The 3500 calorie rule can't be true?

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  • rachelvillalobos39
    rachelvillalobos39 Posts: 27
    Bonesless waffle poo? Sounds like something at the Texas state fair. Okay OP, news flash, the 3500 calorie rule is. . . .wait for it. . . . .wait for it. . . ..true. Phew, next caller. . . .

    It has to be fried to be at the Texas state fair.

    lol
  • Jerry1001
    Jerry1001 Posts: 43 Member
    A pint a pound the world around...I know me some science. :drinker:
  • AlanaTedmon
    AlanaTedmon Posts: 105 Member
    My workout yesterday burned about 2,200 calories. I weighed about 5 lbs. less after the workout. How was that possible? I didn't burn 3500 calories.

    You probably sweat quite a bit and lost some water weight! That would be my guess.
  • Deipneus
    Deipneus Posts: 1,855 Member
    Another thing, you will be better off to do weekly weigh-ins and track how you trend over time.
    Don't do daily weigh-ins.....they can fluctuate a lot from day to day.
    For some people, weighing only once a week is preferable but for another reason. A lot of people are devastated by the unexpected increases that may be nothing more than water retention.

    Others, including me, weigh every day precisely because of the fluctuations. By weighing daily and averaging weekly, we are able to screen out the daily fluctuations.
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    I lover me some troll every now and again...
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,333 Member
    i agree… i think it is a rule of thumb..but hardly totally the case. When i watch The Biggest Loser. ..those folks are eating 1200 calories a day and working out 6 hours a day. Some weeks they only lose 1 poiund sometimes only five. If the 3500 rule was true..they'd lose a lot more. That is proof the 3500 calorie deal is a bunk.
  • hearthwood
    hearthwood Posts: 794 Member
    I've read that it takes an extra 3500 calories beyond your TDEE to gain a pound or 3500 calories less than your TDEE to lose a pound. I'm assuming that's just the mathematical equation and not actually true.

    Because a couple days in March I weighed:
    3/23 - 104.5
    3/24 - 106.5
    3/25 - 107
    3/26 - 108
    3/27 - 108
    3/28 - 108.5

    And after that point I started sleeping all day and only eating 2 meals so my weight went down. And quickly. Not after I burned off 3500 calories. But I've found when I eat a lot my weight will go up overnight and if I don't eat as much as I normally do, my weight will go down overnight. And it will continue in that direction for as long as I continue that eating pattern. Like I lost 3 pounds in 3 days eating slightly less than normal. I know the 3500 calorie rule can't be true for this to happen. This couldn't have been water weight in March. I would've kept going up had I not started sleeping all day. And another example is there's this man on the biggest loser who lost 38 pounds the first week without even moving his legs cause he was injured. So that means he would have had to burn off 133,000 calories in a week without even moving his legs and there's absolutely no way he did that.

    So I'm assuming to gain weight, you just need to eat more than what you're currently eating and keep eating that amount?

    Do not base weight loss on the Biggest Loser or Extreme weight loss. Only the super obese, those accustomed to eating 4 to 7 thousand calories a day can be put on a less than 1500 calories a day a peel off the weight at first, and show business is as it is, for someone to lose 38 pounds in one week, would have to weigh in at 700 to 800 pounds. Otherwise it's not believable, and or 30 pounds of it was water weight.

    At 109 pounds, (don't know how tall you are) but you're already a lightweight, and losing weight or trying to eat less (3500 calories less per week) is going to be extremely difficult, because you don't consume anywhere near that many calories per day in the first place.

    3500 calories equals one pound, and it is an established-well known fact.
  • WithWhatsLeft
    WithWhatsLeft Posts: 196 Member
    i really really wish i could get the universe to take scale weight less seriously.

    you do not have a weight. you have a weight range. on average it goes 3.5 pounds above or below a median at any given time.

    when you weigh yourself daily, which i do so i can understand what my average is, you can look at it one of two ways

    "ohmygosh i gained a pound since yesterday! this diet thing SUCKS no matter what i do i magically gain fat overnight, even when i eat at a defecit!"

    or you can say

    "oh, look, i am within my weight range... well, its all good, i know i have been doing what i was supposed to do so as long as my average doesnt go up consistenly, ad goes down consistently OVER A PERIOD OF TIME, i am golden"

    the average will go down over a period of time if you are eating a defecit, and will increas over time if you are overeating, but neither thing happens in one day.

    when i stopped treating the scale like a constant, i started enjoying my weight loss journey more and trusting my process more, not a number on a scale, my process. i actually think that chage in thinking is the second cause of my ability to stick with it this time compared to other times. (first being a discovery that i actually like fitness)

    Oh I heart you.

