Hypothetical question

#1

Talking calories here simply for ease. Maintenance is based on 2500 calories/day.
If one consumes 1000 calories protein, 100 calories of carbs and 3000 calories fat, what happens to to excess fat? My understanding is that it normally is not stored. Just passes through? Or fat is processed and protein is stored?
All things being equal, can one overeat fat?

(Allie) #2

250g protein, 333g fat… too much food will lead to fat gains regardless of where the macros sit.

(Stickin' with mammoth) #3

My understanding is that, so long as your digestive system is working properly, any calories in excess of what you need at the moment are stored. So, yes, you can overeat any of the macros but satiety signals usually nip this in the bud so long as you don’t eat too fast, under stress, or under the influence. Alcohol has a way of making snacking go nuclear.

I’ll let the others wrestle with gluconeogenesis for you because I’ve heard both takes–that it only happens when the body needs the glucose and that it happens automatically above a certain threshold that varies from person to person. I’m hoping it’s the first one because it’s far less annoying.

(Carl Keller) #4

Overeating fat and protein will probably lead to some weight gain but those macros don’t affect us like carbs. To emphasize, I will point out the Sam Feltham experiment where he ate LCHF to the tune of 5794 calories per day for 21 days. He ended up gaining a very modest amount of weight:

If a calorie is just a calorie when it comes to eating food, over the 21 days I should have put on 7.3kg ending up at 92.9kg from my starting weight of 85.6kg. However, after a 56,654 calorie surplus over the 21 days I ended up putting on 1.3kg ending up at 86.9kg, a relatively large discrepancy to say the least to the tune of 6kg. I also measured my waist which started off at 79.5cm and I ended up at 3cm less at 76.5cm. Not exactly congruent with the linear weight gain and waist increase the calorie formula shows in my results graph and photos below.