Just curious. For example, if someone ate an extra 350,000 calories in one day (I don't think a person can even eat this much, but if he/she theoretically could), would the person actually gain 100 lbs (of actual weight, excluding water weight) in a day? 350000 is kinda extreme I guess, but how about something like eating 35,000 more calories than needed, would a person actually gain 10 lbs of actual weight?

I'm not sure about the question posed in the thread title. Coincidentally, my physiology class is covering the digestive system right now so I might find out. :lol: From what I understand so far, the stomach kinda acts like a holding area for food and lets it out into the small intestine at a rate for optimum digestion. Dunno if it's possible to overload it or anything.
how about something like eating 35,000 more calories than needed, would a person actually gain 10 lbs of actual weight?
I don't know if even 35,000 extra calories is physically possible.
Just for fun: Joey Chestnut's Hotdog eating record:
66 dogs, 19,600 calories. His maintenance cals are probably really freaking high since he's an elite level competitive eater. Let's assume it's 4000. So that's an excess of 15,600 cals, or around 4.5 pounds worth of calories.

It would be interesting to know whether he ended up vomiting any of that up after the contest, though.

His maintenance cals are probably really freaking high since he's an elite level competitive eater.

The rate at which you burn calories will change depending on your body weight, your muscle mass, your activity, your hormone levels, and also with the rate at which you consume calories.

I'm pretty sure that if there's a "starvation mode" where our metabolism slows when we eat too little, there's also the opposite.

I've always wondered this too. I always think about it if I go to Outback and eat a 7000 calorie meal, am I really going to have 2 pounds of fat on me the next day. In my experience I weigh the same the next day after I lose the water weight from the salty food. I think there definitely has to be a time component. One 10,000 calorie day when you eat 2000 calories a day over the course of a month moves your daily average to 2266, but you figure that one meal wouldn't cause you to put on a half pound a week for the next month.

Just for fun: Joey Chestnut's Hotdog eating record:
66 dogs, 19,600 calories. His maintenance cals are probably really freaking high since he's an elite level competitive eater. Let's assume it's 4000. So that's an excess of 15,600 cals, or around 4.5 pounds worth of calories.


He is from the town I live in now... San Jose, CA

I met him once at an eating competition featured on a food show and he ate a HUGE burrito. I was suprised he is kinda chubby, but def. a larger guy, maybe 6'3" :eek:

Any other insight?

Long story short - no. Eating a lot of food raises your metabolism slightly because of the thermic effect. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermic_effect_of_food) Fat, carbs, protein, they all raise your metabolism slightly, so that many calories' worth doesn't always add proportional fat. Expanding on what guava said here.

As far as the 10,000-Calorie days, even if you just sat around doing nothing, your body would still burn SOME calories because of your base metabolism, and a few more because of the food volume, but the calories eaten far outweigh the thermic effect.

Long story short - no. Eating a lot of food raises your metabolism slightly because of the thermic effect. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermic_effect_of_food) Fat, carbs, protein, they all raise your metabolism slightly, so that many calories' worth doesn't always add proportional fat. Expanding on what guava said here.

As far as the 10,000-Calorie days, even if you just sat around doing nothing, your body would still burn SOME calories because of your base metabolism, and a few more because of the food volume, but the calories eaten far outweigh the thermic effect.

So you're saying for this one particular that, other than the calories that your BMR(say 3000) burns and the extra few calories burned by the excess volume of food(say 500), the rest (6500 calories) would be stored into fat/muscle/something?

So you're saying for this one particular that, other than the calories that your BMR(say 3000) burns and the extra few calories burned by the excess volume of food(say 500), the rest (6500 calories) would be stored into fat/muscle/something?

Also, over how long would it take to burn all this? If you eat so much, it would take longer for your body to digest it all, yeah? If you ate a huge meal like this, would you really apply it to one day's basal metabolism (3000k) or would it take so long to digest it all that you might, say, apply it to 1.5 days (4500k) before figuring out how much actually got stored as fat.

I've always wondered how long it takes the digestive system to do it's thing. How long does a 12oz steak take vs a 24oz steak, for instance, if the whole steak was consumed in the same amount of time (i.e., the plate is served and 20 minutes later, the steak is gone, so consumption time isn't a factor in digestion time).

So you're saying for this one particular that, other than the calories that your BMR(say 3000) burns and the extra few calories burned by the excess volume of food(say 500), the rest (6500 calories) would be stored into fat/muscle/something?That's what I would believe. I don't know if it's fact or not, but it seems reasonable.

Except that if I eat even 500 calories over my typical amount for any one day, I'm not as hungry the next day. Could a person really overeat by this much in a day and go back to eating completely normally the next day?

Good point, if I have a cheat meal on a Saturday, I find I might not eat my first meal on Sunday because I still feel full. I guess that would fit in with the digestion time part and I could probably apply a part of those calories to Sunday if I wanted to try and track it that way.

He is from the town I live in now... San Jose, CA

I met him once at an eating competition featured on a food show and he ate a HUGE burrito. I was suprised he is kinda chubby, but def. a larger guy, maybe 6'3" :eek:


Gotta love Man vs Food. He chomped that down like a horse, it took about 15 seconds. Madness.