How Long Can a Person Live Without Food and Water


How long can a person live without food and water? Surprisingly, it is the lack of water that will cause death sooner than not having food to eat.  Death by dehydration, or the lack of sufficient water intake, can occur between 3 to 6 days depending on the temperature while succumbing to food deprivation can take from 46 to 73 days as documented and recorded in instances of those who participated in hunger strikes.  

Campers, hikers, fisherman, travelers, and various other outdoorsy people should learn fundamental survival skills. In the wilderness or in the outdoor environment (land or sea), our body needs water and food to survive.

There are dozens of ways to survive without water and food. Our health depends on what we put into our body. In this case, it is important to remember how nutrition works for the best of our intentions.

All in all, water and food are the two main sources for the nutrition your body needs daily. The cliché statement states, “Our bodies are more than 90% of water.” This is not a false statement.

When we talk about how much water is needed to stay hydrated, we normally reply, “We need at least 8 full glasses of 8 oz. of water daily.” One of the main things to remember is to drink plenty of water before and during strenuous physical work.

For instance, if you know you will be hiking for hours, take plenty of water to tote with you and drink plenty of water before. You can always “pop a squat” when it’s time to urinate in the wild. (Be careful with specific plants and flowers which can be poisonous if you touch it or get nearby it.)

In fact, when you think about the survival needs of our own body, one of the most important resources we must have daily is water. In this case, in order to survive, we must stay hydrated if we are stranded in the wilderness, such as in the heat.

Learn the meanings of dehydration, starvation, and survival first before a  hunter, fisherman, outdoorsman, or camper, goes out into the wild or out-of-town in a car, boat or RV. Ways, for instance, is learning what plants you can eat in the wild which may, in fact, have all the vitamins and mineral you need without hallucinating on bad plants and flowers, know where drinkable water can be found along your route or destination, have the habit of carrying extra water bottles or having a ready-made emergency survival kit or bug out bag.

learn to be prepared for the worst-case scenario and you will certainly overcome the chances of death by starvation or dehydration. As mentioned you might want to consider having a ready-made emergency kit or bag handy and at your disposal. There is one bag I highly recommend. Click here to get all the information and latest pricing from Amazon.

Learn How to Survive Day-to-Day Without Dehydrating

Death by starvation in the wild is common. Stranded in a National or State park will set anyone in fear-mode. As human beings, our bodies can survive in the most extreme conditions. For instance, if you are stranded at night in an RV in the middle of an Arizona state highway what would you do? With no convenience store in sight, how will you survive without water, what if your phone’s charger dies and you can’t reach anyone?

The ability to survive such a scenario comes down to what you packed up in your backpack, car, or luggage. This could be food, snacks, water bottles…etc.

Severe symptoms eventually show up as a result. If you were stranded in a desert or in the mountain tops from camping, your body can survive for about a month in a half in wild without water. These scenarios are the most common. In this case, the turn for the worse can begin within a week. If it’s humid and hot outside and there is no water in sight, your luck will be based on what you have in hand.

Dehydration

Dehydration is a killer; however, to keep our bodies alive, we need at least a couple of liters of water daily to maintain normal bodily function.

In fact, this is without strenuous physical exercise or activity. The longest a body can survive in the heat and humidity is approximately 6 days without water consumption. As a result, there are ways to monitor the body’s hydration levels by the color of the urine. You may even notice the tongue feeling dry when dehydration sets in.

For example, when you see that your urine is dark, then you know is concentrated. In other words, the lighter (or clearer) your urine is, the better. Therefore, dark yellow urination in a cup is bad news. Your body may be prone to dehydration and/or a heat-stroke, but this will not happen until you see more signs. Thus, the start of these symptoms is the result of your body saying, “I’ve used all the water in my body.”

The Signs and Symptoms of Dehydration

There are other symptoms and signs of dehydration. For instance, the increase in the body’s heart rate. This is a common sign of dehydration. Therefore, we carefully need to listen to our bodies and especially when we need to stay alive and nourished if we are ever in a predicament such as being injured and lost in the desert or wild. Additionally, common sense helps protect our instincts when we are out in the wilderness. There are various things we can do to keep our body’s vitals in-sync when under nature’s survival wings.

You may have one to two water bottles with little or no water at all, but they can be recycled. For instance, if you happen to be on a hiking trail and suddenly you are lost, there could be a stream or lake nearby. If so, collecting water in these bottles is the most common idea. Thus, rain is the key to filling these bottles if need be. Although, you could use any bottle or container to collect water if it rains.

FOOD

With food in the formula for battling starvation and dehydration, you need fuel to keep on trekking or walking or laying in the heat. If it is the heat that you are battling more. Some people simply get lost in the wild or stranded out in the wild for dozens of reasons. Here are some of those reasons according to officials of National Park Rangers.

– Fell over a steep mountain and severely hurt s/he can’t continue hiking, trekking, walking…etc.

– Compass lost, broken, or never brought it with…

– No signals on phone or GPS

– Phone charger/batteries died

– Stranded in a car (accident, battery died, car broke-down, no gas)

– Ended up “snow or blizzard” kept travelers from traveling on roads.

There are much more odd reasons why people are faced with a survival situation due to the lack of an adequate supply of food and water.

Final Thoughts

Whether at work, home, or wherever you are you need to develop an awareness to threat potentials and worst case scenarios. Educate and prepare yourself before a disaster occurs the best you can. Learning survival techniques and strategies is as easy as researching on the internet or Youtube. Find the appropriate methods to stay alive, to be hydrated as well as nourished in a crisis situation. One thing I know is to have the emergency supplies ready to go that is conveniently portable and easy to access. I would have various emergency kits stashed away at home, locker or in your vehicle.

This is why I recommend one highly rated emergency kit that can be left in the trunk of your car or in an accessible location that you can grab and go.  Click here to get more information and the latest pricing on Amazon.

Recent Posts