Why do not all extra calories turn to fat?

Options
ryry06revolution
ryry06revolution Posts: 28
in Health and Weight Loss
For example say you eat your basil metabolic rate in calories plus an additional 3500 calories in one day. You then continue to do this for 10 days. After the 10 days ends you should have gained 10 pounds of fat but that does not happen, You may gain about 3. What happens to all of these extra calories? They have done studies on this such as the Vermont Prison Study and the Horizon experiment.

Replies

  • Cr01502
    Cr01502 Posts: 3,614 Member
    Options
    A more educated person might have a better answer but my guess would be that your body simply excretes it as a waste product.
  • Dave198lbs
    Dave198lbs Posts: 8,810 Member
    Options
    For example say you eat your basil metabolic rate in calories plus an additional 3500 calories in one day. You then continue to do this for 10 days. After the 10 days ends you should have gained 10 pounds of fat but that does not happen, You may gain about 3. What happens to all of these extra calories? They have done studies on this such as the Vermont Prison Study and the Horizon experiment.

    well....what did those studies say?
  • Pencilberry
    Pencilberry Posts: 57 Member
    Options
    It's probably because you spend more energy daily than you BMR. Your BMR is your calorie expenditure when you are doing absolutely nothing, like being in a comma. So if you are doing stuff during the day even if it's just going to school/work, doing housework, hanging out with friends, etc... all that consumes extra calories above your BMR so your actual daily expenditure would be your BMR + calories of daily activities. Hope that helps!
  • Martucha123
    Martucha123 Posts: 1,093 Member
    Options
    intersting topic
    do you have link to mentioned studies?
  • Kagami_Taiga
    Kagami_Taiga Posts: 124 Member
    Options
    I've read that to lose weight 3500 kcals are equal to a pound, but to gain it it takes about 4200 kcals or so. So that's a large percentage gone. Also, a ridiculous amount of energy is used up to heat up the human body. In physics it's said that it takes 1 kcal(or kjoule, can't quite remember) to raise 1kg of water by 1°C. So going outside where's it's colder uses up a lot of energy too.
  • Mini_Medic
    Mini_Medic Posts: 343 Member
    Options
    Weight is gained slowly over time. Even if you treat every single day for an entire month like its an end of the world Christmas buffet you would still only gain a maximum of 15lbs. The body can process lots and lots of food in a day, however it can't absorb all of it. Otherwise we would never excrete waste we would either burn it off as energy expended during the day or we would retain it all as fat. You have to eat a huge excess for the body to even begin working hard to convert the food into a stored fat deposit. Most of what is eaten is used for energy and if your eating at a deficit you body starts the reverse process of tapping into and using the fat storage in the cells as energy. If you are eating at a surplus then your body either excretes the extra waste by products or it converts to fat storage.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    Options
    Weight is gained slowly over time. Even if you treat every single day for an entire month like its an end of the world Christmas buffet you would still only gain a maximum of 15lbs. The body can process lots and lots of food in a day, however it can't absorb all of it. Otherwise we would never excrete waste we would either burn it off as energy expended during the day or we would retain it all as fat. You have to eat a huge excess for the body to even begin working hard to convert the food into a stored fat deposit. Most of what is eaten is used for energy and if your eating at a deficit you body starts the reverse process of tapping into and using the fat storage in the cells as energy. If you are eating at a surplus then your body either excretes the extra waste by products or it converts to fat storage.

    Where are you getting 15 lbs from?
  • ryry06revolution
    ryry06revolution Posts: 28
    Options
    If you google the vermont prison study and the horizon experiment in the UK there are multiple sites referencing this information and explaining it further.
  • cbrrabbit25
    cbrrabbit25 Posts: 384 Member
    Options
    Weight is gained slowly over time. Even if you treat every single day for an entire month like its an end of the world Christmas buffet you would still only gain a maximum of 15lbs. The body can process lots and lots of food in a day, however it can't absorb all of it. Otherwise we would never excrete waste we would either burn it off as energy expended during the day or we would retain it all as fat. You have to eat a huge excess for the body to even begin working hard to convert the food into a stored fat deposit. Most of what is eaten is used for energy and if your eating at a deficit you body starts the reverse process of tapping into and using the fat storage in the cells as energy. If you are eating at a surplus then your body either excretes the extra waste by products or it converts to fat storage.

    Where are you getting 15 lbs from?

    i was wondering the same thing.
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
    Options
    For example say you eat your basil metabolic rate in calories plus an additional 3500 calories in one day. You then continue to do this for 10 days. After the 10 days ends you should have gained 10 pounds of fat but that does not happen, You may gain about 3. What happens to all of these extra calories? They have done studies on this such as the Vermont Prison Study and the Horizon experiment.

    You burn it off in daily living - as heat or as activity including figeting - you might poop some of it out again, overloading the body with 3500 calories extra a day is an awful lot of chewing and digesting.

Categories