I heard your body can't handle more than 700 cals per meal--TRUE?

Hi All,

So, I have heard a number of times that your body can't handle more than 700 calories in one sitting.  What does that mean exactly? I mean, before we all went on diets, presumably a lot of us used to eat like 1000 calories or more per meal. I myself just pigged out on udon, chap chae, california rolls and tempura. Delicious--but i ate about 1000 calories for lunch!!  I plan to counteract that by having only tuna and greens for dinner.  Not the greatest planning, but at least i will be able to stay within my calorie target.

My question is this. If the body can only handle 700 cals at one time, is the rest stored instantly as fat? If not, how does the body deal with it?  Is this 700 calorie thing even true? 

Thanks!

That's a very good question, maybe someone can do the research and provide an answer. I would be interested in knowing, or even just hearing some thoughts on it.

Hmm...I can kinda see that.  When i first started this, I read that you shouldn't eat more than 600 calories per meal.  It overloaded the metabolism.  Kinda like having a small fire going and then dumping on a crapload of wood.  Sure, its fuel, but the small fire can only handle and burn so much of it.  I wonder if there IS a calculator for how many calories your body can handle in a given time.  X minutes = Y calories.  Verrrryyy interesting.

this would be great to know. i'm always worrying if i should even out my calorie intake more throughout the day.   

i'd like to know, too. i've been known to eat that much (or more!) at
once. it probably depends on your activity level, too. 

hmmmm, but finewine does drinking count as a meal???  lol

Odds are, if you drink 700 calories of straight liqour, you might be puking it up :-P  So no...it doesnt count!

I've always heard that too and it makes sense that there is only so much your body requires in one sitting before storing the rest for later use.

I tried to look it up online and I couldn't find a set number or an actual formula. I did find an article that stated (among other stuff) "Even the biggest bodybuilders don't need more than 700-800 calories at a time." Given that information, people far from the bodybuilding status, really definately don't need  600-700 in one sitting.

Ok, I found some info, but it is about bulking up (body building).  I am guessing we could use that formula that it talks about to work for us.  Basically it says after you find the amount of calories you need for a day to take your total daily calories divid by 6 (meals) and that will give you the amount of calories/meal.


http://www.topbodybuilder.com/nutrition.htm

Another article that is talking about loosing fat suggest 5 meals/day.  Seems to be more in line with the Healthy lifestyle that is being promoted here and will be less confusing :)  Anyway once you know the calories/meal then you can break that down further as to how many should be Carbs, Fats, proteins and such.

http://www.bodylinesfitness.com/Page.html

I will keep looking to see if I can find anything more concrete.  I am guessing most of us don't want to bulk up :)

My example of my daily calorie intake: 

Total Calories/day  1506

Total Calories/meal  301 (based on 5 meals/day)

Total Protein Calories/meal 120.4  (based on 40% ratio)

Total Carb Calories/meal  120.4  (based on 40% ratio)

Total Fat Calories/meal  60.2 (based on 20% ratio)




Trish  

So, wouldn't people who eat McDonald's a lot just keel. A cheeseburger and fries is like 1000 calories, without the soda!

from what i remember, the first post is true.. yor body does store it or leave it formenting in the gut for later, hence why if you eat more later it sits on the food still trying to be digested by your por overworked enzymes and you get a icky tummy...

hope that helps

Shill, I guess eventually you will if you eat like that everyday.  Yuck!!!  I can't believe I use like that stuff.

I have been combing through alot of web sites.  Only info I have found as to why it is unhealthy to eat alot of calories in one meal is like han says.  I have seen a few places where it says your body needs to have your calories more evenly spread out so that your body will start to effectively burn the fat and not store it.  But I don't think if you load up every once in awhile that it will destroy your plan.  I guess it just boils down to moderation :)  Sometimes we just think things need to be more complex than they are.     

KIS(S)  :) 

*thumbs up at skinnywillbe* i tend to do this to stop overloading..

1,600 divided by 3 = 533 caloires per meal.

 Now if i want snacks its 1,600 divided by 3 (533) then minused by 200 (for two snacks) - whuch leaves me with  333.

• So on a day with no snacks, each meal can be 533 Cals

• On a snacking day, my 3 meals are 333 cals, and my snacks are 100 each and i can have two (a apple, simfast snack bar)

....try and do it like that!

close, han.  but that doesn't quite add up.  That would mean that on a day with snacks you'd have:

meals: 3 x 333 = 999 ~ 1000

snacks: 2 x 100 = 200

total: 1000 + 200 = only 1200!!

You need to subtract those 200 snack cals before you divide the rest by 3 for your meals, otherwise you're taking 200 off of each meal, would would mean you're calculating it for three snacks at 200 cals each! (Ah, the joy of math, eh? Using the correct order of operations can be tricky sometimes.)

You really want to have 2 x 100 cal snacks, which leaves you:

1600 - (2 x 100) = 1400 cals for meals. 

Then 1400 divided by 3 meals is 467 cals/meal.

So, on a day with snacks, you'll have two snacks at 100 cals each, plus three meals at 467 cals each.  Yay, more food! =)

EDIT: Maybe just to show this a little better... this is the calculation for your meal calories if you have 200 snack cals:

• correct:    [1600 - (2x100)]/3 = 467
• incorrect: [1600/3] - (2x100) = 333

So you see, it's all just in the placement of those tricksy bracketses.  I hope that's a bit clearer! =)

thanks for looking into this, everyone!

What do you mean by "handle"?  I don't understand the question.

I think by 'handle' they mean 'use' without storing.  As in, they heard that if you eat more than 700 cals at one sitting, your body can only 'use' up to 700 cals and has to store the rest as fat to use later.

tinamkz thanks lol you knew what i ment though ^.^" damn this dyslexia..

And how much time do you wait after your 600 or whatever cal meal before eating again? 

Also, I would not split my 3 meals evenly.  I might want a larger dinner & smaller lunch or something. 

I don't suppose it's the same for everyone anyway, but this is definitely a good thing to know. 

I would follow the no-more-than-700-cals-at-a-time rule - makes sense to me.

Found this on one site and it does make sense.

The importance of frequent meals

One of the biggest challenges you'll face on your quest to gain weight is how to gain muscular body weight without also gaining fat. There is only one way to do this; you must eat five or six meals a day each spaced two and a half to three hours apart. If you were to divide 3200 calories a day into the typical three meals that would be 1066 calories per meal; that's far too much for your body to process at one sitting. Even the biggest bodybuilders don't need more than 700-800 calories at a time. Eating smaller meals more frequently will prevent you from over-consuming calories in one sitting; it's simple portion control. More is not necessarily better; your body can only utilize so much at once. Excess calories in any one meal will always be converted into body fat.

I'm not quite ready to go to 3200 calories in a day. Don't think I ever will. I burn about 2750 on the average. I have taken to eating 5 or 6 small snacks/meals a day instead of 2 or 3 large ones. It seems to work. 50+ pounds and still dropping.


The site is a pain to read but here is the link,
http://www.trackyourdiet.com/articles/How-to- gain-lean-bodyweight--part-2--meal-ratios--me al-frequency-and-food-choices-21.aspx

Jeff wins the prize!!  Thanks, for posting this Jeff. 

Now i feel bad about eating that cookie at lunch. Hee.