Excess calorie storage?

[elgenyo]

This is a general question regarding calorie/fat/carb intake and what your body does with the excess that is not burned off.

Does your body store all of the excess that it does burn off during the day or does a percentage of it get passed through your digestive system? The reason I ask is because I recently had a discussion with someone that claimed that on cheat days he eats whatever he wants and how much he wants but only on that one day and it was fine.

What do you guys think?

 

[Rosie Chee]

This is a general question regarding calorie/fat/carb intake and what your body does with the excess that is not burned off.

Does your body store all of the excess that it does burn off during the day or does a percentage of it get passed through your digestive system? The reason I ask is because I recently had a discussion with someone that claimed that on cheat days he eats whatever he wants and how much he wants but only on that one day and it was fine.

What do you guys think?

Your someone is right - one day a week of cheating or eating whatever whenever is not going to affect you, and if one is dieting, then this will actually make the process more effective, given the way most people "diet". Your body has a marvelous way of being able to balance itself out and maintain a homeostasis.

If you have excess calories on day, your body will do several things, including converting them into glucose. You do NOT store fat in a day or from a single meal. In fact, most of what you eat is not your energy for the day you eat it, but the next as well, due to the length of the digestive process and as your muscle glycogen stores are replenished.

I think of it this way: What I eat today is today's energy, tomorrow's energy stores, and next week's fat. So if I have an excess energy intake and do not use the excess energy that is stored, then yes, it WILL become stored as adipose tissue, but you have time to ensure that it WON'T.


~Team APPNUT

 

[elgenyo]

thx rosie!

 

[Nitrox]

This is a general question regarding calorie/fat/carb intake and what your body does with the excess that is not burned off.

Does your body store all of the excess that it does burn off during the day or does a percentage of it get passed through your digestive system? The reason I ask is because I recently had a discussion with someone that claimed that on cheat days he eats whatever he wants and how much he wants but only on that one day and it was fine.

What do you guys think?

I am going to argue the opposite (sort of). Your body will store whatever energy surplus it has - it is not going to throw it away so to speak by letting is pass through digestion.

Using some numbers for example, lets say your daily maintenance calories are 2500 and you only eat 2000 six days per week (accumulating a 3000 deficit). On day seven you eat 5500 calories, then yes, you will negate your progress from the last 6 days (most will be stored as fat).

That said that would be huge jump in food and most would not binge that much - although I personally know a couple people who could do it.

Now on the other hand if on day seven you eat 3000 calories then you will theoretically negate only one day of weight loss BUT you get the bump in metabolism and fat gain will be minimal (because the surplus is relatively small a higher percentage should go to glycogen and muscle).

IMO if you are really serious about your progress you should count calories and PLAN your cheat day. Of course psychologically some people just want one day to eat whatever you want, which is ok, just realize that the sky is not the limit.

 

[EasyEJL]

And i'm sort of in the middle

But basically agree with both. In the end whether its a 1400 calorie surplus in one day out of the week, or 200 calorie surplus each day of the week overall your body will store it, but potentially store it differently. In a mass gain scenario, the 200 per day over maintenance is probably the better bet, where for fat loss, a single day 1400 over maintenance with the other days being 600 below maintenance works better.

but timing of it, and details are everything. As they both said in different ways that a single cheat breaks the pattern of continuous loss which often helps keep the overall loss going. And particularly if you do lowered carb on the days prior to a cheat (regardless of calories) you'll have lowered glycogen stores and as much as 1500-2000 calories of excess could be used just to refill those.

 

[deadaim]

Your body adapts at a quick rate, but not as quick as you think. Long periods of lowered calories and excercise lower fat, and long periods of high calories increase fat.

One day wont make it go any measurable distance up or down.

 

[Nitrox]

but timing of it, and details are everything.

Agreed, this pretty much sums it up.

For some things, qualitative guidelines or 'rules of thumb' are just too vague. As with many things, moderation is the key for cheat days; the problem is that sometimes you have to measure to know if you're being moderate. :icon16: