How much can you actually GAIN in a day?

beaglebrandon
beaglebrandon Posts: 97 Member
edited November 16 in Health and Weight Loss
Say you were in a hot-dog eating competition. Joey Chestnut ate 73 hot dogs in 10 minutes in his latest competition. Given 200 calories per hot dog w/roll - that's almost 15,000 calories - or a 4+ pound gain.

I doubt your body can digest all that food. I would expect it to digest only so much then get rid of the rest as waste.

That's what I suspect at least. If I ate 73 hot dogs every day for a month - 30 x 4 lbs = 120 lbs. Could I expect to gain 120+ pounds, or will the body only gain like 50 pounds and will the rest be waste?

The only thing I'm wondering more on a personal level is that, say I went on a cruise and ate recklessly - 7,000 calories a day... a 2 pound gain... is there a limit to what point I can eat, then keep eating and keep eating but you won't gain? Or is this a fairy tale?

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  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    edited March 2017
    I don't think it's a question of pooping out whole hot dogs (thanks for the visual :s) but about whether your body can process all the nutrients if it's hugely overloaded or whether you are pooping some of them out unabsorbed.

    Here's my hunch, for what it's worth: first of all, your body is very efficient at harvesting nutrients from food, and so if you are accustomed to eating large amounts in one go (which eating competitors are) you probably can take on a surprising amount of nutrients and store a lot of energy.

    Secondly, any kind of carbs are very close to glucose and take very little processing for the body to convert them to glucose and thence to glycogen. However, the next step is more demanding - a huge excess of carbs implies your body is going to be forced to convert the surplus into fat, something it doesn't like to do because it's inefficient. So I think some of the energy in the huge carb surplus will be lost in that conversion, but I expect the majority will be successfully stored.

    A huge surplus of fat, on the other hand, seems to me a little more difficult to handle as it has to go into the blood to get from the digestive system into storage and there's only so much fat you can carry that way before your heart is pumping pure dripping, which seems to me to have some disadvantages. Once the fat reaches storage it is easy to store it but it seems to me the process will take time, so I wouldn't be s surprised to find some of the fat will be pooped out in the event of a huge surplus.

    Protein I have no idea.
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  • not_a_runner
    not_a_runner Posts: 1,343 Member
    edited March 2017
    Maybe you're overthinking this?
    So you want to over eat on your cruise, and you're hoping there's like a cut off that is the maximum amount of weight you can gain per day no matter how much you eat?
    ....Was the hot dog part necesarry?

    ETA - I don't think it's a question of nutrient absorption, more of wanting to validate over eating.
  • TheLittleFangs
    TheLittleFangs Posts: 205 Member
    I love the science of the replies already. And your fun question. I have nothing of value to add to these posts as I simply don't know.

    For my two pence worth, reading between the lines you're going on a cruise? Which I guess is not something you do every week... which means it's a treat? In life and on your health journey there will cone times where you might decide to 'live recklessly' for a present defined period of time, enjoying the moments and memories if that's what you choose to do. This is your choice. You can also choose to remain at a deficit on the cruise, or give yourself freedom at one meal and over drinks for example. The point is the choice is yours. The journey is yours.

    Enjoy your trip whatever you decide
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    I personally think you would adapt, and that any limit on how much fat you would gain would come from you feeling full and disinclined to eat more, rather than from malabsorption (which is really what you're talking about).
  • beaglebrandon
    beaglebrandon Posts: 97 Member
    edited March 2017
    TresaAswegan wrote: »
    ETA - I don't think it's a question of nutrient absorption, more of wanting to validate over eating.

    It actually is. It's just something scientifically I want to understand, and it plays into these eating competitions too. Did Johnny Chestnut actually gain 5 pounds from eating those 73 hot dogs, or did he purge them some other way, or does the body just not absorb all the nutrients?

    I'm definitely NOT wanting to gorge on that many calories. I'm currently eating 1,500 or so a day, and it's VERY tough for me to go over 3,000. Actually went to one of those Brazilian steak houses (all-you-can-eat meat) a few weeks ago, and I could not eat more than 3,000 calories, it was like a chore.

    Maybe I mentioned the hot dogs to set up Kriss? :)
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  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    Please. Stop.
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  • not_a_runner
    not_a_runner Posts: 1,343 Member
    beaglebrandon wrote: »
    TresaAswegan wrote: »
    ETA - I don't think it's a question of nutrient absorption, more of wanting to validate over eating.

    It actually is. It's just something scientifically I want to understand, and it plays into these eating competitions too. Did Johnny Chestnut actually gain 5 pounds from eating those 73 hot dogs, or did he purge them some other way, or does the body just not absorb all the nutrients?

    I'm definitely NOT wanting to gorge on that many calories. I'm currently eating 1,500 or so a day, and it's VERY tough for me to go over 3,000. Actually went to one of those Brazilian steak houses (all-you-can-eat meat) a few weeks ago, and I could not eat more than 3,000 calories, it was like a chore.

    Maybe I mentioned the hot dogs to set up Kriss? :)


    My mistake I guess.
    With a history of binge eating it sounded like something I would've tried to tell myself to validate that I've already messed up so I might as well continue eating. Just sounded like a major red flag personally.
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