What happens when you eat 10,000 Calories in 1 meal?

perezlau

If 1lb of fat is 3,500 Calories does one gain 2-3lbs after a 10,000 Calorie meal? Do you gain it over night or after some days?

I know glycogen is stored in the liver until glucose/atp levels are too high in our blood, but is there a limit to how many glucose/ATP molecules can be produced in _ time? Is there a rate or limit by which the body can convert glycogen to fatty acids stored as fat?

Or does the body not absorb it all?

I guess I'm asking.. will the body process every "calorie" in excess and store it as fat or is there a limit?

oat_bran

I am curious about that, too! I was actually thinking about this the other day. It seems like there must be a limit to how many calories a body can process in a given time period.

firef1y72

If I tried to eat 10000 calories in one meal I wouldn't gain weight because I'd end up throwing up. That is a massive amount of food, especially considering what I normally eat. I couldn't even eat that much chocolate and I love chocolate

heybales

Digestion has a rate limit and so some will be passed on through before absorbed - since you said 1 meal.
Depends on you, but good amount not absorbed.

Depends on how carb depleted you were - liver and muscle stores.

Water will store with carbs there - so there is 0 calorie water weight added. More than fat weight actually. (it's why fat is so much more efficient for storage, if we stored it all as carbs with attached water, weigh waayyyy too much)

Still moving and burning blood sugar that is elevated?
Metabolism has increased to deal with processing enormous amount of food - normally about 10% of the calories eaten.

Inefficiency of carb to fat.

But then you'll store that fat since indeed elevated insulin has disabled fat release and enabled fat storage.


Overall, you'll gain at least the weight of the food eaten.
If you drink you'll gain more, or at least the moisture content of food will be retained - but probably more.

If you are talking about after 24 hrs - after your system has rid itself of fiber and undigested food, not nearly as bad.

missh1967

Eating 10k calories in one day is hard, let alone one meal. Anyway, here's an experiment with 10k in one day and the body composition changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPI5cuq3NPU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6cIbIvEGJM

NorthCascades

firef1y72 wrote: »

If I tried to eat 10000 calories in one meal I wouldn't gain weight because I'd end up throwing up. That is a massive amount of food, especially considering what I normally eat. I couldn't even eat that much chocolate and I love chocolate

Challenge accepted. That's like 12 pints of Haagan Daaz.

jennifer_417

I don't know the science, but I'm guessing you'd have a bad night.

dm01234_1

I'd have much bigger problems than weight gain if I tried to consume that much in a single day, much less a single meal.

ceiswyn

Speaking as a proper binge eater, I've never managed over 5,000 calories over one evening never mind 10,000 in a single meal.

The 5,000 in one evening results in:

• Painful levels of stomach discomfort. After an hour of trying to find a comfortable position in bed and whimpering, throwing half of it up comes as a relief. (This can be minimised by bingeing purely on extremely calorie-dense foods like chocolate and nuts). It should be noted at this point that STOMACH BURSTING DUE TO FOOD VOLUME IS A THING THAT CAN HAPPEN. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, KIDS.
• A stupidly accelerated heart rate
• Feeling really hot
• Sleeping exceedingly badly
• A 5 lb weight gain the next day (this is largely water weight)
• Lots of farting
• A large and urgent bowel movement
• A 'real' weight gain of less than 1 lb

...so yes, my real-world evidence suggests that in cases of very large calorie intake you don't gain the weight the numbers would suggest. However this is not as much of a consolation as you might imagine.

Terytha

First off, the TEF or Thermic Effect of Food, is calories burned by digestion. So you never end up storing all the calories you eat. Protein is the most work to digest, and its TEF is 20% I think. Not that you'll ever eat just 10,000 calories of pure protein but if for arguments sake you did, 2000 would be burned digesting it.

Second, your body absolutely has limits. At some point it can't or won't absorb everything, so it goes to waste. Which is why if you eat a LOT all at once, you'll be running for a bathroom, and you'll suffer.

Panini911

Interesting. so in theory while not mentally sound, i am better to full on binge on all my foods in one meal overloading my system to not hold all the calories. VS spread out that food over three days where i may hold more of it.

JulieSHelms

It depends on what it is as to how much of that will get packed as fat.

If you ate 10,000 calories of pure whale blubber, your insulin would never be triggered, and you would store none of it. If you ate 10,000 in pasta, pizza and ice cream, your insulin would be working overtime diligently storing some of the excess. If you ate 10,000 in pure protein (for a long time), you'd eventually starve (google rabbit starvation diet).

So if you're gonna binge--leave out the carbs. Of course most binge-worthy foods are a carb/fat mix--Ideal for long-term storage!

