Humans seem to die from fasting before reaching Phase III starvation,
apparently from heart tissue degradation.
Historically, when a fast is attempted to be enhanced with protein, but high quality protein containing all needed amino acids is not provided, deaths have occurred.
"The absence of a late increase in net proteolysis in obese humans and rats (obese Zucker rats)
was related to huge lipid stores which "masked" a lethal cumulative protein loss
reached long before the exhaustion of fat stores (Cherel et al. 1992)."
"Therapeutic starvation was finally stigmatized as an unsafe procedure exposing the patient to an undue risk of physical danger (but see Varaday, Chap. 23). As an alternative to fasting, very low calorie diets (VLCDs) were developed to preserve lean body mass while maximizing weight loss as illustrated by the low carbohydrate and fat diet (Stillman and Baker 1967), the high fat and protein diet, and the ‘‘last chance diet’’ high in liquid protein with supplementary vitamins and minerals (Bistrian et al. l976, 1977; Linn and Stuart 1976). The last chance diet, also called the ‘‘protein-sparing, modified fast diet’’ (PMSF), was one of the most popular diets in the 1970s and was recently remastered by Pierre Dukan (the Dukan diet). In this ‘‘last chance diet’’ most of the proteins were hydrolysates made from either collagen or gelatine. Here again, the diet required close supervision after a number of human deaths were attributed to the use of liquid protein products (Center for Disease Control 1977)."
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