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

Yes and no.

Fat is, to put it simply, food-energy your body sets aside for later. It contains a few *essential* vitamins, but not everything you need. The fat we evolved to store is, basically, an emergency energy supply. It has enough oomph to keep you alive during periods of low food (read: winter), but it isn’t meant to be your only source of energy.

You eventually will die of malnutrition related illnesses, as your fat doesn’t store proteins, amino acids, and the slew od vitamins and minerals you need to survive. You won’t get any iron and will grow anemic, the lack of vitamin C would lead to scurvy, etc.

But you *could* take some vitamins and be okay. If you took, say, a multi-vitamin, plus some other select supplements, you could survive off only fat.