JulieSHelms

I just watched a documentary last night about a 'super obese' man. He weighed 960 lbs and they estimated he was eating 10,000 calories per day. He had gained 140 lbs/year for the previous 3 years. That's less than half a pound a day--so he was not packing every calorie he ate.

ceiswyn

Panini911 wrote: »

Interesting. so in theory while not mentally sound, i am better to full on binge on all my foods in one meal overloading my system to not hold all the calories. VS spread out that food over three days where i may hold more of it.

And THAT is the logic that results in the rolling around in severe discomfort and then throwing up, yes. On the whole, as an experience, I would not give it five stars on TripAdvisor.

Keto_Vampire

Would occasionally hit around 5-6,000 kcal mark eating an entire jar of coconut manna + whole eggs + full fat cheese +/- full fat cottage cheese (can be a reasonable volume to stomach with high fat content foods). More often than not, I would weigh roughly the same the following days but end up compensating by eating less (simply not having a normal amount of hunger than what I usually would have on a typical day) - would balance out to maintenance over enough time until regaining a normal appetite. It's very hard to trick one's own physiology (systems of autoregulation @ play with ghrelin & leptin)

missysippy930

Very interesting topic OP.
Makes me wonder about how many calories the people on “My 600 Pound Life” consumed daily to get to 600 pounds. I would think it would have to be almost non stop eating all day when they are awake.
10,000 calories is an awful lot of food.
Not positive, but guessing I’ve never eaten that much in one day. So, I guess it’s consistently, overeating, not a one day binge, where the pounds add on.

Muscleflex79

JulieSHelms wrote: »

It depends on what it is as to how much of that will get packed as fat.

If you ate 10,000 calories of pure whale blubber, your insulin would never be triggered, and you would store none of it. If you ate 10,000 in pasta, pizza and ice cream, your insulin would be working overtime diligently storing some of the excess. If you ate 10,000 in pure protein (for a long time), you'd eventually starve (google rabbit starvation diet).

So if you're gonna binge--leave out the carbs. Of course most binge-worthy foods are a carb/fat mix--Ideal for long-term storage!

did you seriously just say that if you eat 10,000 calories of fat it would not be stored or cause any weight gain?

cathipa

JulieSHelms wrote: »

I just watched a documentary last night about a 'super obese' man. He weighed 960 lbs and they estimated he was eating 10,000 calories per day. He had gained 140 lbs/year for the previous 3 years. That's less than half a pound a day--so he was not packing every calorie he ate.

But just to maintain his weight he would have to eat over 10,000 cal a day so chances are he was eating closer to 15,000 cal if he was gaining

bpotts44

JulieSHelms wrote: »

It depends on what it is as to how much of that will get packed as fat.

If you ate 10,000 calories of pure whale blubber, your insulin would never be triggered, and you would store none of it. If you ate 10,000 in pasta, pizza and ice cream, your insulin would be working overtime diligently storing some of the excess. If you ate 10,000 in pure protein (for a long time), you'd eventually starve (google rabbit starvation diet).

So if you're gonna binge--leave out the carbs. Of course most binge-worthy foods are a carb/fat mix--Ideal for long-term storage!

If you ate 10,000 calories of pure fat you better believe that aside from what calories were lost crapping your pants your body would be storing the excess.

loralenoxx

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

did you seriously just say that if you eat 10,000 calories of fat it would not be stored or cause any weight gain?

That only applies if you eat whale blubber from grass-fed, organic whales. Otherwise, you would gain.

AnnPT77

missysippy930 wrote: »

Very interesting topic OP.
Makes me wonder about how many calories the people on “My 600 Pound Life” consumed daily to get to 600 pounds. I would think it would have to be almost non stop eating all day when they are awake.
10,000 calories is an awful lot of food.
Not positive, but guessing I’ve never eaten that much in one day. So, I guess it’s consistently, overeating, not a one day binge, where the pounds add on.

Some weight will add from the one day binge (though perhaps not as much as simple arithmetic would suggest). If no compensating calorie reduction, more weight will add from the next binge. And so on, until one is fat again.

Either strategy works, for gaining.

kimny72

missysippy930 wrote: »

Very interesting topic OP.
Makes me wonder about how many calories the people on “My 600 Pound Life” consumed daily to get to 600 pounds. I would think it would have to be almost non stop eating all day when they are awake.
10,000 calories is an awful lot of food.
Not positive, but guessing I’ve never eaten that much in one day. So, I guess it’s consistently, overeating, not a one day binge, where the pounds add on.

I'd guess it's something you build up to also though, right? So they start out eating 3000, then 4000, then 5000. And their body gets used to dealing with that volume of energy slowly but surely over the years. Maybe gets more efficient at storing energy as they go, so they are wasting less of it eventually? The episodes I've seen where the person is mostly bedridden, it does seem like what they do all day to keep busy is eat.

