# Would it take a fat person longer to starve to death?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-take-a-fat-person-longer-to-starve-to-death/114501>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 17, 2002, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-take-a-fat-person-longer-to-starve-to-death/114501 "2002-06-17T11:56:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JFord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFord)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-take-a-fat-person-longer-to-starve-to-death/114501/1 "2002-06-17T11:56:36Z")

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I know that this isn’t a very politically correct question, but if you withhelld all food (but not water) from both a skinny (or normal-sized) person and from a fat (or obese) person would the fat person live perceptibly longer?

First musings would tell me that the fat person would live longer, however, I guess that depends on the nature of starvation, which thankfully, I have never experienced.

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**Author:** ![JFord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFord)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-take-a-fat-person-longer-to-starve-to-death/114501/2 "2002-06-17T12:04:29Z")

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Well, it would help if I actually pushed the right buttons when searching this forum.

Question answered at:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=113314&highlight=starvation](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=113314&highlight=starvation)