3500 calories=1 pound...

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
3500 calories=1 pound...
6
Fri, 03-25-2005 - 9:24am

of what?






iVillage Member
Registered: 03-11-2004
Fri, 03-25-2005 - 9:37am

there are 3500 calories of energy in a pound of fat. you have to burn an extra 3500 calories beyond what your body takes in, and then your body will have used up a pound of stored fat to fuel that extra 3500 calories. if you lose weight healthfully it will be all fat, not muscle. the body doesn't burn muscle unless it has to.


if you add extra calories AND you

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Fri, 03-25-2005 - 10:13am
That makes sense in a lab way.





iVillage Member
Registered: 03-11-2004
Fri, 03-25-2005 - 10:59am

i don't think it's a generalization. i'm sure the 3500 number is rounded, i'm sure it's not EXACTLY 3500, but i don't think it's something that varies from person to person. i think it's

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Fri, 03-25-2005 - 3:12pm
It varies in that I can take in fewer calories and gain weight and that someone who is naturally thin takes in more calories and their bodies account for it and don't gain as quickly.





iVillage Member
Registered: 03-11-2004
Fri, 03-25-2005 - 3:41pm

no one said that your body would treat 3500 calories eaten as a pound of fat. all i said is that the body stores extra energy that it eats but doesn't use as fat and when it gets 3500 of extra energy that it has no current use for, that will manifest itself as fat cells that collectively will weigh a pound. for one thing, we haven't even considered the fact that it takes energy to create fat from sugar, so that eating 3500 calories of different foods is going to result in different amounts of net energy being stored. it's impossible to figure out exactly how many calories a given person would have to eat to gain a pound.


but none of that is important. the important thing is that each person needs to burn about 3500 extra calories beyond what they eat to lose a pound of fat and we can use that fact to get a general idea of what to expect from our efforts at reducing calories and increasing exercise. no, it's not as easy as just eating 3500 less calories per week or getting on the treadmill every day until the machine says you've burned a total of 3500 calories. that's obvious just from our own experiences here on the board.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Fri, 03-25-2005 - 4:25pm
It always made sense theoretically which is why I always quoted it.