I would think the average person who hasn't been morbidly obese for awhile, would have a tough time keeping down 10,000 calories in a meal or even day, regardless of calorie density.

perezlau wrote: »

If 1lb of fat is 3,500 Calories does one gain 2-3lbs after a 10,000 Calorie meal? Do you gain it over night or after some days?

I know glycogen is stored in the liver until glucose/atp levels are too high in our blood, but is there a limit to how many glucose/ATP molecules can be produced in _ time? Is there a rate or limit by which the body can convert glycogen to fatty acids stored as fat?

Or does the body not absorb it all?

I guess I'm asking.. will the body process every "calorie" in excess and store it as fat or is there a limit?

Just a guess, but I don't think our body ever processes every single calorie. Barring living in a lab 24/7 hooked up to all kinds of monitors, all the numbers we use are estimates, and calorie counting is a game of manipulating estimates until your results line up. I'd guess that the farther outside of "optimal" you push the consumption/digestion/elimination process, the more variance from the estimates you get.

OGingerBeardMan

Depending on what it was, I'd say in most cases you'd have a pretty significant stomach ache as 10K calories is a lot of food pretty much no matter how you slice it.

Panini911

ceiswyn wrote: »

Panini911 wrote: »

Interesting. so in theory while not mentally sound, i am better to full on binge on all my foods in one meal overloading my system to not hold all the calories. VS spread out that food over three days where i may hold more of it.

And THAT is the logic that results in the rolling around in severe discomfort and then throwing up, yes. On the whole, as an experience, I would not give it five stars on TripAdvisor.

not 10,000 calories. but i mean say i normally eat 1400/day and then i got out and have 3 spices of pizza, deep fried pickles (1-2) half a pint of the really bad B&J's and 2 beers/glasses of wine then a few hours later have chips. that would be a huge number of calories but not make me sick. (maybe not feeling super awesome but not puke).

JulieSHelms

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

JulieSHelms wrote: »

It depends on what it is as to how much of that will get packed as fat.

If you ate 10,000 calories of pure whale blubber, your insulin would never be triggered, and you would store none of it. If you ate 10,000 in pasta, pizza and ice cream, your insulin would be working overtime diligently storing some of the excess. If you ate 10,000 in pure protein (for a long time), you'd eventually starve (google rabbit starvation diet).

So if you're gonna binge--leave out the carbs. Of course most binge-worthy foods are a carb/fat mix--Ideal for long-term storage!

did you seriously just say that if you eat 10,000 calories of fat it would not be stored or cause any weight gain?

Yep. You have to have circulating insulin to store fat. You need carbs to trigger insulin. So without insulin your body would use what it needs and pass out the rest.

I actually proved this (to a lesser degree) in my weight loss journey. I was a huge carb eater and insulin resistant--so constantly had tons of insulin busily packing fat. I lost my first 50 lbs (in 8 months) by simply removing carbs almost completely from my diet--but the kicker was I was eating MORE calories from fat and protein to make up the loss of volume. Till I hit a wall--no more came off, but regardless of how much I ate (carb-free) I didn't gain at all. Then I started actually cutting calories. 1200/day for 8 months (and low-carb but not no carb) and lost the last 80lbs. Fat and protein alone do not make you gain.

This is over-simplified because the body is very complex and food is rarely just one thing, but in general it is true. I find CICO to be even more of an over simplification and not as accurate if you don't take into account the source of the calories.

apullum

JulieSHelms wrote: »

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

JulieSHelms wrote: »

It depends on what it is as to how much of that will get packed as fat.

If you ate 10,000 calories of pure whale blubber, your insulin would never be triggered, and you would store none of it. If you ate 10,000 in pasta, pizza and ice cream, your insulin would be working overtime diligently storing some of the excess. If you ate 10,000 in pure protein (for a long time), you'd eventually starve (google rabbit starvation diet).

So if you're gonna binge--leave out the carbs. Of course most binge-worthy foods are a carb/fat mix--Ideal for long-term storage!

did you seriously just say that if you eat 10,000 calories of fat it would not be stored or cause any weight gain?

Yep. You have to have circulating insulin to store fat. You need carbs to trigger insulin. So without insulin your body would use what it needs and pass out the rest.

I actually proved this (to a lesser degree) in my weight loss journey. I was a huge carb eater and insulin resistant--so constantly had tons of insulin busily packing fat. I lost my first 50 lbs (in 8 months) by simply removing carbs almost completely from my diet--but the kicker was I was eating MORE calories from fat and protein to make up the loss of volume. Till I hit a wall--no more came off, but regardless of how much I ate (carb-free) I didn't gain at all. Then I started actually cutting calories. 1200/day for 8 months (and low-carb but not no carb) and lost the last 80lbs. Fat and protein alone do not make you gain.

This is over-simplified because the body is very complex and food is rarely just one thing, but in general it is true. I find CICO to be even more of an over simplification and not as accurate if you don't take into account the source of the calories.

