stories:
Nagging Question
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If You Ate 11.3 Pounds of Food, Would You Gain 11.3 Pounds in Weight?That’s 24 Big Macs or 44 lobsters |
Sonya Thomas, competitive eating champion, weighs 98 pounds. At a contest in Maine last summer, she ate 44 lobsters, the equivalent of 11.3 pounds of meat. If you weighed her before and right after, would she weigh 11.3 pounds more?
Yes. “If you ate a pound of anything and stepped on the scale immediately, you would weigh a pound more,” says Carla Wolper, a nutritionist with the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. “But the digestive enzymes begin immediately, so that doesn’t last long.” In fact, because lobster is very low in calories (just 5,400 for those 11.3 pounds), and because the average 98-pound woman burns roughly 1,600 calories a day, Thomas would have consumed only 3,800 excess calories, which translate to just over a pound. By the next day, she probably only weighed a pound more.
Illustration by John Hersey
Wow. I've just been wondering about this question after a heavy month of dieting and frequent weigh-ins. I've noticed some really odd things. For example, I weigh exactly the same after a meal as before. I weigh exactly the same with a full bladder as a minute later with an empty one. I weigh pretty much the same first thing in the morning as at the end of the previous day. I've been paying attention to variables (such as my lean/fat ratio and h2o weight), but it seems like my body maintains a weird equilibrium between all of these. (My fat ratio is 4-5% higher in the morning -- fat is lighter than muscle -- and I've dehydrated and lost water weight too, but I still weigh the same. Any similar experiences out there? I'm fascinated by some of the contradictions this all seems to imply!
If you weigh yourself as exactly the same before eating a meal as after, then your scale is broken.
Or just not precise enough.
The reason you seem to weigh the same is that you are eating or discharging less than your scale will reliably indicate. Urination is just a few ounces. A meal is probably not a pound.
If you weight yourself, then hold a meal in your hands and weigh yourself again, you weight will increase by the amount you are holding, yes? Same thing if you hold it in your stomach.
Having been a yo-yo most of my life, I'm very familiar with the scale obsession. Now that I've stabilized at a reasonable weight, I weigh myself only once a day--first thing in the morning, after the bathroom trip, and with no clothes on. That's the number I use to refer to my weight. Much less confusing and aggravating.
I have a digital scale which registers in .2# increments. That is precise enough for me to see the differences referred to above. The old scales I had before weren't precise enough for this sort of difference to be noticeable - but it is with the digital.
The problem with scales sold for home use is not just the "resolution" (ability to register small enough units) but also with repeatability.
A scale that has a read-out in .2 of a pound ought to have a resolution of 3.2 ounces. Ought to. Probably doesn't. The National Institutes of Standards has elaborate info on what is required for scales that are "legal for trade" -- typically these scales start at about $300 for one with half pound resolution: http://ts.nist.gov/WeightsAndMeasures...
I find that if I eat an enormous meal, I end up weighing MORE the next day than the weight of food I ate, because it usually triggers me to drink a lot of water. If it's a full-scale blowout like Thanksgiving, it can register as much as 5 lbs more the next day. It doesn't last more than a day or two though.
what u ate the day before has been digested but all of that is still in your large intestine, even though you go to the bathroom, not everything comes out...
MRubenzahl "Urination is just a few ounces."
Are you kidding? Turn on the faucet to a light stream and see how many ounces come out in 5 seconds. Most women at least that long to empty a full bladder, men a lot more.
From my own period of weighing myself obsessively, I am 1/2 lb lighter by my Tanika scale after emptying a full bladder.
If you are an adult human and your bladder only holds a few ounces, please consider donating your body to the Smithsonian Institutes. Thank you.
A woman's bladder on average holds 800cc at max cap (most women have to "go" at 400cc. . 800 cc is almost 3 1/2 cups. Each cup weighs about 1/2lb.