if a morbidly obese person suddenly stopped eating anything, and only drank water, would all the fat get burnt before this person eventually dies from starvation ? How much longer could that person theoretically survive as compared to an average one ?

Question

Currently on a diet. I have no idea how this weird question even got into my mind, but here we go.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Even a normal sized person can survive for months and months on only water. The body is Amazing. The fat stores do exactly what they are supposed to do… and your body is extremely efficient.

A morbidly obese person could possibly survive a year on water alone I would imagine.

Of course, level of activity would be a gigantic variable…. But assuming this person is like 400 or 500 lbs… It would take a very long time to burn through 400 pounds worth the fat.

A pound of fat is 3500 calories… If you are burning 1500 calories a day…. You can survive a super long time.

Im sure it wouldn’t be pleasant. You would probably be sleeping a lot and malnutrished… but you would live.