Food into fat. How long?
janettebishop940
Posts: 88
How long does it take the body to turn food into fat cells? Ie if I overeat on Monday but am constant for the days around it, when would it show up on the scales ? Obviously I've over simplified the timings.
0
Replies
-
it depends on if you ate carbs or sugar. those turn into fat immediately.0
-
it depends on if you ate carbs or sugar. those turn into fat immediately.
Yes. As soon as you swallow. They pretty much enter your stomach as fat cells.
Not.
If you are a bit over on one day it's not going to affect the scale. The scale fluctuates based on water retention, bowel movement and more by up to 5 pounds each day, so no way of telling anyways.
If you are worried, eat a little less the next day for your peace of mind, But don't stress. As long as you're not in the habit of slipping, you are fine0 -
it depends on if you ate carbs or sugar. those turn into fat immediately.
^this...
...assuming the sugar doesn't kill you first.0 -
It's not really a "how long" thing. Your body is constantly synthesizing (anabolism) and breaking down (catabolism) molecules, including the fatty acids that you store in adipocytes (fat cells). I don't know exactly how long it takes to assemble a fatty acid chain and attach it to glycerol and shuttle it to storage... but you're looking at minutes or hours at most.
And the same is true in reverse.
And these forward and reverse reactions are happening all the time. Any time you have a surplus of energy, you store that energy in one form or another (fat, glycogen, etc.,) and any time you have a deficit, you break down those stored molecules for energy. You normally use glycogen first... but that's not an 'always' thing.
In my opinion, it doesn't do much good to worry about when food becomes fat. It's kinda irrelevant to the weight loss game. You will gain weight if you eat a calorie surplus. You could see that weight gain the next day... though even that is hard to interpret because you've got water weight to worry about.
So your best bet is to maintain a calorie deficit over the long run and not worry about the small ups and downs during the week.0 -
-
http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/The-Way-to-Eat-with-Dr-David-Katz_3
"How long it takes extra calories to alter your shape varies with your rate of digestion, your diet (sugary drinks are digested very quickly; high-protein foods such as meat relatively slowly), and your age, since metabolism slows as we age. But in general, excess calories begin finding their way to your hips approximately four to eight hours from the start of a meal.
When you eat, a certain number of calories go to keeping your heart, lungs, organs and muscles working. This energy burn is your basal metabolism. For the average woman, it's about 1,200 calories a day. Additional calories go into two types of storage. The first is a roughly 1,000-calorie reserve of ready-to-burn energy called glycogen and it's stored in the liver and muscles. That reserve fuels activity such as walking, jumping, running and even fidgeting. Once the reserve is depleted, your body uses calories taken in by eating to replenish it. When the tank has been topped off, extra calories are then converted for long-term storage into fat molecules called triglycerides."
Of course, if you are eating at a deficit of say, -500 per day, and go over your daily goal by 750...well, that really is only 250 calories that can get turned into glycogen or fat.... and if you are like most of us and are just a little low each day... Why worry about it?0 -
it depends on if you ate carbs or sugar. those turn into fat immediately.
^this...
...assuming the sugar doesn't kill you first.
And remember, fat is already fat so it just gets stored as is. That is why liquid fats like olive oil are better than solid fats in meat.0 -
You would have to over eat by a huge amount to turn anything in to fat.
Your body uses the food you ate for immediate energy needs, and restoring glucose stores (with attached water).
Only thing normal overeating does is lengthen the time you do NOT slip back in to normal fat burning mode when your insulin drops back down.
That's what dieting actually does, you return to fat-burning mode sooner than normal, the body also adapts by not storing as much glucose with attached water.
Hence the reason your first weight loss starting a diet is big compared to later, water weight.
And when you go back to maintenance you have initial big increase, water weight.
All good water weight.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/nutrient-intake-nutrient-storage-and-nutrient-oxidation.html
So if you know you are going to eat big, best idea is to do an intense workout prior, lots of glucose stores to fill.
Then walk after, big fat-burning walk to use up eaten fat.
That will get you back in to normal fat-burning mode soonest.0 -
It's not really a "how long" thing. Your body is constantly synthesizing (anabolism) and breaking down (catabolism) molecules, including the fatty acids that you store in adipocytes (fat cells). I don't know exactly how long it takes to assemble a fatty acid chain and attach it to glycerol and shuttle it to storage... but you're looking at minutes or hours at most.
And the same is true in reverse.
And these forward and reverse reactions are happening all the time. Any time you have a surplus of energy, you store that energy in one form or another (fat, glycogen, etc.,) and any time you have a deficit, you break down those stored molecules for energy. You normally use glycogen first... but that's not an 'always' thing.
