How unhealthy is it to go a day without food

[Creamy Flames]

Hi as of today I haven't eaten in almost 21 hours and this happens a couple times a week. I have an incredibly sedentary lifestyle so I don't burn hardly any calories. I'm also a poor college student and like to get fucked up on as little beer as possible so I try to keep an empty stomach by fasting for 6 hours whenever I drink. My question is simple: How unhealthy is it go without food for a 24 hour period a couple times a week.

Over a period of months, yes.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

I doubt you'll survive long if you are simply fasting for hours on end and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. I suggest not doing it because it seems rather...suicidal? Malnutrition will not happen right away but if you continue for several months it will start having very serious effects. If you are below a healthy weight then stop doing it right away, you are going to starve yourself and your body will metabolize your muscles(which happens to hurt, a lot) once you've run out of fat or if you lack fat to begin with. I strongly advise against the intake of a poison like alcohol but then again it is your body you're damaging so I suppose it isn't too important to me.

[undercovergnome]

if you arent hungry its fine, but dont starve yourself

[Laize]

If your going to cut meals out of you diet I suggest cutting only a single one.

Got to give your body some nutrients throughout the day but considering the portion size most of us eat a single meal could easily be broken into 2.

I operate on a 1 meal/day diet. I've seen nothing but health benefits.

Your body seems to have a remarkable ability to adapt to almost any feeding schedule you throw at it. The literature I've ready suggests evolutionary biology has geared us to be most effective at 1 meal a day.

There are many types of fasting too. Some are 24 on 24 off where you eat normally (or even huge amounts of calories) on day 1, but not at all on day 2, then repeat that cycle. Some IFers eat 2 days, fast the 3rd day and repeat. Others are like myself and simply eat one meal per day.

The idea that you need to "wake up" you metabolism or keep it going throughout the day are bunk according to what I've read.

[Dr-1337]

Short-term fasting is incredibly beneficial for the body. Blood glucose and basal insulin levels drop (a good thing), blood pressure is lowered, lipolysis is increased, adipocyte inflammation and other pro-inflammatory cytokines are decreased, insulin sensitivity increases, autophagy occurs in various cells (especially in neuronal cells - also a good thing), metabolic rate increases slightly (yes, contrary to what everyone says, abstaining from food for 24-48 hours does not in any way decrease your metabolic rate. downstream effects of nutrition on thyroid hormone don't begin taking effect until at least 72 hours of fasting - after this point, the body does begin to decrease its overall metabolic rate), and mental focus is also increased in many individuals (fasting is a stressor and is not unlike other stimulants such as exercise or caffeine). So no, there is absolutely nothing wrong with either practicing some form of daily intermittent fasting (such as restricting your food intake to, say, an 8-hour window) or some kind of alternate day fasting, or even doing a 24-hour fast once or twice a week. Fasting is a stressor on the body, however, and so you need to make sure you're not subjecting yourself to excessive stress levels, especially if you do a lot of exercise. You also need to make sure you're getting decent nutrition on the days that you're not fasting, so eat plenty of nutrient-dense foods and take a multivitamin if you fail to do so.

As far as the OP is concerned, I would just advise you to eat nutritiously (fruits, vegetables, meats/fish, legumes, etc.) whenever you can (frozen fruits and vegetables are very cheap and taste great, so stock up on those). This is especially important if you consume alcohol frequently / in large amounts as alcohol can deplete your body of certain nutrients, particularly the B vitamins. I would also advise you to exercise a few days a week: go for a jog and lift some weights. I advise everyone to start lifting and never stop, the only regret you'll ever have is never starting (trust me). Same goes for running, but weightlifting is critical and sometimes overlooked, especially in female populations.

Anyways, I'm not just some rando internet dude - I actually have a degree in nutritional science, and I'm going back to graduate school in a year to do research on obesity and diabetes. Quite frankly, fasting might be our best hope in terms of sustainable dietary interventions for obesity treatment, but even still, I'd like a more concrete solution that doesn't involve people having to make choices. We need cell therapy / new DNA technologies to change peoples genomes in vivo so that they can survive in our obesigenic environment - one which just isn't going away any time soon. (Hey, what can I say? I'm a cynic, and I want the hard-fix).

Anyways, eat well, exercise, fast every now and then, live long and prosper.

Watch this, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJzOvdbpP5Y

[Laize]

Short-term fasting is incredibly beneficial for the body. Blood glucose and basal insulin levels drop (a good thing), blood pressure is lowered, lipolysis is increased, adipocyte inflammation and other pro-inflammatory cytokines are decreased, insulin sensitivity increases, autophagy occurs in various cells (especially in neuronal cells - also a good thing), metabolic rate increases slightly (yes, contrary to what everyone says, abstaining from food for 24-48 hours does not in any way decrease your metabolic rate. downstream effects of nutrition on thyroid hormone don't begin taking effect until at least 72 hours of fasting - after this point, the body does begin to decrease its overall metabolic rate), and mental focus is also increased in many individuals (fasting is a stressor and is not unlike other stimulants such as exercise or caffeine). So no, there is absolutely nothing wrong with either practicing some form of daily intermittent fasting (such as restricting your food intake to, say, an 8-hour window) or some kind of alternate day fasting, or even doing a 24-hour fast once or twice a week. Fasting is a stressor on the body, however, and so you need to make sure you're not subjecting yourself to excessive stress levels, especially if you do a lot of exercise. You also need to make sure you're getting decent nutrition on the days that you're not fasting, so eat plenty of nutrient-dense foods and take a multivitamin if you fail to do so.

