I keep seeing that 3500 calories = a pound. When someone cheats and gains a few pounds, everyone jumps in to say that a lot of it must be water, because you can't eat 10,000 extra calories in one cheat.
Is it really that reliable of a formula? Isn't dieting messing w/our metabolism causing our bodies to store more calories as fat than it would during "times of plenty" ?
I'm thinking ahead to maintenance. I don't want to rely on the 3500=1lb formula, as I don't feel that really applies to my body anymore. I'm trying to keep my metabolism fueled, but I can gain so easily now, that I'm convinced that the calculators that figure our daily needs aren't accurate for a dieting lifestyle. Before dieting, a slip of a few pieces of pizza would result in a tiny, percentage of a pound gain. Now, I can gain 2lbs from one night of splurging. This leaves me feeling a tiny bit panicked!
3,500 calories is equal to one pound of fat. That part is true and pretty well proven, and dieting can't really change it.
I think dieting DOES make it easier for us to gain weight in a few ways, though. First, when we're eating healthier foods with less sodium in them, and drinking plenty of fluids, we're not retaining extra water. Also, when we're eating less, and more of it is fiber, we're not holding as much solid waste in our intestines at any given time. So, one meal of low-fiber, high-sodium food will pack on a shocking amount of solids and water overnight - but that's not fat, and it should be temporary.
Also, losing large amounts of weight does cause a modest decrease in your metabolism. So maybe instead of burning 2000 calories per day like you would if you had never been a higher weight, you're burning 1800. Therefore, it will take eating 2300 calories each day to gain a pound in a week, where it would take a "normal" person 2500.
There's no simple way of knowing how much energy you use each day, either. Maybe based on all the charts and formulas you should be burning 2000, but your body is actually abnormally efficient, and is burning 1500. So while you think you could eat 2000 a day and maintain, that number will actually make you gain a pound a week.
It is a bit more complicated in that yes you can mess with your metabolism. If you are insulin resistant your metabolism will be slower than someone who is not. Resolving it can increase your metabolism. And if you tend to be insulin resistant a bingy meal may slow you for a couple days.
There can be variations in your body from day to day with hormonal changes as well. Being sick can sometimes raise your basal metabolic rate - however most of that is probably taken back with the fact that you probably wont exercise as hard on a day you have a high fever.
So if you are looking at some calorie counter (like fitday) and over the course of 3 months the calorie counter says you have a cumulative deficit of 35000 calories so you "should" have lost 10 lbs and you only lost 6 you might consider that your metabolism is in general slower than the calculators predict.
But absolutely if you went off plan by 300 calories and you get on the scale the next day and you are up 2 lbs it can not be fat. Absolutely can not.
Yesterday I weighed 155.4, today I weighed 152.2 If I did exactly the same workout today and ate exactly the same foods I would not lose another 3 lbs today. They were a bit of water and undigested Xmas cookies from sunday.
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Before dieting, a slip of a few pieces of pizza would result in a tiny, percentage of a pound gain. Now, I can gain 2lbs from one night of splurging. This leaves me feeling a tiny bit panicked!
Before dieting you probably had a fairly steady stream of carbohydrates and sodium in your diet. You probably also had an amount of fat and low fiber in your diet that kept your intestines sluggish. You were always retaining excess water and excess waste material so small binges weren't noticeable to the body . When you are dieting you have entered a different balance than before. The body is retaining less water and waste and so the whammy of sodium and carbs and slow to digest greasy cheese has a greater TEMPORARY effect on weight.
To be written correctly, the formula should say that 1 pound of fat contains approximately 3500 calories of energy. The converse is not necessarily true.
If you gain 3 pounds "overnight," it does not necessarily mean you have gained 3 pounds of fat. First--because calories eaten does not necessarily get converted into fat; and second--because weight includes water in the tissues and lean body mass (all the non-fat components such as bones, muscle, etc.) as well as fat. Weight also includes food and waste in the digestive system and urine in the bladder.
If you eat pizza, you are eating a lot of salt (in the cheese, pepperoni, etc.) and that causes water retention in your tissues. Also, remember that an 8 ounce glass of water is roughly a half a pound. You can see how drinking a couple of 12 or 16 ounce drinks would increase your weight immediately. And if salty food keeps that fluid in your tissues... there you are, up on the scale.
I think some further reading on the subject would help you not panic...
