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Comment by a8da6b0c91d | Hacker News Reader

Starving people die from lack of protein, not low body fat. Not having read all the details, I I don't buy the story that the guy didn't eat for a year. You can't survive without eating protein for an extended period.

You die of starvation when your body runs out of amino acids to renew cardiac tissue. Calories and stored fat have little to do with it. A fat person will die of starvation before a muscular person.

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They gave him this for 10mo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritional_yeast not too many calories, but enough protein to keep all the levels in check

No one should ever try this without constant medical supervison (which this guy had).

That qualifier should be included more prominently - this wasn't a strict fast, because he was still taking on nutrients. It's still a surprising feat, but it solves the questions of 'how did his muscles survive?' and similar.

>Starving people die from lack of protein, not low body fat. [...] Calories and stored fat have little to do with it. A fat person will die of starvation before a muscular person.

Don't be ridiculous. If you use up your glycogen reserves, and then your fat reserves, you are dead. You need energy to live, and it has to come from somewhere. You can die of protein deficiency, but it's definitely not the sole cause of death by starvation, and I doubt it's even the leading cause of death by starvation.

Sure you can die of protein deficiencies! Don't forget that there are essential amino acids that you need to get through your diet.

I remember reading somewhere how easily victims of prolonged starvation die from relatively non-serious trauma. It related to the loss of fat from around organs such as the heart. Quite low impact accidents were killing people. This was based on holocaust survivors I believe.

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