how much do u really have to eat to gain a lb?

khadijak17

so confused as to how much you have to eat to gain a lb can i eat over on good food and gain? or eat bad food within cal limits and still lose? what would you have to eat in a week to gain a lb foodwise? for exmaple i have 1200 cals a day how many cals would i need to eat to gain a lb?

stevwil41

One pound is 3500 calories. In order to gain a pound you would have to eat whatever your maintenance calories are (not the 1200 you're at now) plus an additional 3500 to gain a pound of fat. However, if you go out and have a binge the scales may be up a bit because of water retention due to high sodium foods. Oh, and it doesn't really matter whether you over eat healthy or unhealthy foods. Either will cause you to gain, it's just much harder to eat an extra 3500 calories worth of broccoli than cheeseburgers.