What If An Obese Person Stopped Eating For A Year

with a new year comes new resolutions with roughly 40% of Americans registering as clinically obese it's likely that for a lot of us those resolutions include shedding a few pounds myself included after all being obese tends to come with a whole host of health problems but could it be that a big belly viewers may one day save your life let's find out fortunately for North Americans food is quite readily accessible in fact you don't even have to step out of the house to get it anymore uber eats will deliver it right to your door but imagine if the unthinkable happened an uber stopped delivering every grocery store closed and all existing food spoiled and all land was rendered infertile how long would we be able to survive in our new foodless post-apocalyptic world surprisingly that answer is tied to body fat well you may have heard the general rule that human beings can survive three days without food this doesn't hold true for everyone in fact a person can survive for an additional 110 days for every 50 pounds of body fat they have depending on how much they exert themselves how well hydrated they are and if they're able to get other non-caloric nutrients and vitamins to understand how this is possible you first need to know what fat is at its core fat is just stored energy human beings eat food to power their existence burning calories to move and function fortunately for us we are able to store excess energy as fat cells to prepare for situations in which we aren't able to access food while some of us may think of fat as undesirable as a survival mechanism it's actually quite handy one pound of fat is comprised of around 3,500 calories since the average person burns 1,500 to 2,000 calories per day just by sitting around each pound of fat on your body should buy you roughly another two days of survival in starvation mode speaking of starvation mode the starvation process starts just 12 hours after your last meal you might experience some mild cramps in the feeling of an empty stomach none of which should be that foreign to you at all after all most of us have gone around 12 hours without food before things escalate a little after 24 hours your cramps get worse you're burping feeling nauseous obsessing a little bit about food but nothing you can't handle right your blood Sugar's a little low and you're getting cranky because of it but overall you're still functioning okay aside from a slight mental fog it's at 48 hours that things start ratcheting up you're tired pissed off can't focus and your body starts to shake and feel unstable it's at this point that a key transition occurs you see throughout this process your body is using different sources of fuel for energy initially it uses the food you eat but then as the starvation process begins it starts to burn a form of energy known as glycogen that is stored in your muscles and liver which can help keep you going a little bit longer at the 48 hour mark however your body switches to burning fat at this point your body fat is broken down into ketones which are converted into energy yes this is related to ketosis and the ketogenic diet but we won't get into that here unfortunately your brain and blood cells can't solely use ketones for fuel so they start breaking down muscle instead think about of those gains when all your fat is gone all that's left to break down is muscle which is when things start getting dire you'll quickly lose a ton of body mass and all muscular definition also your body isn't particularly discerning when it comes to choosing which muscles to draw energy from which means it's as likely to break down your heart as it is your biceps at this point your cells will literally begin to die and your body will start to fall apart pretty quickly your immune system will deteriorate which sucks your muscles will atrophy which sucks and eventually you'll die which really sucks so ultimately the more fat you have the longer you can keep your body from total deterioration however even if you have tons of fat left you can still die from muscle degradation since muscles like your heart may become too weak you may be thinking this all sounds a bit too theoretical for your liking sure food and fat are both technically energy but there's no way you can survive for a year on body fat alone in practice right actually yeah you can in fact it's already been done in 1965 and obese 456 pound man survived for one year in 17 days without any food whatsoever he was kept under doctor's supervision throughout the process only consuming supplements such as potassium and sodium to make sure his body kept functioning normally as you can imagine he generally when over 40 days between poops and we can only imagine what the consistency was like but in the end his fast was successful by the end of the year he was down 180 pounds and five years later he was well below 200 a drastic weight loss measure to be sure but you can't say it wasn't effective now to be very clear we do not recommend starving yourself for a year in order to lose weight though if you're gonna do it make sure it's under doctor's supervision however it's clear that should a food apocalypse ever strike the chubbier folk will inherit the earth well for a time at least so don't be afraid to eat that cheeseburger okay it might just save your life don't forget to Like and subscribe if you like this video and be sure to head over to the Brainiac YouTube channel for more crazy body facts see you later brainiacs you [Music]

Channel: Brainiac

Views: 510,118

Keywords: Fat, Obese, Survival, Keto, Ketosis, Ketones, America, Calories, Nutrients, Vitamins, Glycogen, Glucose, animated story, animation, weight loss, stop eating, how long, challenge, survive without eating, diet, brainiac, real life story, man survives without food, eat, eating, food, eat food, digestive system, science, fasting, hunger strike, starving, starvation, healthy lifestyle, health, healthy, healthy eating habits, hungry, hunger pain, eating habits, what happens if you stop eating

Id: gR-8eixMxYo

Length: 5min 22sec (322 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 04 2020