# Why doesn't it take fat people longer to starve to death? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 1, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981 "2010-05-01T19:37:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/41 "2010-05-04T03:24:03Z")
Well it seems like I’m getting mixed responses. _Does_ it take longer for fat people to starve to death? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/42 "2010-05-04T04:18:55Z")
Yes it does, as long as they can drink water. As noted by other posters, being fat doesn’t provide any protection against dying of thirst. Moreover, you can’t assume that, say, having a BMI twice as high as another person means you’d take twice as long to starve to death. Fat reserves do provide important energy resources for survival when calories are scarce (that’s why we evolved the ability to accumulate fat reserves, after all), but AFAIK there’s no simple equation along the lines of X pounds of extra fat will allow you to go Y extra days without food. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/43 "2010-05-04T23:52:48Z")
Our fat reserves can’t help with thirst at all? Isn’t that how camels do it? And yes, I know we’re not camels and appreciate that camels might have processes we don’t. Just curious if that’s it or not. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/44 "2010-05-04T23:55:54Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > See above, protein is required to manufacture carbs from fat, eating nothing means the body will cannibalize itself to get enough carbs, so a fat person will not survive longer. But if there is some food such as insects, then the person should have enough dietary protein to prevent cannibalization - which is a advantage for a fat person. Cite? My biochemistry textbook disagrees with you. ---
**Author:** ![Chickie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chickie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chickie)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/45 "2010-05-05T04:28:24Z")
According to Wikipedia, the position of a camel’s fatty tissue in the hump minimizes the amount of heat that a more generally-spread subcutaneous layer of fat would trap in the body, thus keeping the animal cooler. This among other adaptations like blood-cell shape and better conservation of liquid in the respiration and digestive processes. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/46 "2010-05-05T22:59:14Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Well it seems like I’m getting mixed responses. > > _Does_ it take longer for fat people to starve to death? I think your question was answered several times. Answer: “Yes” it takes a fat person longer to starve to death, but fat does not provide everything the body needs metabolically, and starvation puts huge stresses on the body, so a fat person that has nothing at all to eat will last longer than a less fat person, but will likely die well before all their fat reserves are completely used up. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/47 "2010-05-05T23:10:32Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I think your question was answered several times. > > Answer: “Yes” it takes a fat person longer to starve to death, but fat does not provide everything the body needs metabolically, and starvation puts huge stresses on the body, so a fat person that has nothing at all to eat will last longer than a less fat person, but will likely die well before all their fat reserves are completely used up. Yes, my question was answered several times. > [@kanicbird](#): > > a fat person will not survive longer Thus the “mixed responses” I mentioned. Thanks for the answers from everyone. ---
**Author:** ![NoSlippin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7bcc69/32.png) [@NoSlippin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoSlippin)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/48 "2017-03-29T05:29:17Z")
It seems that in actual starvation diet situations like prisoners of war, concentration camps, forced labor without adequate nutrition, that obese people do survive longer than people who were already slender. That saying about ‘the fat guys get skinny and the skinny guys die!’ holds true. The body does adapt to consuming fat stores after an initial brief period where it consumes muscle. If it did not do this, then death from starvation would be more rapid than has been documented. Once the fat has been consumed, then of course it will continue consuming muscle until death occurs. I don’t recall seeing any obese subjects in Somalia, Ethiopia or for that matter, anywhere in the world where there is famine or people being starved in concentration camps. If they were heavy at the start, they are not heavy anymore at the end! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/49 "2017-03-29T05:33:16Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > But everyone, no matter how fat, requires water, pretty much every day. A surprising number of obese people have vitamin-deficiency diseases, often due to an inappropriate diet and in extreme cases, insufficient sun exposure. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/50 "2017-03-29T12:14:09Z")
What happened to **Clockwork** , anyway? Posting activity slowly ticked down, hasn’t posted in 3 months… ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/51 "2017-03-29T13:07:57Z")
YAMDS, Young Asian males were dropping over dead in the U.S. at normal weights. They were eating nothing but white rice to save money. Their hearts were being cannibalized for lack of protein. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/52 "2017-03-29T13:26:44Z")
Zombies don’t starve to death. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/53 "2017-03-29T13:57:41Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > Without sidetracking the thread too much into a discussion of metabolism, I don’t think it is correct to imply that fats are substrates for gluconeogenesis in humans. > > In short, for the most part carbohydrates to fats is an unfortunate one-way street in people. From an energy standpoint, this is an issue mostly for the [brain](http://www.acnp.org/g4/gn401000064/CH064.HTML), which really really likes glucose for its energy substrate. I know this thread is almost 7 years old, but I think a discussion of metabolism would be perfectly appropriate for the question. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/54 "2017-03-29T15:07:29Z")
Now for my next trick; killing a zombie with another zombie: [THREAD=365432]How long could a massively overweight person survive without food?[/THREAD] Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/55 "2017-03-29T16:54:31Z")
There was something going around Facebook recently, and I think it was deemed “legitimate” by Snopes, about a study where a significantly obese man ate nothing for a year and lost like ~300lbs. He was under careful supervision and given plenty of vitamins and water. I can’t find the Snopes article, but [here’s a semi-recent news article](http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.htm) on the study, which apparently happened in 1965. The guy told the doctors “I’m not going to eat for a year, with or without you, but you might want to monitor this”. > [@](#): > > In the case of our big Scotsman, Mr A B, the staff in the medical school at the University of Dundee kept a close eye on him. He did not eat any food, but the staff gave him yeast for the first 10 months and multi-vitamins every day. Potassium is essential for the proper working of the heart, and when his potassium levels got a little low around the 100-day mark, he was given potassium tablets for about 70 days. He defaecated infrequently, roughly every 40 to 50 days. > > Blood samples were taken every fortnight, and his carbohydrate metabolism was checked on nine occasions during the 382 days of his fast. Surprisingly, for the last eight months of his fast, his blood glucose levels were consistently very low. They were around two millimoles, which is about half of the bottom end of the normal range. Even so, he did not suffer clinically from this abnormally low blood glucose level. > > His weight dropped from 207 kilograms to 82 kilograms. Some five years later, he had regained only 7 kilograms ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/56 "2017-03-29T17:22:12Z")
Although the skeptic is a zombie, “Westerners” [starve to death all the time](http://www.anad.org) (in addition to those, like my Mom, who had their food and water taken from them by their caretakers so they could die). Anorexia. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981/57 "2017-03-29T18:40:47Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#): > > This would make more sense if the concept of a beer belly was older than a couple hundred years. Natural selection can’t do much about wacky theoreticals; how often would any pre-civilization (read: pre-agriculture) hominid encounter a situation in which it had such a surfeit of food that it grew to become fat, then ran out of food very suddenly? From what I’ve read, it was surprisingly common. Enough so that our entire fat storage mechanisms and metabolisms evolved to very easily pack on and stubbornly retain fat, despite our best efforts. Plus we’re wired to prefer the most calorie-dense foods over the less dense ones. That’s not to say that our forebears were going from some kind of gluttony to literally NO food, but rather from a state of excess to a state of want, and in those days, extra fat literally meant that you lived through the winter. So over time under these conditions, our forebears evolved to pack on weight easily and lose it with difficulty because it was a clear survival advantage.\ Of course in today’s world, famine is an extremely uncommon event, but most everyone, even the poor, can usually get more calories than they need, so our bodies continue to work the same way, but we have to, in essence, engineer personal famines so we can lose our excess body fat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-it-take-fat-people-longer-to-starve-to-death/537981.md?page=2)