Is there a limit on how much you can gain in one day?

NYCNika

Somehow I doubt that if you have one 4,000 calorie meal, you instantly put on over 1lb. This has not been my experience.

Is body even capable of doing that?

Plus, people who overeat like that daily still don't gain 365lb per year.

Is there a cut-off point of how much a body can gain in one day or from one meal. Is there any research on this topic.

GiGiBeans

No idea about how much fat but you can temporarily gain 10 lbs of water weight. Anytime I am given IV fluids I gain 10 lbs of water weight and if I receive them for several days I can gain 30 lbs total. It can take me weeks to get rid of it too.

JcMey3r

interesting question.

I once saw a video of a bodybuilder and he's cheat meal....it was 14 000 calories.

hgycta

I have been also really curious about this myself, especially since I use to have a "binge day" once a week when I was first starting out. Looking back now at my eating habits on that day, I had to consume at least 10,000 calories each binge day. I always felt terrible and bloated the next day, too. Although I swear I didn't gain nearly as much as I should have, especially at first. My body did seem to adjust, unless I just ate even more as time progressed, and I did start gaining and retaining three pounds or so after each day. I think it is possible for your body to gain up to however much you eat, but I also believe it can also go into shock if you eat everything at once, and you'll feel very uncomfortable as your body tries to process and find a place to store all the fat. That was my experience, at least. Maybe once you start gaining weight it becomes less noticeable because the more you weigh the more calories your body needs to maintain its current weight?
I feel bad, but I feel my mother is a prime example of this. She is by far the worst binger I know, I guess that's where I got it from. She's clinically obese, yet still manages to gain over a pound every single day. At the end of each month for the past year, she has put on over thirty pounds.
The body is so incredible, never question what its capable of. Be careful, because each meal truly does matter!

ViktoryaC

I'm not meaning to be insensitive, and I certainly understand that your poor mom has a serious problem, but do you seriously mean she has gained 360 pounds in a year, 30 a month? I thought my 50 pound annual gain was pushing the limit......

Francl27

It's an excellent question and I have no idea.

hgycta

I'm not meaning to be insensitive, and I certainly understand that your poor mom has a serious problem, but do you seriously mean she has gained 360 pounds in a year, 30 a month? I thought my 50 pound annual gain was pushing the limit......

Actually, yes, that's exactly what I mean. She weighs close to 500 at the moment, and she'll be undergoing surgery in a matter of weeks now to hopefully help. It's a sad reality more and more Americans are facing now, and it's bizarre when it happens to someone in your own family. But it has really opened my eyes on how cautious you continually have to be, just one year of not caring has put her entire life in danger. I'm not saying you'll become obese from one bad meal of course, but multiple bad meals can certainly add up if you're not careful. She may be eating more than a 3,500 calorie surplus, we're not counting so it's hard to say if she has retained every calorie she overate or not, but a lot of them must have remained.

jwdieter

I'm not meaning to be insensitive, and I certainly understand that your poor mom has a serious problem, but do you seriously mean she has gained 360 pounds in a year, 30 a month? I thought my 50 pound annual gain was pushing the limit......

Actually, yes, that's exactly what I mean. She weighs close to 500 at the moment, and she'll be undergoing surgery in a matter of weeks now to hopefully help. It's a sad reality more and more Americans are facing now, and it's bizarre when it happens to someone in your own family. But it has really opened my eyes on how cautious you continually have to be, just one year of not caring has put her entire life in danger. I'm not saying you'll become obese from one bad meal of course, but multiple bad meals can certainly add up if you're not careful. She may be eating more than a 3,500 calorie surplus, we're not counting so it's hard to say if she has retained every calorie she overate or not, but a lot of them must have remained.

In order to maintain that growth rate, she's absorbing over 6000 calories/day.

ViktoryaC

I'm not meaning to be insensitive, and I certainly understand that your poor mom has a serious problem, but do you seriously mean she has gained 360 pounds in a year, 30 a month? I thought my 50 pound annual gain was pushing the limit......

Actually, yes, that's exactly what I mean. She weighs close to 500 at the moment, and she'll be undergoing surgery in a matter of weeks now to hopefully help. It's a sad reality more and more Americans are facing now, and it's bizarre when it happens to someone in your own family. But it has really opened my eyes on how cautious you continually have to be, just one year of not caring has put her entire life in danger. I'm not saying you'll become obese from one bad meal of course, but multiple bad meals can certainly add up if you're not careful. She may be eating more than a 3,500 calorie surplus, we're not counting so it's hard to say if she has retained every calorie she overate or not, but a lot of them must have remained.

