3500 calories to gain 1 pound

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  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    edited March 2018
    Overeating 500 calories per day will cause you to gain about 30 lbs in 6 months. It’s not really that hard to do, it’s easily any combination of extra bread and butter, a huge serving of pasta, a couple slices of pizza, a big bowl of ice cream, a few extra drinks, etc.
    (I’m not saying any of these things are bad or automatically makes you gain weight. They are EXAMPLES of how eating a few extras above maintenance will cause you to unwittingly gain. )
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    And what are you putting on that toast to get it to 280 cals??

    I'm thinking a couple pieces of bread an some peanut butter can get you to 280 pretty quick.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    Weight gain is not linear I think. As you weigh more, you would burn more I would think? Even if metabolism does not speed up. It might a little as you put on lean mass from what is technically progressive overload, but carrying an extra 30lbs would increase caloric burns.
  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
    edited March 2018
    Math. You say you'd eat ~ 2200 calories/day. You need ~1,800 calories a day. Delta is 400 calories/day.

    (400*365)/3500=41.71 lbs. So maybe you need a but more than 1,800 or you didn't eat 2,200 every day. To gain 30 lbs you'd need to eat only an extra 288 cals/day, which is like ONE Clif Bar too much.

    ETA: this has definitely been covered in this post. I didn't read before I posted.
  • mizuranch3070
    mizuranch3070 Posts: 10 Member
    I seriously can’t rememeber the last time I got so much useful information. Thanks for the wisdom and insights, now I can do something about it!
  • Angierae75
    Angierae75 Posts: 417 Member
    When I gained 100 lbs, I did it 10# a year. It crept on, over a decade. A gain of ten pounds in a year is almost nothing - Less than 100 extra calories a day. Oops.
  • xhunter561
    xhunter561 Posts: 77 Member
    mizuranch3070 wrote: »
    Hello,
    I have a question that’s been bothering me. I’ve read lately that you need to consume 3500 calories to gain 1 pound. And I take that as on top of your “running cost” which seems to be 1800 for my gender and normal weight. Last year I managed to gain a lot of weight over 6-7 months and I decided to put a typical day, actually one of the worsen days I had back then when I worked long shifts and didn’t bring lunch with me which wasn’t that common. When I do that I reach 2197 calories to be exact. I also calculated the intake I have today, I am not on any specific diet or the like, and it’s about 1450 calories a day.

    I don’t really understand how I could have gained almost 30lbs last year from that calorie intake and how I could not be losing any weight nowadays on my new intake?? When everyone says that weight is basically calorie in, calorie out.

    I don’t exercise at all. According to my phone’s health app I average about 6000 steps a day and that’s commuting to work and working standing up.
    Does it make sense or is my metabolism not fully working..? I can also magically gain 10lbs over night, no joke. I don’t feel bloated from it at all and I don’t have to pee a lot either.

    gaining weight (fat at lest) is not simply eating 3500 calories it is a number of other factors. one major one is insulin and how often your spiking it at each meal. another factor you might want to keep in mind is how processed your foods are and how many none water/coffee/simple teas. your drinking as well.
    a good action would be to find your maintenance not using a online app. (try and just go off of what your data is showing up to be on the app (your ranges of macros or calories) and see if your going down or up on a scale.)

    But I want to suggest getting away from the scale if your noticing gaining 10 lb over night and that is freaking you out. stress can be a contributing factor in fat gain just like other things. When it comes to weight a lot of factors plays in between fat, muscle, water intake, food matter in your digestive track and what you have on. try to measure body fat with a tape test or go off what your seeing in the mirror to see if there are positive or negative changes. it is normal to 'gain' weight threw out the day or threw out the night mainly by food and water intake and number of times you have to get up and go to the bathroom. exercise is important but only a small factor into weight loss when it comes to fat, diet and intake is normally the biggest factors but even still you need to eat enough to keep your body going well. exercise is important to mainly mood, moving your body parts to help get appropriate flow to the bones and muscles, and just work your body by getting your metabolism up by raising your heart rate. When you find your maintenance it's as simple as eating 100 -200 calories a day if your going off of the calories in verse out thing. this is only a little of it though as there is a lot more that can affect you and things to consider as well as if your on a fixed diet type (keto, palio, vegan, ect). hope this gives a little insight, good luck!
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