Does 3500 calories really equal one pound of fat?

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darisey
darisey Posts: 228 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I ate 758 calories over my goal ONE day last week and was up almost 4 pounds the next day! I assumed it had to be water weight due to too much sodium since it didn't seem like enough calories to go up in fat.
I've been good on sodium and water and haven't gone over on calories since then and it has taken me a week to get back to ALMOST the weight where I was. I still have a pound to go which I expect will be gone by the end of the week. I normally have been losing 2-3lbs a week until I went over that one day. If it's water weight, shouldn't it come off faster than fat weight and not the same pace? If it's fat weight, how is it possible that I gained 4 lbs with 758 extra calories?
How can one bad day set me back so much?

Replies

  • drmerc
    drmerc Posts: 2,603 Member
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    do you think it is more likely that 758 calories = 4lbs of fat?
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
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    1 week means nothing
  • efishient
    efishient Posts: 2
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    The golden 3500 mark is the calorific value of 1 lb fat when oxidised. However, as fat is not the only tissue involved, it could be perfectly normal depending on what you ate/drank. Additionally, as the time of day changes, so does your metabolism as consequently so does your weight. For example, I drink alot of water due to high amounts of exercise and burn literally thousands of calories a week but lose virtually no weight because my body is more efficient at operatingthan it used to be. Also, the body slow down the metabolism if it feels under 'stress' which can release the hormone cortisol which in itself is bad for weight control. All in all your body may have put on multiple amounts of weight to what you consumed because it is trying to 'horde' the additional energy that it needs for normal operation.
  • ChitownFoodie
    ChitownFoodie Posts: 1,562 Member
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    If you are talking about the one day you ate 2330, I am pretty sure 2330 isn't 758 over maintenance. You have to eat over maintenace to gain anything.
  • darisey
    darisey Posts: 228 Member
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    do you think it is more likely that 758 calories = 4lbs of fat?

    Not at all which is why I'm trying to understand what happened and why it set me back so much...
  • bman236
    bman236 Posts: 1
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    People and animals aren't very efficient at turning food into body mass. Even some of the most efficient farm animals turn less than 30% of what they eat into muscle, fat and energy.

    If you think about it, 3500 calories of food probably weighs SEVERAL pounds, but you do not convert it at 100% efficiency. This is why you can wake up, drink lots of water, have three perfectly healthy meals and weight several more pounds in the evening. When I was heavy into athletics in high school, I once weight 8 pounds more in the evening then I did in the morning! This is why it is important to weight yourself at the same time every day. Most likely if you are being good about your diet, those pounds will leave you shortly.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
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    do you think it is more likely that 758 calories = 4lbs of fat?

    Not at all which is why I'm trying to understand what happened and why it set me back so much...

    The scale fluctuates for any number of reasons. If you're going to panic about the numbers you see within the span of a few days, you've got a long road ahead of you.
  • wellbert
    wellbert Posts: 3,924 Member
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    If you eat 3500 excess calories, it won't turn into exactly 1 pound of fat. There's thermic effect, energy conversion, all that. But really, why split hairs?
  • Heltogrog
    Heltogrog Posts: 3
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    Check this out: http://jn.nutrition.org/content/127/9/1875S.full

    Specifically - In one study (Leibel and Hirsch 1984), it was found that daily calories required to maintain the body weight of dieted, obese patients declined by an amount disproportionate to the weight loss they displayed. The daily calories initially required to maintain the body weight of these obese patients was comparable to that of normal weight control subjects[(1432 vs. 1341 kcal/(m2⋅d), respectively]. However, after undergoing weight loss, the maintenance requirements of the obese dropped to 1,021 kcal/(m2⋅d). In fact, the total calories for maintenance of the weight-reduced obese patients was actually less than that of the control subjects (2171 vs. 2280 kcal/d), in spite of the fact that the former still weighed 60% more!

    Under the set point theory, your body is going to attempt to maintain the weight it was at by becoming more efficient at processing calories. So when you go over, since you're body is more efficient, it puts weight back on more efficiently.

    However, 4 pounds from 758 calories does sound a bit ridiculous. It's probably just a fluctuation. Body weight can vary up to five pounds throughout the day, and you could just be having a week. (http://www.livestrong.com/article/29567-normal-body-weight-fluctuation/)
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    Water weight fluctuation.
  • Nordichorseman
    Nordichorseman Posts: 12 Member
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    Read an article in "Runners World" once that said you hold 3-4 grams of water for every gram of carbohydrate consumed. So.. 200 grams of carbs equals about 600 - 800 grams of water. And there is just over 450 grams in one pound. So it's likely water.
  • darisey
    darisey Posts: 228 Member
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    If you are talking about the one day you ate 2330, I am pretty sure 2330 isn't 758 over maintenance. You have to eat over maintenace to gain anything.

    Right and my maintenance is 2220 according to MFP so that was 110 over maintenance.

    I'm not panicking at all, I'm just trying to understand why it might fluctuate that much in one day and the loss rate would be the same as normal.

    I weigh myself at the same time every morning and can pretty much pinpoint the reasons for any small fluctuations except this one.

    I'm still learning about all this stuff.
  • schell81
    schell81 Posts: 187 Member
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    There are so many reasons the scale could be up a bit. You could be backed up, you could be ovulating (sounds weird, but some women retain water), the scale weights everything remember, not just body fat.

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