Can I lose weight fast if I just completely stop eating food, and only drink water?

Here's the correct (and intelligent) answer: Yes, if you consume nothing but water and vitamins you will drop weight fast. No, it has nothing to do with WHAT you eat, but rather how MUCH you eat. On average, the body burns 2000 calories per day at rest (binging Netflix). There are 3500 calories to a pound. If you stop eating you will lose a pound every two days. If you consume 1000 calories a day you will lose a pound roughly every 4 days. You can eat 1000 calories worth of candy if you want, so long as you don't go over that limit.

Everything really depends on how much you want to lose and how fast. If you consume nothing but water and vitamins, and jump rope an hour per day, you can lose up to eight pounds in a week. We’re physically capable of losing 6–7 pounds (of pure fat) per day if we really wanted to. 1 hour on bicycle = 1000 calories. 3.5 hours = 3500 calories ( or 1 pound of fat). 24 hours / 3.5 = 6.8 pounds of fat. Plus the 2000 daily calories burned by your body = 7 pounds of Fat. So, factoring in a few hours for sleep each day a person could (theoretically) lose 35 pounds in a week (if they were dedicated enough). Something to think about.

Oh, and FYI, the whole ‘survival mode' belief is utter bullshit. Your body can't suddenly decide that it only needs 500 calories for it's daily functions instead of 2000 simply because you stop eating a box of Twinkies everyday. It will take what it needs from your fat storage (hence the weight loss). This is like saying a car will burn less gas per mile if you suddenly stop putting more fuel in it. Secondly, if you have fat on your body then it's not starving. Fat is food. Also, your body doesn’t start consuming muscle until after it runs out of fat. And once it does start consuming muscle it will take it from anywhere EXCEPT the heart. Don’t believe me? Look at pictures of starving Jews from WWII. They couldn’t very well be skin and bones if their body had consumed their heart now could they?

Man, I could rant on this all day, but there's more than enough legitimate information on the internet regarding this topic, so I won't. Sadly, you just need to weed through the horseshit, which not surprisingly, is mostly from nutritionists. I will close in saying that I went 50 days with no food (water and vitamins) and I lost 73 pounds. That would take 9–11 months on a diet, and most people quit dieting within the first two weeks.

If you really want to see fasting in action watch the show 'Alone’. It will show you what happens to fat people after 80 days with limited calories. Or you can Google Angus Barbieri. He went over a year without food and lost 275 pounds (and kept it off). Yes, the old “you’ll gain it right back” is pure bullshit as well.

*UPDATE* Just wanted to add that I am currently on a 30 day water fast to go from 212 to 170 lbs. It’s day 10 and I’m already down to 199. You really don’t understand how much 40 extra pounds of weight is until you go to the gym and lift a 40lbs dumbbell. It’s the equivalent of strapping five 1 gallon milk jugs to your waist. Imagine it.

*FINAL UPDATE* After realizing how many people are viewing this and asking questions I just wanted to share of few more useful bits. (FYI, I did manage to hit 174 lbs. in 30 days).

1. Water Fasting is hard. Not because of the hunger. The hunger goes away after 36 hours (once ketosis starts). No, it’s hard because we’re addicted to food, and it’s just like any other addiction. We don’t just eat when we’re hungry we eat when we’re bored. This is most prevalent while watching TV. We just have to have something to snack on while watching TV, playing video games, etc.. This brings me to number two.
2. Technology is what’s making people fat. More accurately, the urge for snacking while using that technology. And those snacks are loaded with calories. As I mentioned earlier a bag of lays potato chips (our favorite snack food) contains 1700 calories. That’s a day worth of calories right there. A small $1 bag of gummy bears is 800 calories. Once you start paying attention to the amount of calories listed on the back of packages you begin to understand why you can’t lose weight. Did you know that most salads contain 600–1000 calories? This is why we were so much skinnier in the 80s/90s… no smart phones. No internet. No smart TVs. No snack addictions.
3. Combining these two points I just wanted to stress that Fasting is not easy due to the addiction, so even the most dedicated person will crack and snack on something. The important thing is WHAT you’re snacking on. Blueberries and ultra thin pretzels are what I turned to. Also Progresso soup is perfect for weight loss. At only 180/230 calories per can you can literally eat as much Chicken noodle soup as you want per day and you’ll still lose weight. That’s a good alternative to fasting. Did you know that 129 blueberries is only 100 calories!? Did you know 96 Ultra thin pretzels is only 100 calories. Perfect for Netflix snacking. You would have to eat nearly 2000 blueberries 1700 pretzels to equal 1 bag of Lays potato chips.

Man, this turned into a book. Sorry about that. I’ve just learned so much during my experience that it’s hard not to share. I want people to succeed at this. Become aware of calories and you’ll succeed. Don’t pay attention to serving size calories (the big misleading number) pay attention to servings per container. That’s how they scam you. Always have it in your mind that you can’t go over 1000 calories a day and you’ll learn to stretch that caloric budget. Okay, I’ll shut up now.