Re: Does it take less time for already-lean people to reach stage five of a fast?

chrisb1
i kinda intuitively/respectfully disagree.
know this is not the debate forum but wanted to share my perspective:
I get the following from Hereward Carrington. He quotes one Dr. Graham in his (Carrington's) book "Vitality, Fasting, and Nutrition: A Physiological Study of the Curative Power of Fasting, Together With a New Theory of the Relation of Food to Human Vitality."

"... Dr. Graham writes:
' If the fat be designed for the nourishment of the body in protracted fasts, then if a very fat man, in the enjoyment of what is ordinarily considered good health, etc., and a lean man in good health be shut up together, and condemned to die of starvation, the fat man ought to diminish in weight much more slowly, and to live considerably longer than the lean man, but directly the contrary of this is true. The lean man will lose in weight much more slowly, and live several days longer than the fat man, in spite of all the nourishment the fat man may derive from his adipose deposits.'
It will be seen that Dr. Graham even denies that the fat man does live longer than the thin man, and I may state that this has been my own experience, precisely" (p.127)

http://books.google.com/books?id=erQ8EHYMaXkC&pg=PA123&dq=%22emaciated+person...


I comment because I feel this is a very interesting and most vital point and question. There is ever so much more to it. I can't put in the time to share all my thoughts on it right now.

chrisb1, what are your sources for your assertions (1) and (2) about "quantity of reserves"/"quality of reserves? Would you kindly share? Thanks.

Also, I read I think somewhere that the body actually used first its waste material/cancerous growths and the like -- its diseased tissues; as fuel; even any bacteria present in the intestines, anything deemed superfluous -- before it used its fat reserves, even, or any healthy tissues, as fuel. Have you encountered this in your reading? I think it is in Shelton. The idea was that, surprisingly, the body fed on its diseased matter BEFORE it fed on its healthy reserves. So... wouldn't the length of time to "completion" depend on the quantity of diseased material present in the body, to be autolyzed, and not on a person's starting weight/fat reserves/BMI/whatever ? Tweet