The True Story of a Man Who Lived for 382 Days Without Food

Most people can go at least a few weeks or maybe even longer without food. But starvation does kill in the end.

Still, it’s hard to say how long someone can go without food. Without water, they probably won’t last more than a week, but the length of time it takes to die from starvation can be very different. Take the story of Angus Barbieri. The 27-year-old Scotsman didn’t eat for 382 days, until July 11, 1966.

There isn’t much written about Barbieri’s fast. A few old newspaper articles describe his ordeal, and a case report written by his doctors and published in the Postgraduate Medical Journal in 1973 is more convincing.

According to that report, Barbieri had gone to the University Department of Medicine at the Royal Infirmary of Dundee, Scotland, more than a year before to ask for help.

At the time, his doctors said he weighed 456 pounds and was “grossly obese” (207 kg). The doctors put him on a short fast so he could lose weight, but they didn’t think he would be able to keep it off.

But as the days went by without food, Barbieri was eager to keep going with the program.

As crazy and dangerous as it seemed, he wanted to reach his “ideal weight” of 180 pounds. Fasts longer than 40 days are still considered dangerous (82 kg). So he kept going.

His doctors were surprised that he spent most of his time at home during the fast, only coming to the hospital for checkups and overnight stays.

Regular blood sugar tests, which were meant to show that he was still able to work even though he was very hypoglycemic, gave doctors confidence that he wasn’t eating. Months went by instead of weeks.

Barbieri took potassium and sodium supplements and vitamins at different times during the fast.

He could drink coffee, tea, and sparkling water, all of which have no calories on their own. He said that sometimes, especially in the last few weeks of his fast, he would put a little sugar or milk in his tea.

At the end of all he had been through, Barbieri weighed 180 pounds. Five years later, he had kept almost all of the weight off. He weighed 196 pounds (89 kg).

How far the human body can go

The Scotsman’s fast may be the most extreme case of a starvation diet that has ever been written about.

At least one person has gone without food for longer than Barbieri. A man named Dennis Galer Goodwin went on a hunger strike for 385 days to prove he was innocent of a rape charge before he was fed through a tube against his will.

But Barbieri’s extreme plan isn’t the only long-term fast for health that seems crazy. In 1964, scientists wrote in a study that “prolonged starvation” could be a good way to treat severe obesity. At least one patient fasted for 117 days.

Several others have fasted for longer than 200 days for medical reasons, and at least one of them has died while they were being fed again.

In a way, these stories show how amazing it is that the body can sometimes survive off of its own fat stores, as long as those stores are big enough to begin with.

Still, there is no doubt that these kinds of extreme diets can kill you. No one can stay alive without energy, which comes from food and, for a short time, from fat stores.

In the 1960s and 1970s, “starvation” was sometimes used as a treatment, but doctors stopped doing this because it was likely to kill their patients.

After a certain amount of time, the body burns through fat and muscle, which leads to changes in the body that greatly increase the risk of a fatal heart attack.

Even low-calorie diets that don’t give enough nutrition have killed people, as shown by autopsy reports that show the signs of starvation.

But as Barbieri shows, it’s not easy to answer the question of how long people can live without food.

Before his first meal after the fast, he said he couldn’t remember what food tastes like. The next morning in July, he had a boiled egg, a piece of toast with butter, and a cup of black coffee for breakfast.

The next day, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune, he told a reporter, “I really liked my egg, and I’m very full.”