What Happens If You Skip Dinner for 10 Days Straight?

Dinner has always been special. It's the evening meal when you come home from work and sit down with your family, when your friends sit together at night and laugh and dine, and when you can actually catch your breath with some warmth on your plate. So think about removing dinner from your life for 10 consecutive days. No sizzle parathas, no noodle whorls in the dead of night, no comfort bowl of dal-chawal to cap the day. Just water, perhaps tea, and an early night. Sounds brutal, doesn't it? And believe me, it is. But it also does some really interesting things to your body and mind. Let's go through what it's like step by step, day by day when you skip dinner for 10 nights in a row.



The first evening, it's inhumane. Your body's accustomed to unwinding with food, and when that ritual vanishes out of the blue, you immediately notice. Hunger cramps in waves. Your mind still hangs around, voicing in your ear, a lone biscuit perhaps some fruit perhaps Maggi. You're left with water, distract yourself, perhaps browse mindlessly on your phone but your stomach won't pardon.Dozing off at night becomes more difficult as well. You just roll up there, listening to your rumble in your belly, kinda making a deal with yourself for dinner tomorrow, okay?

By the third or fourth night. The hunger pangs are no longer so keen. They're present but dulled. Your body picks up the signal that food is not arriving at night, and it draws on its reservoirs of energy that it stored. Curiously, you might find yourself waking up feeling lighter. You don't feel that bloated sensation which follows the consumption of last night's biryani.Others even say their mind clears. Without food weighing down your stomach, you feel cleaner when you wake up. It is as if your body releases a sigh of relief.


By day five or six, the physical adjustment is simple, but the emotional barrier comes into play. Dinner is no longer merely eating, it's about loafing around. Eating dinner with your family but they dine separately from you, or having to say to friends you are having dinner when you are invited to join them, is strange. Food is social glue, and you miss it.But there's another aspect to it. For others, it becomes liberation. You begin to see how much of food is habit, not hunger. That you can refuse cravings. That your body does not collapse because you have missed one meal. It creates a quiet confidence.


At nine or ten days of not eating dinner, your body has finally caught on. Those midnight munchies? They don't even show up anymore. Your hunger hormones have leveled out. Some folks say they're sleeping better, no growling belly after a huge supper, no bloating, no morning fog. You might even feel some physical effects. Your clothes will be a little looser, your face less puffy, your mornings more energetic. But not everyone feels that way. Some people feel light and focused; others are weaker, crankier, or even a little drained. It just has to do with how filling your lunch and breakfast are.

Your stomach has a break, so you don't feel as gassy. Mornings taste more acidic without the burden of late suppers. You find out just how tough your body really is. The Hard Stuff If you don't plan out your other meals, you're missing out on nutrients. Hunger at night is more of a mind game. Social life is damaged, missing dinner isn't easy when everyone else is sitting at the table together. Active individuals may not be energetic if they don't possess that added fuel.

Skipping dinner for 10 days won't hurt you and for some, it's even eye-opening. You discover how much of dining is habit and comfort and not necessarily hunger. But it's no magic pill. The question isn't so much whether or not you skip dinner, but whether your other meals are healthy enough to keep you going. For others, it's free. For others, it's a crazy thing to do. And that's fine because food isn't a one-size-fits-all deal.

At the end of those 10 days, no matter if you're lighter, crankier, or just uncomfortably proud of yourself, one thing is certain: your body is flexible. More flexible than you likely give it credit. Missing dinner for 10 days does something to you, namely, it teaches you the degree to which your habits control your hunger, your slumber, your mood, even your social life. And then, when you finally settle down to a real dinner after days of going without the hot dal, the pizza,whatever it is that you've been dreaming about all this time it won't be just food. It'll be home, reward, and comfort. Because ultimately, dinner is not about calories. It's about sharing with your own body, and with the others you share the table with.