I can’t eat more than a piece of bread tommorrow. Have to start a new fast…grr… I eat less when I’m depressed too. But I eat more when I’m mad or angry ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-without-eating/48340/28 "2001-01-07T04:41:10Z")
::arrogant grin:: Sixteen- no, wait…seventeen, maybe hours. Beat that, fellas! Oh. No. Wait. You already have. Moo. :o Over Christmas break, I would eat my little snack at around eleven or eleven thirty. PM. Then I’d hang out and fall asleep around 3:30. Then I’d wake up late. Sometimes around 3 pm. Then it would take me awhile to actually eat something. So that’s how it got to be seventeen hours. Some people were impressed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-without-eating/48340.md?page=1)