This is the only part that caused you to lose fat.

JulieSHelms

I'm kind of surprised at the blowback I'm getting here. I didn't make this up.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-shows-how-insulin-stimulates-fat-cells-take-glucose

kimny72

JulieSHelms wrote: »

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

JulieSHelms wrote: »

It depends on what it is as to how much of that will get packed as fat.

If you ate 10,000 calories of pure whale blubber, your insulin would never be triggered, and you would store none of it. If you ate 10,000 in pasta, pizza and ice cream, your insulin would be working overtime diligently storing some of the excess. If you ate 10,000 in pure protein (for a long time), you'd eventually starve (google rabbit starvation diet).

So if you're gonna binge--leave out the carbs. Of course most binge-worthy foods are a carb/fat mix--Ideal for long-term storage!

did you seriously just say that if you eat 10,000 calories of fat it would not be stored or cause any weight gain?

Yep. You have to have circulating insulin to store fat. You need carbs to trigger insulin. So without insulin your body would use what it needs and pass out the rest.

I actually proved this (to a lesser degree) in my weight loss journey. I was a huge carb eater and insulin resistant--so constantly had tons of insulin busily packing fat. I lost my first 50 lbs (in 8 months) by simply removing carbs almost completely from my diet--but the kicker was I was eating MORE calories from fat and protein to make up the loss of volume. Till I hit a wall--no more came off, but regardless of how much I ate (carb-free) I didn't gain at all. Then I started actually cutting calories. 1200/day for 8 months (and low-carb but not no carb) and lost the last 80lbs. Fat and protein alone do not make you gain.

This is over-simplified because the body is very complex and food is rarely just one thing, but in general it is true. I find CICO to be even more of an over simplification and not as accurate if you don't take into account the source of the calories.

So you were accurately logging your food and calories when you were overweight and eating carbs, and then you could accurately compare your calorie intake to when you were trying to lose weight?

What method or devise were you using to test your insulin levels after each meal?

Is your endicrinologist aware of this? Can you explain why thousands of diabetics who test themselves regularly in order to monitor their insulin dosages haven't seen this effect?

I can at least tell you without hesitation protein does indeed cause an insulin response. This is in fact a remarkably easy thing to test for, certainly not something the medical community could hide (for those assuming a conspiracy of some type).

JulieSHelms wrote: »

I'm kind of surprised at the blowback I'm getting here. I didn't make this up.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-shows-how-insulin-stimulates-fat-cells-take-glucose

I don't see where that backs up anything you said. Yes, we all know insulin ushers glucose into the cells. But you don't have to eat glucose, your body extracts energy from food during the digestion process.

liaoverbrook

it'd be interesting to know whether you'd gain the same amount eating 10,000 calories of food vs a single 10,000 calorie drink (if one existed w the same amount of fat/nutrients/everything else)

Twiley510

Joey Chestnut consumes 35,025 calories in less than 10 minutes every 4th of July.

Nathan's hot dog sausage=170 each
Nathan's hot dog bun=297
Total calories per hot dog=467
Last few year's average= 75 consumed
Total calories = 35,025

Once upon a time, I would eat two hot dogs and an entire box of Twinkies for breakfast then have a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Ice cream for dessert because every meal deserves dessert. Wash it all down with a Coke.

Hot dogs with Miracle Whip and ketchup=1074
10 twinkies = 1500
Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice cream = 1040
20 oz Coke = 240

Total = 3854

After that, a typical lunch would be a pound of fried chicken livers, a hamburger, a personal sized pizza, potato wedges, a Snickers or other candy bar, and another coke. NOT separate lunches--all those items every day. All from a convenience store.

Total = 1900 or more.

That's 5774 for 2 meals.

After that, dinner. Ridiculous amounts of food either fried or pasta-based with plenty of bread on the side. If we had spaghetti, I had an entire loaf of garlic bread by myself. We always made one for each person in the house. If someone else didn't finish theirs, I would.

I have no doubt that most days in my life I went over 10,000 calories and probably had several meals that would come close if I really thought about it. Like the time I ate an entire large super supreme Pizza Hut pan pizza by myself at one sitting. Then ate a pan of brownies for dessert. Coke to wash it down. Looks like that's about 7000 calories.

10,000 calories in a day is easy to do if you are eating the wrong foods. Think about it.

apullum

JulieSHelms wrote: »

I'm kind of surprised at the blowback I'm getting here. I didn't make this up.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-shows-how-insulin-stimulates-fat-cells-take-glucose

Your article describes insulin's role in the body's fat storage mechanism. Excess energy can be stored as fat. Excess energy happens when one is in a calorie surplus. A calorie deficit ensures that there is not a sustained level of excess energy to be stored in the body. It is not true that insulin is "busily packing fat" if one is not in a calorie surplus.