Lucy Devine
Most of us struggle to go even a few hours without tucking into a meal or a snack, but one man from Scotland actually fasted for over a year.
Angus Barbieri weighed over 200kg when he visited the University Department of Medicine at the Royal Infirmary of Dundee in June 1965.
It's reported that Barbieri told staff at the facility that he wanted to stop eating altogether - in a bid to lose weight - and doctors agreed to monitor his progress.
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According to Diabetes.co.uk, doctors prescribed multivitamins and yeast, thinking that he would probably be fasting for a few days at the most.
But they never anticipated Barbieri to go 392 days without eating, instead living on drinks such as tea and coffee, soda water and vitamins.
It's important to point out that this certainly isn't a safe or healthy way to lose weight and shouldn't be 'tried at home'.
Incredibly, apart from a low blood glucose level, Barbieri didn't suffer any ill-effects from the extreme diet.
He did only go to the toilet every 40-50 days, however, which must have been pretty strange.
When the Scotsman finally loosened his strict regime, he opted for a pinch of sugar or milk in his hot drinks, before breaking the fast altogether.
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And the first food he ate?
A boiled egg with a slice of bread and butter, which apparently left him very full.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my egg and I feel very full," he told reporters.
According to a Chicago Tribune report, he had totally forgotten what food even tasted like after going a year without anything at all.
The fast proved to be successful, with Barbieri managing to keep the weight off.
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His fast was also recognised by Guinness World Records as the longest fast ever recorded.
Despite his success, Diabetes.co.uk explains that Barbieri's case is very unusual and shouldn't be recommended.
They explain that because Angus was so overweight, his body was more prepared to fast.
"For people of a normal weight, fasting for long periods can cause health complications, including increased strain on the heart, even with nutritional supplementation," they explained.
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"Therefore, fasts of this length should not be attempted by anybody. They are from a time in the 1960s where long-term fasts were being studied with frequency, but there are other studies from this time where patients experienced heart failure and in some cases died of starvation."