In my opinion, it doesn't do much good to worry about when food becomes fat. It's kinda irrelevant to the weight loss game. You will gain weight if you eat a calorie surplus. You could see that weight gain the next day... though even that is hard to interpret because you've got water weight to worry about.
So your best bet is to maintain a calorie deficit over the long run and not worry about the small ups and downs during the week.
This. It's really a constant thing. You store fat after lunch, then burn it off before dinner, etc.
http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=3190 -
Approx. π0
-
How long does it take the body to turn food into fat cells? Ie if I overeat on Monday but am constant for the days around it, when would it show up on the scales ? Obviously I've over simplified the timings.
Days that end with a 'y' are easier to store fat cells than days without. Also, don't eat in bed or after 10:00 pm. Fat actually turns into sugar at these times/places and that could be fatal if it turns into high fructose sugar instead of simple sugars.
Good luck with your journey.0 -
Just a reminder...
Posts by members, moderators and admins should not be considered medical advice and no guarantee is made against accuracy.
No guarantee is made for or of accuracy either.0 -
:noway:0
-
To be honest I was just seeing what I could get away with in terms of looking at past calories. Does anyone know a site that does a graph showing calories each day and weight on the same chart?0
-
To be honest I was just seeing what I could get away with in terms of looking at past calories. Does anyone know a site that does a graph showing calories each day and weight on the same chart?
You will not find one that you can rely on for an accurate prediction. Why? Because way too many factors go into determining weight fluctuations on a day-to-day basis: water in your plasma, tissues, and bladder, the actual weight of food in your intestines waiting to be digested, the fecal material in you waiting to be expelled, and so on. Daily hormone fluctuations (especially for women) can affect how much water you are retaining. Exercise can effect how much water you retain. Salt, of course, effects it... and so forth.
And then, of course, age, sex, stress, genetics and a countless list of other things effect how you gain and lose weight as an individual.
Take home message: You simply cannot make a one-size-fits accurate prediction about weight gain based on calorie intake. You can graph averages and best-guesses... but it's not going to give you what you want.
You can make your own graphy thingy if you like... track your weight every day... graph it based on calorie intake. It still isn't going to be a 100% accurate for predicting weight gain per calories... but it'll be more accurate than anything made based on population averages.
Or... you can just keep truckin' and not sweat the small stuff
0 -
it depends on if you ate carbs or sugar. those turn into fat immediately.
^this...
...assuming the sugar doesn't kill you first.
Tiny little sugars with sharp little shivs, ninja-rolling down your throat and landing in a pose of adipose!0 -
it depends on if you ate carbs or sugar. those turn into fat immediately.
No they don't, not if you burn them off first. If I am in the middle of a marathon and eat those gel packs (pretty much sugar and electrolytes) they will not turn into fat, they will get used as energy as your body converts them into a usable format.0 -
it depends on if you ate carbs or sugar. those turn into fat immediately.
No they don't, not if you burn them off first, or if you are in a caloric deficit for the day
I like to think my sugar goes straight to my brain as much needed glucose. It's a nice little mental picture, so don't ruin it for me.0 -
How long does it take the body to turn food into fat cells? Ie if I overeat on Monday but am constant for the days around it, when would it show up on the scales ? Obviously I've over simplified the timings.
I actually wonder this sometimes...like "if I eat WAY over my calorie limit but exercise it all the next day, I'm fine.... But what if I wait 3 days to work it off...what about a week to exercise it off.. Is it too late to wait 3 weeks to work it off?"0 -
The noise in daily fluctuations would make that useless.
Only when you get to many accurate weeks at a time does that noise fade in to the background and real trends show up.
Because sometimes you eat more your metabolism will just increase beyond what would be normal.
Or perhaps a ton more protein.
Or your workout was intense and body retained water, or you burned up glucose with water stores.
Also, women have a very real change to their BMR as the month goes on.
If looking for that long term trend, be aware you must have logged accurately, no meal skipping because it was over calorie, no day skipped because of binge or over-eating.
Those things don't fade in the noise unless looking at months at a time.
For instance, you could look at a month, and say you lost 5 lbs.
And then you could see your daily logs show you ate on avg XXXX amount of calories.
From that you could calculate a better TDEE figure, unless you ate too little and some of the loss was muscle mass. 5 x 3500 calories per lb of fat (not muscle) / days (28) + XXXX eaten daily avg = real TDEE XXXX+625.
But you also notice you had 4 days in there you actually didn't log at all because of traveling, or 14% of the time. So actually the avg daily was higher.
Then you had 6 weekend meals that were total guesses because of eating out. So the avg daily is higher still.
Then you had a week of being sick and hardly eating, but you did a bunch of hard cardio workouts to help burn the sickness out, and actually burned off some muscle mass.