Wow, from 140 to 500.....I cant imagine. I hope she can recover and get healthy!

cwolfman13

Somehow I doubt that if you have one 4,000 calorie meal, you instantly put on over 1lb. This has not been my experience.

Is body even capable of doing that?

Plus, people who overeat like that daily still don't gain 365lb per year.

Is there a cut-off point of how much a body can gain in one day or from one meal. Is there any research on this topic.

The human body goes to great lengths to maintain weight...you have to consistently and chronically under-eat (diet) or over-eat to over-ride your body's ability to maintain. Hell, I had an entire 5 day long weekend this past weekend where I was well over my maintenance calories on a daily basis and didn't gain a single pound....but if I were to do that consistently over weeks and months, that would over-ride my body's ability to put that excess energy to anything other than storage.

Also, it's 3500 calories over or under your maintenance calories...4,000 calorie meal would not be in excess of pretty much anyone's maintenance calories. A 4,000 calorie meal would only be about 1,300 calories over my maintenance...nothing my body couldn't handle occasionally.

Cindyinpg

I'm not meaning to be insensitive, and I certainly understand that your poor mom has a serious problem, but do you seriously mean she has gained 360 pounds in a year, 30 a month? I thought my 50 pound annual gain was pushing the limit......

Actually, yes, that's exactly what I mean. She weighs close to 500 at the moment, and she'll be undergoing surgery in a matter of weeks now to hopefully help. It's a sad reality more and more Americans are facing now, and it's bizarre when it happens to someone in your own family. But it has really opened my eyes on how cautious you continually have to be, just one year of not caring has put her entire life in danger. I'm not saying you'll become obese from one bad meal of course, but multiple bad meals can certainly add up if you're not careful. She may be eating more than a 3,500 calorie surplus, we're not counting so it's hard to say if she has retained every calorie she overate or not, but a lot of them must have remained.

Wow, from 140 to 500.....I cant imagine. I hope she can recover and get healthy!

140 - 500 in a year? Or am I misinterpreting something?

hgycta

I'm not meaning to be insensitive, and I certainly understand that your poor mom has a serious problem, but do you seriously mean she has gained 360 pounds in a year, 30 a month? I thought my 50 pound annual gain was pushing the limit......

Actually, yes, that's exactly what I mean. She weighs close to 500 at the moment, and she'll be undergoing surgery in a matter of weeks now to hopefully help. It's a sad reality more and more Americans are facing now, and it's bizarre when it happens to someone in your own family. But it has really opened my eyes on how cautious you continually have to be, just one year of not caring has put her entire life in danger. I'm not saying you'll become obese from one bad meal of course, but multiple bad meals can certainly add up if you're not careful. She may be eating more than a 3,500 calorie surplus, we're not counting so it's hard to say if she has retained every calorie she overate or not, but a lot of them must have remained.

Wow, from 140 to 500.....I cant imagine. I hope she can recover and get healthy!

140 - 500 in a year? Or am I misinterpreting something?

Well she was 152, now she's 511. Still a big transition though, and she has suffered from it. She has been at 400 before, but then went on extreme diets to lose the weight, and she was just "sick of dieting" and gained it back.. and then some.
To her, a pint of the Milk and Cookies Ben & Jerry's is a snack she can be hungry after.

ViktoryaC

Wow, that's scary....I was dismayed to binger myself from 110 to 165 in a year, but it's terrifying and motivating to see how far I could go if I don't take myself in hand....best wishes for your Mom!

pinkiemarie252

I can tell you from my own before & after tests on the scale that my bladder alone can hold over 1lb. So if you eat a huge, salty meal and retain water, that alone can put on over a pound.

FP4HSharon

On OP question...I saw a comment on another thread where a trainer said he ate a jar of peanut butter every day for a month(in addition to his regular calories) to see how much weight he might gain. He did this because his clients thought that one bad day could ruin the week. He said he only gained 8 lbs that month. But it's basically a math problem...if you are ABLE to consume the calories & keep them down, then I imagine the sky's the limit.