What really happens if you don't eat? Or don't eat a lot?

[Anonymous]

I was reading a book and a girl was staving herself, only eating a little. In heath, I was told not eating doesn't do anything... so, yeah.

[Anonymous]

Over the first 48-72 hours your burn through the glycogen that is stored in your muscles and liver. After this period you start to get headaches and a foggy mind because you don't have enough glucose to feed your brain cells. Your body uses an alternative pathway to break down fatty acids into ketone bodies and proteins from your muscles into amino acids. These can be in turn gradually converted into glucose for the brain but it is a very slow process. After first you will lose some muscle mass, but as time passes you will burn through far more of your fat reserves creating ketone bodies. Calories aside, when you run low on other vitamins/minerals your body will feed on more muscle cells to come up with the needed resources to stay alive. Your body will slow down all non essential bodily functions to try and conserve energy (you metabolism will slow dramatically). Your body will eat itself until you become very unhealthy and eventually die. If you don't eat for 24 hours and then eat for several days then it's no big deal. I do that myself sometimes. If you do it for extended periods of time without ever refeeding then you're going to crash hard eventually and you might die.

[sa230e]

Initially your body relies on stored glycogen for energy and once that's depleted large quantities of catecholamines are released to break down fat and muscle tissue to burn as energy. Your metabolism slows as your body starts shutting down non-essential functions to preserve energy to keep itself alive. Digestive transit times slow, you get constipated. Body temperature drops making you feel cold all the time. Cortisol levels go up leaving you feeling stressed and wired yet you still feel overpowering fatigue from lack of energy.

I experienced all of that when I was on amphetamines for two years and eating less than 1000 calories per day. I assure you "starvation mode" is quite real. Weight loss by caloric restriction is a Pyrrhic victory. Coercing your body to consume itself in order to look better is a brutal thing to do to yourself. It's also unsustainable. Sooner or later you will not be able to ignore your body's screaming for sustenance and you will eat, eventually gaining back all the weight you lost and then some. See the work of Ancel Keys who studied this quite extensively.

[Lyndsielee666]

I've struggled with anorexia since I was nine. It got really bad about six months after I had my daughter. From my experience my hair started falling out, my heart rate went down to about 23bpm I couldn't stand up, I always felt like I was in a dream, I couldn't sit still or I felt like I was dying. Uhhh, I couldn't sleep at night because I was afraid I wouldn't wake up. I couldn't pick up my daughter Now that I'm getting better I have to take high does vitamin d for the rest of my life, iron, and vitamin d12 pills. They have to check my insides once a month, and my heart beat is irregular. Also I have constant heart burn. Its great.
Starving yourself really messes you up.

[1cubby1]

Not eating or drinking slows your metabolism and puts your body in starvation mode. The next meal you have is stored as a fat preservation because your body doesn't know when it's next meal will be and is making sure it won't be stranded again. At least drinking juice and water throughout the day, even protein shakes to keep your body regulated.

[rachelbrrtt]

Your body goes into starvation mode
Slows down your metabolism a lot
Will store the little food you eat as fat to be released slower
Your body essentially starts shutting down
You feel light headed, you're more likely to pass out, and you don't have energy to do anything

[harakiri]

Not eating will help you lose weight. But then you enter starvation mode. And then you can die. Not eating is NOT smart... not sure why anyone would choose to do that... I'm on a carb-free diet at the moment, and I'm eating a lot less than I used to, just protein and vegetables- but it's in a healthy, regulated way.

[guyfrompluto]

If you don't eat. Sooner or later you will get a G-tube stuck into your stomach for nutritional delivery.
If you eat less then you will slowly lose weight until the body learns to adappt to your new calorie intake.

[Anonymous]

your body starts eating itself for energy, like your muscles.

[COCOCHANEL]

makes me dizzy and lightheaded

[knotme]

Weight loss and you organs slowly shutting down

[mario1321]

Means your missing the finer things in life

[NoblesseOblige]

You lose weight.

[suzannahh]

DAMN you beat me to it

[NoblesseOblige]

hahaha