Angus Barbieri: The Man Who Didn’t Eat For 382 Days

In June of 1965, Angus Bar­bi­eri, a seem­ing­ly aver­age, nor­mal Scot­tish man, cap­tured the world’s atten­tion. embark­ing on what would become an unbe­liev­able 382-day fast­ing jour­ney. 

Bar­bi­eri shat­tered all records and expec­ta­tions, stu­pe­fy­ing sci­en­tists, and pub­lic onlook­ers.

Barbieri’s Life Before

Very lit­tle infor­ma­tion is avail­able about Bar­bi­eri and his life before his record-break­ing fast and weight loss.

Bar­bi­eri was born in 1939 in Scot­land and by all accounts lived a nor­mal, unevent­ful life.

His father owned a fish-and-chips shop, with Bar­bi­eri join­ing the fam­i­ly busi­ness. By the start of his fast, Bar­bi­eri was work­ing there for some time

As a young adult liv­ing in Tay­port, Scot­land, issues with his weight began to be appar­ent. By 27 years old Bar­bi­eri weighed 456 pounds.

In June 1965, the 27-year-old was vol­un­tar­i­ly admit­ted to a hos­pi­tal in Dundee, Scot­land. He hoped that he would walk out with his weight in check.

Only a short fast was planned. But Bar­bi­eri would instead go on to fast for an aston­ish­ing 382 days.

Angus Barbieri’s Fast

In June 1965, Bar­bi­eri marched into the Uni­ver­si­ty Depart­ment of Med­i­cine at the Roy­al Infir­mary of Dundee. He weighed 456 pounds, and he com­mit­ted to fast­ing his way to health.

Bar­bi­eri quick­ly blew past the ini­tial plan of a short fast. But he was deter­mined to con­tin­ue.

As part of the fast­ing process, the con­sump­tion of any food was off the table. He was only allowed vit­a­mins, elec­trolytes, some yeast for impor­tant amino acids, and final­ly, bev­er­ages like black cof­fee, tea, and sparkling water.

Some would take offense with the fact that Bar­bi­eri occa­sion­al­ly took his tea and cof­fee with a lit­tle milk or sug­ar, but in all real­i­ty, his calo­rie intake remained close to zero for the entire dura­tion of the fast.

He used both inter­mit­tent fast­ing as well as the ‘star­va­tion diet.’ This was a pro­longed fast for weight loss. Because dur­ing a fast, the body turns to its own fat stores for ener­gy through a process called autophagy.

And dur­ing the fast, Bar­bi­eri was los­ing weight quick­ly.

Bar­bi­eri was shed­ding almost a pound a day on aver­age. Month­ly, he was los­ing around 22 pounds.

As the months passed, Bar­bi­eri held to the fast. The num­ber on the scale con­tin­ued to fall. Impres­sive­ly, he was free to come and go from the Mary­field Hos­pi­tal where Angus’s doc­tors were con­tin­u­al­ly mon­i­tor­ing him. While at home, he always resist­ed all temp­ta­tions.

The fast wasn’t all great, of course. He quit work­ing at his father’s fish and chip shop on Nel­son Street. One can imag­ine the men­tal and phys­i­cal dif­fi­cul­ties of such a pro­tract­ed, strict fast.

Barbieri’s ulti­mate weight loss goal was to reach 180 pounds. At that point, he planned to end his ludi­crous fast.

He broke his fast that July morn­ing with a boiled egg and some bread with but­ter. He told the onlook­ing press after that “It went down OK. I feel a bit full, but I thor­ough­ly enjoyed it.”

After the fast, Bar­bi­eri was almost com­plete­ly unrec­og­niz­able from old­er pic­tures of him­self. He could report­ed­ly even fit two peo­ple along­side him in his old clothes.

Angus Bar­bi­eri fast­ed for 382 days and lost a mind-blow­ing 276 pounds in that time.

His sto­ry quick­ly gained inter­na­tion­al atten­tion, and news­pa­pers as far away as the Unit­ed States report­ed on his incred­i­ble feat.

The near­by Uni­ver­si­ty of Dundee was so stunned and intrigued, they were keen to exam­ine the effects of long-term fast­ing on the body and con­duct­ed a study on Bar­bi­eri.

Today, he remains an icon­ic fig­ure, a tes­ta­ment to the remark­able things the human body is capa­ble of.

Challenges, Skepticism, and Science

Angus Barbieri’s fast was met with plen­ty of con­tro­ver­sy and skep­ti­cism. 

The ques­tion was the same that has always been asked: How long can a man go with­out food? Barbieri’s fast went far beyond what almost any­one thought pos­si­ble.

Even if he proved it pos­si­ble to last an entire year and 17 days with­out food, many still could sim­ply not believe that such an exten­sive peri­od could be healthy.

Yet, despite all man­ner of doubts from fam­i­ly, the press, and even his doc­tors, Bar­bi­eri per­sist­ed.

After his fast, doc­tors W. K. Stew­art and Lau­ra W. Flem­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Dundee led a study on Bar­bi­eri to judge the effects of his fast.

They found that his pro­longed fast had result­ed in “no ill-effects.” 

The sci­ence sup­port­ed Barbieri’s own beliefs. He believed he could for­go food for over a year with no prob­lems and achieve his goal.

Record and Legacy

To this day, Angus Barbieri’s record fast of 382 days with­out food stands alone, unbro­ken. It may nev­er be chal­lenged.

In 1971, Barbieri’s fast was record­ed in The Guin­ness Book of Records as the longest fast ever rec­og­nized.

Anoth­er man, Den­nis Galer Good­win, went on a 385-day hunger strike in 1973. But he was force-fed dur­ing the peri­od, and so Barbieri’s record still holds. 

Accord­ing to Guin­ness offi­cials, Bar­bi­eri still holds the record for the longest fast with­out sol­id food. How­ev­er, they no longer endorse or sup­port any records relat­ed to fast­ing, includ­ing Barbieri’s, due to con­cerns about encour­ag­ing unsafe behav­ior.

Barbieri’s sto­ry is one of deter­mi­na­tion and resilience, but also hope. It res­onates with count­less indi­vid­u­als seek­ing to accom­plish their own amaz­ing feats