As far as the OP is concerned, I would just advise you to eat nutritiously (fruits, vegetables, meats/fish, legumes, etc.) whenever you can (frozen fruits and vegetables are very cheap and taste great, so stock up on those). This is especially important if you consume alcohol frequently / in large amounts as alcohol can deplete your body of certain nutrients, particularly the B vitamins. I would also advise you to exercise a few days a week: go for a jog and lift some weights. I advise everyone to start lifting and never stop, the only regret you'll ever have is never starting (trust me). Same goes for running, but weightlifting is critical and sometimes overlooked, especially in female populations.

Anyways, I'm not just some rando internet dude - I actually have a degree in nutritional science, and I'm going back to graduate school in a year to do research on obesity and diabetes. Quite frankly, fasting might be our best hope in terms of sustainable dietary interventions for obesity treatment, but even still, I'd like a more concrete solution that doesn't involve people having to make choices. We need cell therapy / new DNA technologies to change peoples genomes in vivo so that they can survive in our obesigenic environment - one which just isn't going away any time soon. (Hey, what can I say? I'm a cynic, and I want the hard-fix).

Anyways, eat well, exercise, fast every now and then, live long and prosper.

Watch this, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJzOvdbpP5Y

See? I do know what I'm talking about from time to time. :P

[Venant]

If your going to fast for significant periods of time I suggest you drink significant quantities of water. Even at a young age people should be more concerned about their health.

[PizzaSHARK]

Hi as of today I haven't eaten in almost 21 hours and this happens a couple times a week. I have an incredibly sedentary lifestyle so I don't burn hardly any calories. I'm also a poor college student and like to get fucked up on as little beer as possible so I try to keep an empty stomach by fasting for 6 hours whenever I drink. My question is simple: How unhealthy is it go without food for a 24 hour period a couple times a week.

Replacing meals with beers is your real issue.

[Virtua]

Nothing wrong with fasting, you just have to do it right. I went on a juice fast for 5 days, lost a lot of weight, kept the weight off, felt amazing, had better workouts than ever before, and felt pretty happy.

[Anakso]

Nothing wrong with fasting, you just have to do it right. I went on a juice fast for 5 days, lost a lot of weight, kept the weight off, felt amazing, had better workouts than ever before, and felt pretty happy.

Was it easy or did you feel your self craving food/getting tired etc?

[mvallas]

I've gone 3 days without eating... and I wasn't even hungry.

Most recently was with playing Skyrim... I'd wake-up, play, and go to bed and would literally forget to eat. Whenever I'm REALLY into something this happens to me.

Finally on the third day at night, I just went out and forced myself to eat something. I wasn't hungry at all... but at the same time the food I ate then tasted 3x better than I had remembered!

[blabber]

I know college is a nice place to meet people, and party like it''s 1999, but... save that little money you have for booze and buy some real food, it'll help you in the long run.
Even if it is little snacks throughout the day, try to have 4-6 of those small snacks throughout the day.

I don't know your living situation 100%, so that's about all I can say.

[Bergtau]

O.O

That is scary, good thing I don't need sugar!

Here, before someone asks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heredit...se_intolerance

That's leaving out glucose/dextrose, sucrose, galactose, maltose and lactose.

[Virtua]

Was it easy or did you feel your self craving food/getting tired etc?

I actually had a lot of energy and I wasn't "hungry" but yeah, I was craving food. More than anything I just wanted to chew on something and taste it, as weird as that sounds lol. Didn't help that my friends were eating Carl's Jr, Burger King, Panda Express, etc.. around me when I hung out with them lol.

[Gamdwelf]

That's leaving out glucose/dextrose, sucrose, galactose, maltose and lactose.

acctually, dextrose, sucrose and maltose might contain fructose

the 3 mono saccharides are galactose, glucose and fructose, and all other sugars are built with those 3 to make polysaccharides. so majad can't have any of the sugars that include fructose.

[Arialla]

acctually, dextrose, sucrose and maltose might contain fructose

the 3 mono saccharides are galactose, glucose and fructose, and all other sugars are built with those 3 to make polysaccharides. so majad can't have any of the sugars that include fructose.

Dextrose is another name for glucose actually :P Sucrose is one glucose/one fructose, Maltose is two glucose joined together, Lactose(one you didn't mention) is one glucose one galactose

[Granyala]

Poor college student that doesn't buy food and doesn't eat so he can waste his money on BEER and get drunk easily??

How do you expect to get through college hat way and get a decent result an the end?
Stop being an alcoholic and eat properly.
If you don't buy useless destructive drugs, I promise you, you will have enough money for nutrients.

[Gamdwelf]

Dextrose is another name for glucose actually :P Sucrose is one glucose/one fructose, Maltose is two glucose joined together, Lactose(one you didn't mention) is one glucose one galactose

yeah sorry.

[Annihil8or]

Hi as of today I haven't eaten in almost 21 hours and this happens a couple times a week. I have an incredibly sedentary lifestyle so I don't burn hardly any calories. I'm also a poor college student and like to get fucked up on as little beer as possible so I try to keep an empty stomach by fasting for 6 hours whenever I drink. My question is simple: How unhealthy is it go without food for a 24 hour period a couple times a week.

Grow up, you fucking baby.

<Infracted>

[Osyrus]

From what you've written that's the least of your worries.

But because I feel bad for you, fasting for several days is fine, if not healthy.

actually the last statement is incorrect. its really unhealthy to do so. it will cause the next thing you eat to be stored as fat to prevent starvation and puts you in a state of Ketosis- which long term causes kidney and other organ problems hence my anorexics if have had the disease for too long will have permanent damage.

alcohol is also controlled by an ethanol metabolism, but simply the more you drink the easier it becomes to drink more alcohol--> the more you need to get drunk
food helps to slow this process but only so much.