Tag: Body resilience

While the body can only last about three days without any water, with adequate hydration, some records suggest people have survived with no food for weeks or even several months. This remarkable resilience of the human body, in a state of starvation with access to water, is influenced by a complex process of metabolic changes.

While the "rule of threes" suggests humans can survive for about three weeks without food, this assumes access to water; without water, survival time shrinks to just days. The answer to the question "Can a human survive without food?" is a complex one, involving the body's remarkable but ultimately limited, ability to cannibalize its own energy stores.