Food

bbrap

Having walked from the kitchen to the dining room with a plate of food I had a thought (rare I know), does the actual weight of the food have any bearing on the fluctuations in my own weight? I know all about food groups, proteins, carbs etc etc, but how much does the actual weight of the food on the plate make to what the scales tell me the following morning. So if I ate on three consecutive evenings say 1lb of food, night 1 burgers, night 2 pasta, night 3 fish (say salmon), which if any would result in me retaining the weight. I know the variables are immense and that 1lb of salad being mostly water should not result in much (if any) gain. Not talking calorific values or any of the numerous ways of quantifying intake, purely on the actual weight of the stuff I'm shovelling in. Is water content the biggie or are all foods about the same?

P.S. the 1/2 bottle of red I had before these thoughts may have contributed to my inane rambling :?

veronese68

Not sure, but as I walked out the kitchen with my plate of food last night the Mrs said she hoped it was enough. Considering I could barely lift it with one hand I thought it was probably plenty.

TheBigBean

If you eat 1kg of food, you will weigh 1kg more immediately afterwards. Longer term you might need to consider how much of the 1kg leaves your body.

bbrap

TheBigBean wrote:

If you eat 1kg of food, you will weigh 1kg more immediately afterwards. Longer term you might need to consider how much of the 1kg leaves your body.

A far more succinct way of saying what I was trying to say, basically what foods do we retain the most of when measured by weight?

fat daddy

protein takes longer to digest.

BUT

Carbs and salt will make your body retain water, so you will most likely weight more the next day after eating a bowl of pasta OR a massive plate of chips.

its not the residual weight of the food, but the retention of water

TheBigBean

You need to maximise calories/kg. Walnuts are a good option (6690/kg) for this whereas celery won't help much (70/kg)

pblakeney

Cucumbers allegedly* contain less calories than it takes to eat.
*Possibly an urban myth.

capt_slog

I don't know how the biochemistry works, but I suspect you have to take into account the amount of water said food will have to take in to become store-able fat on your body. So for every gram of 'energy' you eat, you have to add x grams of water.

So, it follows that a 1 kg meal could make you more than 1 kg heavier (in body mass). You'd have to drink obviously.

bbrap

I get the feeling that all this is very complicated and I doubt that even the alleged diet experts out there (not the responders on here, the sort that waffle in the papers) actually know enough to state categorically what makes us gain weight (other than eating too much).

chris_bass

PBlakeney wrote:

Cucumbers allegedly* contain less calories than it takes to eat.
*Possibly an urban myth.

i thought that was meant to be celery but that is a myth

pblakeney

bbrap wrote:

I get the feeling that all this is very complicated and I doubt that even the alleged diet experts out there (not the responders on here, the sort that waffle in the papers) actually know enough to state categorically what makes us gain weight (other than eating too much).

Stick to eat less, burn more and you'll probably be in front of them.

Frank the tank

I was walking from the bathroom and thought "Why don't I weigh any less even though I've just evacuated my bowels right royaly?"

Stevo_666

Frank the tank wrote:

I was walking from the bathroom and thought "Why don't I weigh any less even though I've just evacuated my bowels right royaly?"

Did you remember to pull your bags down before you went?

fat daddy

Frank the tank wrote:

I was walking from the bathroom and thought "Why don't I weigh any less even though I've just evacuated my bowels right royaly?"

I am disappointed by the weight of a poo ... they just are not that heavy, especially when you consider a sub 10 second piss is ~40cl/0.4kg .... a poo is nothing compared to that

Pross

This goes some way towards answering although as always it's more complex than you'd expect http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/what-is-metabolism_n_1701547.html

My reading is that immediately after putting the food in your body will be the equivalent weight but it's basically working on a rolling basis assuming your calories in / calories out are balanced. The easiest way to tell would be to weigh yourself and your food before eating and then again immediately after eating and possibly plot a graph based on your weight every half an hour until your next meal.

capt_slog

Pross wrote:

This goes some way towards answering although as always it's more complex than you'd expect http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/what-is-metabolism_n_1701547.html

My reading is that immediately after putting the food in your body will be the equivalent weight but it's basically working on a rolling basis assuming your calories in / calories out are balanced. The easiest way to tell would be to weigh yourself and your food before eating and then again immediately after eating and possibly plot a graph based on your weight every half an hour until your next meal.

Dubious use of the word "easiest" there

rick_chasey

Pross wrote:

This goes some way towards answering although as always it's more complex than you'd expect http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/what-is-metabolism_n_1701547.html

My reading is that immediately after putting the food in your body will be the equivalent weight but it's basically working on a rolling basis assuming your calories in / calories out are balanced. The easiest way to tell would be to weigh yourself and your food before eating and then again immediately after eating and possibly plot a graph based on your weight every half an hour until your next meal.

Someone's gone and done that.

Sort of:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/the ... rue-weight

mouth

Salt doesn't help. You retain water to dilute what can essentially be a toxin, also contributing to higher blood pressure. Stop adding salt to meals - either during cooking or at the table and monitor how much you pee for the next week. Salt does have its benefits in certain circumstances but that's another conversation. After the same week you won't miss it. Cook al dente too.

Sugar: what you don't use for energy purposes within a couple of hours of consumption will be converted and stored as fat. Because its harder for the body to break down fats (especially LDL's) than is is sugar, they linger. There are many hidden sources of sugar which you wouldn't believe, something like Volvic touch of fruit or what appears to be flavoured water to you and me has something like 15g per bottle.

Pulses and red meat: the body digests neither. Pulses stay in the intestine and ferment,causing gas, which is why beans make you parp. Red meat can't be digested and essentially decomposes instead. This process can take as much as six months.

There are several foods which add little or no calories to your system as well as ways of absorbing calcium (this weeks hot topic) without taking in fats and sugars.

On top of all of this, there are about one million variables. What time of the day are you weighing yourself? If its 7am every single time, then believe what you see. If its 7am today, 3pm tomorrow, 7pm and then 7am again, itll be poppycock. The body does miraculous work while we're asleep (sleeping hours are aa massive variable). Exercise also has an effect depending on intensity, frequency and the type of exercise. If you weigh yourself the morning after a particularly intense effort and have stiff joints/muscles your body will be trying to retain water to dilute lactic acid. As an electrolyte, salt can help with this process.......

Put simply, find a formula that works for you - calorie counting, food optimising, exercise, weight loss pills (please, go to your GP not Dr google).

Back to the original question, yes what you ate today will make a difference to what you see on the scales. Personally, I weigh once a week, same time, same place, same routine beforehand. A half or a pound here and there is no matter. It'll balance next week if you're eating properly.