High calorie meal after a fast?

[Julie]

I need some clarification.

Through out my years of dieting, I’ve always read that the body can only use up approx. 400-500 cals per meal. So, if you eat MORE than that at one sitting, the rest of the cals get stored as fat.

Is this true or just a bunch of industry hooey?

I’m asking because I’ve read that many poeple are fasting each day until dinner. At dinner, some are having 600 cals at one shot, others have 1500 cals at one shot and they say they are LOSING weight.

How can these be if the body can only utilize 400-500 cals at a time???

Can someone please explain this? Thanks!

[Anna]

I’ve lost over 80 pounds in the past year and the vast majority of my meals are over 600 calories at one sitting so I cast my vote for bunch of industry hooey lol.

[Anna]

Just want to add eating meals smaller than 500-600 calories makes me want to die…then I wise up and decide it’s better to kill those around me lol.

No seriously though, I love big meals, I like to feel full and satisfied. Listening to the advice of only eating small meals stalled me because I’d battle hunger all day and still end up overeating. By keeping my eating in a smaller window I’m only hungry for an hour or so in the morning and at night if I stay up too late but for an 8 hour block of time, I feast. Not conventional but it works for me.

[barbara]

Different macros are used differently, carbs go to glycogen (energy), protein to repair and build muscles, fat as a back up energy source (prefered by brain). Protein can also be converted to energy. Too much of anything will be stored as fat. Food costs something to digest and the body doesn’t necessarily convert 100% if what you eat, some passes thru the gi tract. So calories eaten is not calories available. There is also a cost of storing excess as fat.

It is true that your body can only store a certain amount of glycogen, from 1000 calories to 2500 depending on size and musculature. So if you are depleted, it is logical you can eat more than the 400-500 cals in a meal and not store it. It all depends on total calories over a longer timeframe not on a meal by meal basis.

[donna]

Agreed with everything above, but to sum it up: energy is energy. Energy can’t come out of nowhere and it cannot disappear. If you give your body energy, it will use it. Calories are the unit of energy, like a pound is the unit of mass, no matter if it’s a pound of fat or muscle or feathers. A pound is a pound. A calorie is a calorie.

If you put energy in your body, it has to use it for something. It’s true that not everything you eat will be stored as fat, some will be used as building material, some as fuel for your body functions and movement, but it will be used eventually.

Also, a biological unit doesn not know what a “meal” is. What is a meal? If you eat one bite every 10 minutes, is that a day long meal of 3000 calories or is it 48 meals of ~60 calories? It just doesn’t make sense that the laws of thermodynamics or your whole digestive system will count a certain number of energy units and then all of a sudden stop working – or change its way of working entirely.

Think of marathon runners. How are they supposed to get the 4000 calories of energy they burn on a marathon day? I’ve seen marathon runners eat several meals over 1000 calories a day. Shouldn’t they be extremely fat if that was the case?

So, in my view, this doesn’t make sense at all.

[Eva]

Just ’cause it’s stored as fat doesn’t mean it gets stored forever! I’ve tried to break a fast with 500 calories and generally it’s torture. I tend to do about 700.

I don’t know about that number, just saying, just ’cause you eat more than you needed at that time. My eyes get hungry!

[helen]

ITA that the 400-500 calls are a limit of some sort. More cals are fine if they don’t make you feel like lying down in a darkened room afterwards. One of the side effects of regular fasting is that it tends to shrink up the appetite a bit so big meals may be uncomfortable.
Most of people have lost lots of body fat eating more than 500 cals after a fast. Another Diet Myth busted.

[laura]

Everyone is different and you have to find what works for you. I only tend to eat 500 or so max at a sitting but I think that is because I am a small person and don’t need as much. The only time I eat more calories than that is a rare treat, vacation, special occasion and the same amount will fill me up but it tends to be more calorie dense treat food. I get full easily and I’m just used to less volume at a sitting after doing it for so many years.

Once in a while I’ll have a meal that is more, but not often. But I don’t do it that way because I think it will make me fat, I just eat the way that is comfortable for me. I believe your calories for the day or week total is what matters and that you can divide it up however you want to.

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