    Now that I am done staring at the Magic gifs and can formulate a reply, I can say that anyone that believes this can be overthought will hate me.

    I got my geek on with this and I am OCD'ing all over the place but am ok with it. I weigh every day and I have a spreadsheet. I HAVE A SPREADSHEET, lol.

    I'm tracking my weight, the calories burned, the calories consumed, the deficit, and everything else but the placement of the stars. I think it's fascinating. Yes, we have a weight range - not a weight. My weight tends to fluctuate around 3 to 6 pounds each day throughout the week (I'm losing) depending on the TOM, and then around 4 pounds throughout the day.

    As I'm losing weight, I see I can go up a pound one morning. The next, down 2.4. Then up a little the next then down one the next day and so on and so forth. As I'm burning more than I'm consuming on a regular basis, the net affect is that I'm losing weight.

    What a great thread.
  • Louisa92bulk
    Louisa92bulk Posts: 2
    as people have said, a lb of body fat is 3500 calories, however how your body utilizes those calories varies from person to person, for instance I seem to have a high metabolism because to gain weight I have to consume 3220 calories a day, for the last two weeks I have been tracking my calories and rounding DOWN and ive been hitting atleast 4000 and everyday and I havent gained a single pound, theoretically that should be impossible, but theoretically doesnt mean much because all bodies are different.
  • Wheelhouse15
    Wheelhouse15 Posts: 5,575 Member
    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    My workout yesterday burned about 2,200 calories. I weighed about 5 lbs. less after the workout. How was that possible? I didn't burn 3500 calories.

    How did you burn 2200? That's almost a marathon worth of cals. Of corse you will lose a ton of water if it was continuous, but is that 2200 total for the day or just that session?
  • PwrLftr82
    PwrLftr82 Posts: 945 Member
    Wheelhouse15 wrote: »
    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    My workout yesterday burned about 2,200 calories. I weighed about 5 lbs. less after the workout. How was that possible? I didn't burn 3500 calories.

    How did you burn 2200? That's almost a marathon worth of cals. Of corse you will lose a ton of water if it was continuous, but is that 2200 total for the day or just that session?

    I'm sure that was a run. Waffle's an instigator. He wasn't being serious.
  • Wheelhouse15
    Wheelhouse15 Posts: 5,575 Member
    edited October 2014
    PwrLftr82 wrote: »
    Wheelhouse15 wrote: »
    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    My workout yesterday burned about 2,200 calories. I weighed about 5 lbs. less after the workout. How was that possible? I didn't burn 3500 calories.

    How did you burn 2200? That's almost a marathon worth of cals. Of corse you will lose a ton of water if it was continuous, but is that 2200 total for the day or just that session?

    I'm sure that was a run. Waffle's an instigator. He wasn't being serious.

    Ahh, if it was run it was a good one, but I am too new here to know who's who yet. :(
  • 50sFit
    50sFit Posts: 712 Member
    I can gain 1 pound in 90 seconds when I drink a liter of water after a long hike.
    I can lose 2 pounds in the morning after a solid pooh.
    As people have said, 3500 calories is a measure of the energy required to gain or lose 1 real pound of body weight. This has nothing to do with our hormones, water fluctuation, food digestion or chronic constipation.
    This is the obsession trap people fall into when they are continuously weighing themselves.

  • PwrLftr82
    PwrLftr82 Posts: 945 Member
    Wheelhouse15 wrote: »
    PwrLftr82 wrote: »
    Wheelhouse15 wrote: »
    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    My workout yesterday burned about 2,200 calories. I weighed about 5 lbs. less after the workout. How was that possible? I didn't burn 3500 calories.

    How did you burn 2200? That's almost a marathon worth of cals. Of corse you will lose a ton of water if it was continuous, but is that 2200 total for the day or just that session?

    I'm sure that was a run. Waffle's an instigator. He wasn't being serious.

    Ahh, if it was run it was a good one, but I am too new here to know who's who yet. :(

    Ahhhh, you'll learn soon enough. He often starts hilarious nonsensical threads.
  • samammay
    samammay Posts: 468
    the-good-thing-about-science.jpg

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