Some, following Jesus’s example from the Bible, fast for 40 days for spiritual growth—and some have died trying. Others crave a vague “detox” or “reset” of their bodily systems. One graduate student fasted for a month in order to “clean” her insides and get “a fresh start with everything.” Some combine all of these motivations into a hodge-podge, depriving and actualizing the self all at once: “The 40 day fasting diet was like a ‘reset button’ in my life,” one faster wrote. “Isn’t [it] great that God in His wisdom has provided us with this tool to engage in a more intimate way of life with Him, while at the same time restoring health to our bodies and minds!”

Successful fasters post their own guides online, doling out wisdom like, “If you ever feel dizzy during your fast, try to sit down as quickly as possible.” One woman, who drank only juice for 31 days, dismissed her headaches as “healing reactions.” Ryczek is personally inspired by the work of Jason Fung, a Canadian nephrologist and author of The Complete Guide to Fasting. Over email, Fung told me there is “nothing wrong” with fasts of up to a month. “The key to longer fasts is that you should feel well throughout the time,” he said. “If you feel weak or tired, then you should stop.”

The exact numbers of these marathon fasters are unknown. Certainly not all who try it post about it online, since the scorn can be overwhelming. Ryczek said she received death threats after her post was shared on a “lynch mob, troll Facebook group.”

“They were a pro-GMO, pro-vaccine group that came at me and attacked,” she said. “They said I’m a liar and if I’m not already dead from my lie, someone should kill me.”

For those who wonder if Ryczek must have cheated: It’s technically possible to survive more than a month without food, though the likelihood you’ll live depends on your level of fat—and thus, the amount of energy your body can burn before it starts eating itself. The longest known fast was in 1971, when a 27-year-old man survived on water and supplements for 382 days and shrank from 456 to 180 pounds. In 1981, Irish republican prisoners refused food for more than two months before dying, but in 2010, a Florida woman on a water-only religious fast died within just 26 days. (The precise length of her fast wasn’t clear. When her family members broke down her door, she was already gone.)

Ryczek is propelled not by a cause, but by an iron will. She’s fasted for shorter periods previously, even sitting through big holiday dinners without so much as a nibble.

For the first few days of the month-long fast, she was irritable, finding herself “wishing (even more than usual) that Ray [her husband] would just stop freaking talking,” she wrote, adding, “I’m starting to realize that my defense mechanism against feeling has been turning to food/drink. I’m grateful to be on this path, giving me the opportunity over the next 22 days to break that vicious cycle, no matter how much I cry.”