Looking back at history, no one has ever survived for up to 382 days without food like the Englishman Barbieri. This strong man, who weighed 412 pounds at the time, finally succeeded in setting this world record that shocked the world by adopting extreme fasting therapy.
Babieri was originally a severely overweight man, which caused him a lot of problems in his daily life. Even a simple turning motion requires the help of three adults to complete.
To make matters worse, he also suffered from a range of serious illnesses, including diabetes, coronary heart disease, and high blood pressure. Faced with such a dire state of health, Babieri was determined to make a difference, and on the advice of his doctor, he embarked on this difficult weight-loss journey.
He adopted an extreme fasting method, relying entirely on intravenous fluids for more than a year to stay alive, completely stopping eating any physical food.
At first, he struggled with hunger every day, and even had thoughts of suicide. But to everyone's surprise, after just a few weeks, his hunger pangs miraculously disappeared, and in his place was a tenacious determination that sustained him step by step towards his goal.
Witnessed by doctors, relatives and friends, Babieri finally stood on the scale of victory on the 382nd day. As others cheered for him, he nervously closed his eyes and waited for the result.
Eventually, when he plucked up the courage to look down, the number in front of him shocked everyone - 164 pounds, which means that he managed to lose a full 97 kilograms from the initial 412 pounds.
The British man, who once weighed as much as a hippopotamus, has now managed to set the Guinness World Record for the longest fasting time.
The arduous journey of the road to fasting
For Babieri, the choice of such an extreme fasting therapy was entirely due to compelling reasons. As an "obese king" with a height of 1.7 meters and a weight of 412 pounds, his daily life has already been seriously affected.
It takes 3 adults to just turn over, so you can imagine how difficult it is to do other normal activities. But what makes him most anxious is the serious health risks in his body, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, etc.
With the encouragement of his family and friends, Babieri was determined to change the situation completely. On the advice of his doctor, he embarked on this journey of fasting that lasted for more than a year.
But when he actually started to put it into practice, he was immediately shocked by the huge challenge in front of him.
For the first week, Babieri could barely endure the mountain of hunger. I was fighting against it every day, and even suicidal thoughts came to me. But what he didn't expect was that after just a few weeks, this torturous hunger pang magically disappeared.
In its place was an unprecedented determination of tenacity. Despite the arduous process, Babieri enjoyed it, begging the doctor again and again not to let him end the seemingly painful challenge early.
In the long period that followed, he refreshed his weight loss results again and again, and finally on the 90th day, his blood sugar level dropped to an outrageous 0.3mg/ml! This would mean a dying life for ordinary people, but for Babieri, it was just a slight physical irritation.
Day after day, Babieri is firmly on the path of fasting. He even insisted that his parents close the fried chicken fast-food restaurant that supported the whole family, for fear that he would not be tempted one day.
In this way, after 382 long days, Babieri finally fulfilled his dream.
When he stood on the scale tremblingly and saw the figure of 164 pounds, all the nervousness and uneasiness instantly turned into excitement and joy. From the initial 412 pounds to today's 164 pounds, Babieri has undergone an amazing transformation.
This is undoubtedly a remarkable achievement for a man who would have weighed as much as a "hippopotamus".
Dangers of fasting therapy
While the fasting feat of Babieri is remarkable, this extreme practice also hides great risks. In fact, there have been many similar tragedies before him.
The most well-known is Gandhi, the "father of the Indian nation". His endurance to fasting was equally admirable, but his longest extreme fast was only 21 days.
In real life, there are many patients who unfortunately pass away due to various complications in the process of trying fasting therapy.
A patient from the United States died suddenly of heart failure after three weeks of fasting. Another British patient passed away of a small bowel infarction after 13 days of fasting treatment.
The most shocking thing is that a young patient at the age of 32 died forever due to lactic acidosis.
Even people who don't have any problems during the fasting period are likely to suffer from misadventures after returning to their normal diet. For example, a resilient female patient endured 210 days of fasting, but on the sixth day after returning to her normal diet, she unfortunately passed away because of her heart.
Such tragedies are not unique. Experts in the industry have also publicly stated on many occasions that fasting therapy is extremely risky and should not be tried lightly. However, even so, there are those who are skeptical and try to break the record.
For example, a man from the United Kingdom, Dennis Goodwin, claimed to have successfully fasted for a staggering 385 days in 1973. As soon as this news was exposed, it immediately aroused widespread attention.
But in the end, Guinness officials still firmly rejected the record, because the investigation found that Goodwin had been forced to eat by his mother during the fasting process.
In response, Guinness officials said that they will no longer recognize any records related to fasting in the future. This is out of concern for the health of others, for fear that someone will imitate Babieri's approach and cause irreparable damage to himself.
An outrageous experiment with fasting
In fact, as early as the thirties and forties of the last century, the famous American physiologist Case once conducted a heinous fasting experiment. He selected 36 physically fit young men and began what became known as the "demonic" experiment.
At first, Case would prepare two hearty meals for the young people every day. But as time went on, he gradually tightened his food supply, and eventually all that was left was potatoes with a clear soup and a bread as hard as a stone.
To make matters worse, the subjects were forced to participate in 5 kilometers of trekking every day.
Under these extremely harsh conditions, three people had to give up halfway. But the remaining 33 still stubbornly persevered. However, when they finally got past this stage and tried to eat normally again, there was an even more dramatic scene.
Some subjects have no appetite for the delicious food in front of them, and some even cut off their fingers in order to resist the temptation of hunger. In addition, one of the subjects lost control of his emotions and showed extremely violent tendencies, and was almost sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Although these survivors eventually returned to a normal diet, all of them fell victim to chronic diseases.
It can be seen that the physical and psychological damage caused by fasting therapy is unimaginable. Even a resilient man like Babieri could not escape the fate of exhaustion in the end.
Therefore, for those who blindly seek a "shortcut" to fasting, these bloody lessons are worth pondering.