(TRIGGER WARNING) How long can you go without eating before you suffer hair loss?

[kaydana]

NoRush, one part of your post really struck me and I felt I needed to comment on that. The part of your post I felt I needed to comment on is the part that I bolded. While I agree that extreme low calorie diets done with little knowledge or information are a bad idea in general, fasting generally tends to not be a bad idea if it is done correctly (in a Biblical way). When done in a Biblical way, following Biblical principles, letting God guide you in fasting, fasting can be beneficial for you. I know several people for whom regular times of fasting have been beneficial. One of them has actually been able to gain weight after fasting and this person does both short-term fasting and up to twenty-one fasting on a regular basis. I should also mention that fasting is not starvation. When people have times of proper, regular fasting, the times that they don't spend preparing and eating meals are the times they spend in prayer with God. As far as I know, this is the only proper way of true fasting and to my knowledge all other fasting (as some people may call it) is just people depriving themselves of certain foods. I would agree that depriving your body (using your in a general sense here, not meaning your body specifically) of certain foods for long periods of time is a bad idea.

Religion does not have exclusive rights to the word "fasting". There is no "as some people may call it", if people are abstaining from food for a period of time, no matter what the reason, they are fasting. You can fast for religious reasons, political reasons, medical reasons, health, weight loss... religion is only one of many reasons for fasting

[Audhumla]

Religion does not have exclusive rights to the word "fasting". There is no "as some people may call it", if people are abstaining from food for a period of time, no matter what the reason, they are fasting. You can fast for religious reasons, political reasons, medical reasons, health, weight loss... religion is only one of many reasons for fasting

Agreed. I'm sure the word and idea of fasting has a specific meaning and set of rules in a variety of different religions but it isn't a religious term that other people are somehow misappropriating. In a general sense it just means restricting food intake.

[Andeee]

I agree with Audhumla and kaydana. Ayurveda (much older than the Judeo-Christian bible) has different fasts for spiritual and physical reasons (often interconnected) depending on your constitutional type.

[BVU]

Thought I would give my input as someone who has to deal with this
Every once in a while (about 3-4 times a year) my jaw will lock for about 2-4 weeks, I can't eat during this period until doctors decide about 2-3 weeks in to give me an NG tube so I don't die. There was only one instance where I saw severe hairloss, when I was about 11 I didnt have food for almost 4 weeks and was living off of milk and juice, even afterwards it was very hard to be able to eat my 'normal' amount (which isn't much) and had long term effects on my hair until I had my head shaved about 3 years ago, luckily you can't tell now. If youre planning to do long-term fastings, please don't, and please eat, it sucks to not be able to. I found this thread over a week ago but now that my jaw is locked I thought I would give my input with a refresher on how much it sucks.

[lapushka]

Oh my gosh, I don't think I could deal with being without food for half a day. Girl! This is serious.

[BVU]

Oh my gosh, I don't think I could deal with being without food for half a day. Girl! This is serious.

I think so too, but I'm 16 so the doctors dont really listen to me. American healthcare vibes for real haha. Luckily I can't feel hunger so that's nice I guess.

[SeppV]

Not eating is... difficult! But, I have heard that people who take long fasts stop feeling hunger after some days. I have never tried, but people I know have, for biblical reasons anyway. Some fasting is healthy, so long as it's in the right way. Anorexia and behaviour of that sort, is not healthy, and is a different thing from fasting all together. Anyway, this thread doesn't look so good to me. I wouldn't want to give anyone information about how long they could go without food and have their hair not suffer. I wouldn't even start to think along those lines and someone who has an eating disorder tendency might use this information in the wrong way, to find a way to eat less without eating so little that it would cause hair loss or something. I have struggled with wanting to control eating too much, and it is quite sneaky! Maybe I am exagerrating though, and it's fine to have a topic like this.

[vampyyri]

I feel like this whole thread should have a trigger warning on it, tbh. This is a pretty sensitive topic.

I did this for 8 months and lost 120lbs because my eating disorder goes both ways. I lost a lot of hair over that time, from iii thickness down to i/ii, so it takes some time and unhealthy weight loss to lose hair like that. My teeth suffered too, the enamel on my front teeth got so weak that it chipped off in spots, and had to have two root canals as well along with a whole mouth of fillings. Your body starts robbing nutrients from wherever it can, and the less necessary things like hair suffers for it.

Fasting will not do this, because it's not long term.

So basically what I'm saying is don't f around and find out. Short answer, given enough time, it will happen.

[Ylva]

I feel like this whole thread should have a trigger warning on it, tbh. This is a pretty sensitive topic.

I tried, but the forum is working SOOO slowly for me right now! Every load takes a minute or more. Ugh!

[lapushka]

It's up now, thanks, because I agree that it should have some kind of warning on it... messing around with this is... tough. You don't want to do it, and nobody does this willingly. It is a disorder for good reason. I was on the brink of one, and up to age 40 I had it mess with my head.