All those make the formula invalid. If that kind of stuff happens on regular basis, it'll never be drowned out in the noise.
So the more inaccurate your logging, the longer time span you need for those inaccuracies to be minimized and the data to be useful.
Do you have MS Excel spreadsheet?0 -
Approx. π
Wrong, it is π^3/1/2π^1/20 -
To be honest I was just seeing what I could get away with in terms of looking at past calories. Does anyone know a site that does a graph showing calories each day and weight on the same chart?
I have a schedule of calories each day and weight, but it's specific only for me. It's data I've collected (through MFP) during the past 2+ years. It's what I used/use to calculate my current exercise-excluded TDEE to determine my base maintenance level. This schedule wouldn't be very helpful for anyone but me (and possibly other 42ish year old 6' 170 pound men with an exercise-excluded TDEE of ~2700...but for them to know that, they would have to have similar data for themselves...so why would they use mine?).
ETA: Does someone have a link to that data extractor Excel spreadsheet that was posted recently?0 -
How long does it take the body to turn food into fat cells? Ie if I overeat on Monday but am constant for the days around it, when would it show up on the scales ? Obviously I've over simplified the timings.
I actually wonder this sometimes...like "if I eat WAY over my calorie limit but exercise it all the next day, I'm fine.... But what if I wait 3 days to work it off...what about a week to exercise it off.. Is it too late to wait 3 weeks to work it off?"
If you really over-ate and nothing more is needed to refill stores or use for repair, and no immediate energy needs (you had a big dinner, watched movies, and then had a big ice cream pig out say), it'll take 2-5 hrs for that to be stored as fat.
If glucose stores topped off and enough protein already floating around, shorter side of range.0 -
I'm not sure why this matters in terms of weight loss. In fact, I guess I just don't understand all the focus on numbers on a scale.0
-
it depends on if you ate carbs or sugar. those turn into fat immediately.
No they don't, not if you burn them off first. If I am in the middle of a marathon and eat those gel packs (pretty much sugar and electrolytes) they will not turn into fat, they will get used as energy as your body converts them into a usable format.
She's being sarcastic. :flowerforyou:0 -
ETA: Does someone have a link to that data extractor Excel spreadsheet that was posted recently?
MFP extractor and analysis tool can be found here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/EvgeniZyntx/view/mfp-extractor-and-trend-watcher-the-program-post-5898390 -
I'm not sure why this matters in terms of weight loss. In fact, I guess I just don't understand all the focus on numbers on a scale.
It doesn't one iota.
Especially since it rarely happens as the question asks for those on a diet anyway. You usually just end up not burning as much fat as you would have otherwise.
Focus on scale is because that's all MFP focuses on, goal, daily reminder when Diary complete, progress ticker, ect.
Plus the fact it's the easiest data point to get.
But as life usually points out, rarely is easiest the best.0 -
I'm not sure why this matters in terms of weight loss. In fact, I guess I just don't understand all the focus on numbers on a scale.
It doesn't . It matters in my brain's quest for more and more data. I try to divert it with body fat charts and memorizing silly song lyrics, but it keeps asking for more and more data. I think it is planning something evil.0 -
I'm not sure why this matters in terms of weight loss. In fact, I guess I just don't understand all the focus on numbers on a scale.
It doesn't . It matters in my brain's quest for more and more data. I try to divert it with body fat charts and memorizing silly song lyrics, but it keeps asking for more and more data. I think it is planning something evil.
Stop fooling yourself. Go ahead and admit it. You are a numbers geek.
Don't worry, there are many of us, taking this opportunity to make this a hobby with numbers now. Check out the spreadsheet on my profile page, I did it too.0 -
Stop fooling yourself. Go ahead and admit it. You are a numbers geek.
Don't worry, there are many of us, taking this opportunity to make this a hobby with numbers now. Check out the spreadsheet on my profile page, I did it too.
You may not suggest such a thing if you saw my pitiful math grades in school. I am not good at math, just like to watch. I am not great at Playng chess, but like to watch others play chess. Numerical Voyeurism. Sigh. I need a 12 step program. Or 13 steps if you are into Fibonacci.
I have seems a few MFP spreadsheets. All lovely. "These ponts of data make a beautiful line."
"My name is Kimberly. I quote the Fibonacci sequence to keep time while I plank."0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 394.2K Introduce Yourself
- 43.9K Getting Started
- 260.4K Health and Weight Loss
- 176.1K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.6K Fitness and Exercise
- 437 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153.1K Motivation and Support
- 8.1K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.9K MyFitnessPal Information
- 15 News and Announcements
- 1.2K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.7K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions