Nutrition Question

[Jethro]

The body does not engage in nucleosythesis, so all we need is the law of conservation of mass. The change in mass of your body will be equal to the mass taken in (i.e. the mass of the food) minus the mass that leaves (i.e. the mass of feces).

 

[Thumper]

Color me confused, but...

I thought the only calorie-producing food components were carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, with calorie/gram values of 4, 4, and 9 (respectively). How can sunflower oil have 14% more calories per gram than pure fat?

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Color me confused, but...

I thought the only calorie-producing food components were carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, with calorie/gram values of 4, 4, and 9 (respectively). How can sunflower oil have 14% more calories per gram than pure fat?

Wouldn't fat have celular material that wouldn't yield energy when burned?


However, 14% sounds high..

 

[Dr. Imago]

Someone PLEASE re-read my posts on page one. Additional mass does not "magically appear" out of thin-air. We don't "nucleosynthesize", but we do make nucleic acids via nucleic acid synthesis. THIS PROCESS REQUIRES ENERGY!

Again, I think this is what happens and confuses people, like CJW's wife, into thinking they've gained more weight from a single food item than the food itself weighs. Here's a point-by-point example:

1) Person eats small bag of dry potato chips. Potato chips very salty (electrolytes, namely sodium and chloride).

2) Potato chips digested. Electrolytes enter blood stream.

3) Osmolarity of blood shifted. Interstitial and intracellular fluid shifts into plasma compartment to compensate. Thirst center in hypothalamus stimulated.

4) Person drinks large amount of water. Osmolarity in plasma equalized. Water equalizes among fluid compartments.

5) Additional retained water weight adds to overall weight of person.

6) Person falsely thinks eating 8 oz. of chips made them gain 2 lbs. due to caloric value, when actually it's due to increased water weight.

7) Kidney eventually compensates, via complex mechanisms, to flush extra electrolytes. Takes time.

That's it. It's just that simple folks. This is why our weight normally fluctuates a few pounds from week to week. Forget confusing the issue with basal metabolic rates, exercise, thermic effects, etc. You cannot, I REPEAT, cannot gain MORE weight from a food product than the food product itself weighs, unless you account for the additional water weight.

Are we clear?

-TT

 

[BillyJoe]

Forget about your posts on page one TT, what about the actual first reply in this thread.
That surely should have benn the beginning and end of it

Add in the weight of the fluid you drink, CJW, and you are correct

 

[Crossbow]

A Correction is in Order!

Sorry about the delay, I was wanting to compose and post this data earlier, but an IT crisis has kept me rather occupied for the most of yesterday and today.

Anyway, myself and others, have made several posts concerning the issue in this thread concerning, which is essentially "Can a person gain more weight from food than the food actually weighs?".

I originally answered "Yes: provided that the food consumed has more than enough caloric content to sustain life functions and increase the mass of the fat cells." And I argued the validity point many times.

However now I see that I am mistaken. The correct answer is "No: since body fat is mostly water, even if the consumed food has far more than enough calories to sustain life functions and increase the mass of the fat cells, that unless water is also consumed, then the maximum weight gain will at the most equal to the weight of the food consumed." My original answer would have been correct if one could somehow absorb water into their body without actually consuming it the old fashioned way, and of course, this sort of thing is all but impossible for humans.

Sorry about the bad information I posted. That was my bad!

Thanks so much to all for your thoughts and postings! They have been most useful to me in properly answering the question at hand.