How do calories and fat work?

droogievesch

I know it takes 3,500 extra calories per pound and to lose weight you have to use more than you eat. My questions:

is there a limit to how much you can eat in one sitting before your body starts to store it? For example, if you ate a 2,000 calorie meal will your body store anything above 1,000 for later?

Where do calories go after digestion but before usage?

How long does it take to store calories?

When losing fat, do you lose the "oldest" fast first or the newest?

Do fat cells ever go away, or do they just "empty" waiting to get filled again?

yarwell

Digestion puts the food into your bloodstream, the glucose (sugar content) of the blood is usually well controlled so the response to an increase in sugar from food is to a) make less glucose in the liver b) replenish glycogen stores in the liver and muscles c) release less fat from storage so more glucose is consumed by muscles etc d) store the excess as fat (not necessarily in that order). Insulin and glucagon are the hormones that control these processes.

Fat tissue is I believe constantly turning over the fat in storage, ie storage and release go on at the same time.

Fat cells change in size to store more or less fat. If they get too big new ones are made.

Hendrix7

Fat loss or weight gains do not come down to one meal, it's average consumption over a longer period, for convenience let's say that period is 24 hours.

You could eat all of your calories for each day in one meal if you wanted to and as long As this was below your energy needs for that day you would not gain fat.

nevertoolate2

Fat loss or weight gains do not come down to one meal, it's average consumption over a longer period, for convenience let's say that period is 24 hours.

You could eat all of your calories for each day in one meal if you wanted to and as long As this was below your energy needs for that day you would not gain fat.

This is an interesting question and response.

One of the previous posters talks about fat cells constantly turning over and that makes sense. To my logical brain when you consume food the body will react in a set order, namely to take what it needs for it's immediate replenishment. for instance, if you are really hungry or tired the body immediately utilise the energy it receives to address that problem. Any energy that it receives that it does not need immediately it will store. This is likely to be as fat. However, where Hendrix is absolutely right, is that if you consume 2000 calories in a single sitting but not then eat anything for a while, the body will store what it doesnt need and then begin to consume what it needs from those reserves over the rest of the day, meaning that you net out over the day.