Northern Ontario woman hasn’t eaten in 2 years since Covid-19 | Hacker News Reader

Northern Ontario woman hasn’t eaten in 2 years since Covid-19

cbc.ca

26 pointsjames_pm22 comments

To save you the click:

1. She is "eating", in the sense that she's hooked up to a machine that provides nutrition to her body. Her stomach stopped working after catching covid.

2. The record for longest fast goes to Angus Barbieri in 1965 who went one year and 17 days without eating (under medical supervision). https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blog/2018/02/story-angus-barbieri...

was Angus Barbieri drinking? one thing i realized is that i can go many days without food. what truly gets to you is not drinking. i was on coffee most of the time.

Generally, just remember the rule of threes: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_threes_(survival)

It really depends from where you start from. If you're at 10% body fat you'll probably be dead or in very bad shape after 3 weeks, if you're the average westerner sitting at 40%+ body fat you'll be alive, and probably in better shape, after 3 weeks of fasting.

Probably don't need to get too in the weeds here; it's just a rule of thumb.

Searching for the longest fast do turn up Angus Barbieri on Wikipedia. However, an Indian woman fasted for 17+ years (under medical supervision) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irom_Chanu_Sharmila

That was just hunger strike. She was fed regularly during that time period.

Angus actually didn't have any caloric intake during his fast. Impressive as her hunger strike was, she was force fed, which can't really be considered fasting.

> she was nasally force fed in jail

As another commenter pointed out, this wasn't a 16 year fast, it was a 16 year hunger strike.

I once did an 8 day water fast. Past day 3 it gets really easy, and it was strange how good I felt.

Why not do it more often?

it's not safe.

Plenty of people do multi day fasts on a regular basis. I know several people that do 10 day fasts every quarter. It is totally safe unless you are dramatically underweight to begin with.

It's very safe, unless done in an unsafe manner.

FWIW it can be dangerous for people with a heart condition, because when your body goes into ketosis, it'll first break down a bit of muscle, including heart muscle.

Tried it once. After 2 days it gets easier regarding hunger. Downsides: my jaw began to hurt because I wasn't chewing anything. I was more aggressiv, mildly, but who am I to judge that. My mouth tasted funny.

After the fast I ate a huge meal. You are not supposed to do that but I was irrational.

It did nothing on the scale.

I don't know what people get out of this and to anybody who feels compelled to do it because of someone on the internet is telling you it's a great experience: I have done it for you. It's not great. You are free to try it yourself but now you don't have to anymore.

PS: maybe I have done not eating wrong. Please enlighten me.

> I don't know what people get out of this and to anybody who feels compelled to do it because of someone on the internet is telling you it's a great experience: I have done it for you. It's not great. You are free to try it yourself but now you don't have to anymore.

I did it because my doctor recommended it, but thanks for the assumption. How long did you do it for? I only really started feeling at ease from day 4 or so.

And yeah breaking fast with a huge meal would be a huge mistake.

I did a 3 day fast because this was recommended for beginners.

So you suggest I didn't do it long enough?

An important detail is that the “machine” requires a central line and she can’t do anything that could possibly infect it, like shower normally or swim.

Wow, and I just happened to see this movie recently...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonder_(film)

I'm curious why this is flagged

Me too. The headline is 100% accurate for the article; no clickbaiting here. (If you are going to quibble and say that getting nutrients put into into her body via a lilne = "eating", you have completely missed the point of the article.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com