Gen Z trends pushes us to look attractive and fit for selfies, and millions of people go on extreme diets to achieve this, some are even going on dry fasting for many days. This is a very unhealthy move at gaining 6-packs or a flat tummy.

To get into shape, it’s best to see a doctor or a nutritionist. If you don’t, you run the risk of seriously damaging your body, not to mention that once you go back to eating like you did, you will soon put on all the weight you lost.

However, what exactly happens when we stop eating? Well, the main source of energy of cells is glucose. More specifically, our brain consumes a fourth of it, and the rest is distributed between our muscle tissues and red blood cells.

When we stop eating, we stop receiving the glucose we need, although for the first six hours our body can keep on working with the glucose reserves it has. It is after the seventh hour when the issues start. The brain will not be receiving the energy it needs, and thus will start feeling cranky and irritable. Our system then looks for another energy source and finds it in our body fat.

It then breaks the fat down in two kinds of acids. The more complex ones have enough glucose, but due to their molecular structure they only work to feed the tissues and blood – they can’t reach the brain. Thus, the brain will have to settle with the simpler acids, which only cover about 75% of the brain’s need. That’s why we’ll start experiencing lack of concentration, loss of memory, and a reduction in our reaction times. This all happens during the first 72 hours.

At the start of the third day, our body will start breaking down proteins. That way, it will extract enough glucose to feed the brain, which has already adapted by reducing its consumption rate. That might seem good at first glance, but in reality, at this stage, our body would be basically eating itself, feeding itself from our own muscular mass. We would also experience a loss of bone density, making them more fragile, and would also experience disruptions in our metabolism.

During the next two weeks, our body will keep breaking down proteins to sustain itself, damaging all of our organs in the process, especially our immune system. And without the vitamins and minerals our body needs, the probability of getting illnesses increases. So, what is the limit our bodies can resist? Um, that will depend on the amount of body fat in our bodies and the liquids we consume. In some cases, it’s possible to fast for 3 weeks straight, and the maximum registered case is of 70 days without eating. The most likely outcome is dying due to a heart attack, since the heart tissue becomes too weak and can no longer pump blood effectively to the rest of the body.