I sympathize with you. It is SO unfairly easy to gain the weight back.
I am working on the last 20lbs as well (again and again).
What I have found is that my body naturally likes to be 165-170. However, aesthetically, I like it to be 150. In the end, 150 is maintainable, but just barely.
At 150, I have to weigh often and count every calorie.
At 165 - 170, I can eat smaller portions of everything, but in general, my eating habits are like someone who is "normally thin" and I don't have to calorie count.
What I'm trying to say is, at 165, I am still technically in the "Normal BMI" range (just barely). It is not extremely hard to maintain with exercise and portion control and no terrible processed foods or sweets. I can still eat out, eat pizza, and I'm not gaining.
At 150, I will gain at the drop of a hat and have to either do more exercise or eat less later.
There is the hard road (150) and there is the easier road (165-170), but both are healthy roads.
I guess what I'm saying is .... I don't really know what I'm trying to say.
Well, from the perspective of pure physics, to gain a lb of fat, you'd need to eat 3500 calories more than you burn. That's because matter doesn't come from nowhere...if you've got a lb of fat, you had 3500 extra calories at one point. There is no way to create something (fat) out of nothing
But the number we burn can change, I believe, and varies so significantly from person to person that some people gain easily while others resist gaining. I once wore a heart rate monitor, which was designed to calculate how many calories a person burned in a day based on a multitude of factors, for 1 month straight. During that time, I also carefully calculated each bite of food I ate. During that time, according to what an "average" person would burn, I should have lost 18 lbs. I gained 2. My output just doesn't match the "average".
The other issue is that all kinds of weight shows up on the scale...not just weight from fat, but weight from muscle, water, food still in the digestion process, etc. So "gaining" 2 lbs doesn't mean that 2 lbs of fat are gained - most gains are probably a combination of fat, water, and digestive byproduct.
So on one hand, it is impossible to gain a full pound of fat alone without eating 3500 calories more than your body burned. On the other hand, what your body burns may vary, even from day to day, and the scale doesn't just measure fat.
The "calories" in food (and fat) are the "calories" measured when the matter is incinerated in a lab. So, first and foremost, you need to recognize that your body is not a combustion engine. There are also different types of fat, with their own composition (depending upon your diet). A pound of fat contains, on average 3,500 calories.
However, not every calorie (as measured in the lab) that you eat is usable by your body. There were several studies done in the past years that revealed the bugs in our guts play a large role in how many calories our bodies can take in. If your particular bugs are not suited to break down a particular food item, you'll get fewer calories from it (and probably an upset stomach as it isn't digested properly).
Also in play is the insulin factor. The more insulin circulating in your system, the more likely you are to store fat. Insulin is the fat trigger, so to speak. Excess insulin triggers fat storage, while an absence of it triggers ketosis (and fat conversion to glucose for fuel). This is the premise behind the various low-carb diets: low/no carbs = no insulin = ketosis = weight loss.
Soo...no. The math just isn't that simple. But, it's a good guess and since calorie counting works for "most" people, it's not a bad way to go. Unless you're looking to spend lotsomonies on monitoring your body's particular homeostasis, or have metabolic problems that dictate a low carb diet (present!), calorie counting is the easiest lifestyle to maintain.
If I've learned anything it's that weight loss and gain aren't predictable. You can do the same thing 2 weeks in a row and lose 3 lb one week, and gain 2 the next. I don't have a lot of scientific formulas to back that up, but it's been my experience through trial and error.
Wouldn't it be nice if there was just a simple equation that worked for everyone? Eat this many calories per week, lose this many pounds. Man would that make life easier.
Last edited by juliastl27; 12-24-2009 at 01:56 AM.
Ok... all you have to do is watch the Biggest Loser.... if calories in vs calories out was always completely accurate they would know exactly how much they have lost or gained before they ever got on the scales... they have the body bug that measures all of this....
Also, there are weeks were everyone including the trainers are shocked because these people are working out at a very extreme levels and then only lose 1#.... what???? I think if I had worked out for 8 hours a day and then lost only 1# I would have to beat someone...
Our bodies are very unique things.... if you are doing what you are supposed to do it will happen.... somedays your body may retain water... hormones .... muscle gain... or that pizza and beer from last night... can all affect the daily numbers...
Just do the right things most of the time and you should have success.
Is the math really that simple?
?
