Food and Weight Gain

[Toby Warren]

OK, not sure where else to put this question. It's been bugging me for a while so I hope that one of more scientific minded members can help me out.

Is it possible to put more weight on than a portion of food weighs?

So for example if I drink 1L of water I will weigh 1KG more than before (for a while anyway).

Are there any foods that add more weight to the human body than they actually weigh?

Thanks for humouring me.

 

[Jacko]

No. MSF

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

Imagine an emoticon of Antoine Lavoisier banging his head against a wall.

" Pah!! Bloody Eeenglish! All zoz years of weighiiing reagents verrry carefullyyyy's and for what? I don't know why I bozzered!

 

[Dixie]

I'm not sure what you are asking. Clearly, with the litre of water = 1kg, that's a given and ditto for anything else. Ingest 1kg of plastic, you'll be 1 kg heavier. Ditto with carrots or anything else.

But are you perhaps asking whether ingesting an ounce of super-concentrated high-energy meal substitute might cause you to gain more than an ounce in either fat or muscle? If so, I imagine that may have a difference answer (though I don't know). I am told that a cucumber requires the expenditure of more calories to eat it than it contains, so if you eat ia given value by weight, you should lose weight but only once you've shat out the cucumber). Is that the sort of thing you are getting at?

 

[winchesterref]

Not directly, but different foods will cause greater water retention and therefore affect weight in that way, ditto with naturally diuretic foods and water loss (although countered by weight of food intake)

 

[Toby Warren]

I'm not sure what you are asking. Clearly, with the litre of water = 1kg, that's a given and ditto for anything else. Ingest 1kg of plastic, you'll be 1 kg heavier. Ditto with carrots or anything else.

But are you perhaps asking whether ingesting an ounce of super-concentrated high-energy meal substitute might cause you to gain more than an ounce in either fat or muscle? If so, I imagine that may have a difference answer (though I don't know). I am told that a cucumber requires the expenditure of more calories to eat it than it contains, so if you eat ia given value by weight, you should lose weight but only once you've shat out the cucumber). Is that the sort of thing you are getting at?

Spot on. Are there any 'reverse cucumbers'? (Dickie no photos)

 

[Jacko]

Not directly, but different foods will cause greater water retention and therefore affect weight in that way, ditto with naturally diuretic foods and water loss (although countered by weight of food intake)

That's the weight of the water, not the food you ate.

 

[winchesterref]

That's why I said not directly

 

[andyscott]

I think I have wasted a couple of minutes of my life trying to work out WTF this thread is about.

 

[SimonSmith]

*paging DrStu*

*DrStu, courtesy phone please*

 

[Wert Twacky]

When asked for your weight, always in the morning when you've had a dump, a pee and are probably dehydrated a tad.

Works everytime!

 

[TheBFG]

When asked for your weight, always in the morning when you've had a dump, a pee and are probably dehydrated a tad.

Works everytime!

Trust you!

 

[DrSTU]

OK, if I understand your question you're asking

"If I weigh 100kg and eat 1kg of food can I weigh more than 101Kg?"

Yes and no.

no

Simple conservation of mass says that you cannot gain more than you consume. In your example you drink 1L of water. Density of water is 1g/ml so you consume 1kg and you weight would increase to 1kg. Consuming a hyper/hypotonic solution would alter the density, so you'd gain differently. Same for food.

yes

The body isn't a closed system (obviously) and there are lots of metabolic factors. So using your 1kg of food you can make some assumptions:

Carbohydrates and proteins contain approximately 4KCal per g (3.7 and 4 respectively), lipids 9KCal per g, alcohol 7KCal per g.

So if you ate 1Kg of sugar you'd consume 4,000Kcal, 1Kg of protein 4,000KCal and 1Kg of lipids 9,000 KCal. In order to gain 1Kg of mass you need to take in ~7,700KCal (3,500KCal per lb).

So, in your example, if you ate 1Kg of lipids you would weigh 101Kg but assuming no metabolic expenditure you'd gain (9000/7700=1.17) 1.17Kg ultimately.

Obviously it's far more complicated than this but it's a good jump off point.

 

[FlipFlop]

I think what DrStu is saying is that Energy must be conserved, not mass. So if Energy were to be converted into Mass via an efficient method (no loss outside of this) then you could weigh more.

 

[barker14610]

If you eat food that you are sensitive to or continually pound your body with GMO food there is a chance that you could retain more water each day and give the illusion that's what you're eating is giving you a greater weight gain then it actually is.

Exactly. Eliminate GMO food and you will feel a million times better.

 

[Toby Warren]

Thanks Dr Stu

What's GMO food?

 

[winchesterref]

Genetically modified

 

[Decorily]

OK, if I understand your question you're asking

"If I weigh 100kg and eat 1kg of food can I weigh more than 101Kg?"

Yes and no.

no

Simple conservation of mass says that you cannot gain more than you consume. In your example you drink 1L of water. Density of water is 1g/ml so you consume 1kg and you weight would increase to 1kg. Consuming a hyper/hypotonic solution would alter the density, so you'd gain differently. Same for food.

yes

The body isn't a closed system (obviously) and there are lots of metabolic factors. So using your 1kg of food you can make some assumptions:

Carbohydrates and proteins contain approximately 4KCal per g (3.7 and 4 respectively), lipids 9KCal per g, alcohol 7KCal per g.

So if you ate 1Kg of sugar you'd consume 4,000Kcal, 1Kg of protein 4,000KCal and 1Kg of lipids 9,000 KCal. In order to gain 1Kg of mass you need to take in ~7,700KCal (3,500KCal per lb).

So, in your example, if you ate 1Kg of lipids you would weigh 101Kg but assuming no metabolic expenditure you'd gain (9000/7700=1.17) 1.17Kg ultimately.

Obviously it's far more complicated than this but it's a good jump off point.

Thats plenty complicated for me so if its all the same I wont be jumping off!!


By the way.....if a person loses weight where does the weight go...ie; does the planet get any lighter?

 

[Dixie]

By the way.....if a person loses weight where does the weight go...ie; does the planet get any lighter?

It does - but the fundamental laws of physics agree that there is still the same amount of "stuff" in the universe.

If you burn the Amazon rain forest (or as much of the Sydney hinterland as will burn), then the weight of the wood no longer weighs on the planet, which is thus lighter. However, the gases of the Earth's atmosphere have become laden with pollutants that were not previously there, and if you were to weigh those gases before and after, you'd find they were heavier now - though not necesarily by the same amount as the Earth had become lighter.

Just my take - probably worth noting that I gave up physics at 15.

 

[Browner]

Thanks Dr Stu

What's GMO food?

Genetically modified

Why isn't it simply GM food?