How long does it take?

Hello!

I was just wondering how long does it take between eating food and gaining weight? I ask that because last week I went on vacations for 5 days and really overeat... When I came back I weight myself and I didn't put on. But now, a week after, I feel that I'm fatter than I was when I came back even if I'm eating normally again (around 1500 cals a day). Anyone knows?

Thanks!

Hey Smurf!

How long does it take between eating food and gaining weight?? LOL well it sounds like you're anticipating a weight gain.

Okay here's how it works. you don't want to eat more calories than you are putting out ...we all know energy coming in must be BELOW energy out if we want to lose weight. so let's say you enjoyed yourself too much on vacation and had too many calories one day ..not a problem if you ate too much once. The body is able to recover but let's say you over ate for 5 days straight...well then you're probably going to experience a weight gain but nothing that drastic. Maybe a pound or two depending on just how much over your caloric limit you went for 5 days.

Whatever extra you eat that your body does not need gets stored as glycogen first (Extra energy waiting to be used...but could be fat so it's kinda like fat in the making) You have about 8 hours to use up that glycogen before it turns into FAT. The body can handle too many calories for one day ..it cannot handle getting too many calories for a few days straight without turning the glycogen to fat and that is why so many people gain weight on vacation...they keep eating and eating and not burning enough calories.

So if you overate for 5 days and you were not running, hiking or swimming etc then some of your glycogen stores probably turned into fat. 

So the short answer to your question is you have about 8 hours to burn it before it is on your thighs and bottom :)

But if you said you weighed yourself a week later and you haven't gained then don't worry about it! If you were going to gain weight then that would have happened by now so maybe you didn't overeat for 5 days, but you just felt like you did.

Thanks workoutaddict, that's useful info!!

Actually, I weight myself tonight by curiosity and I indeed gained 2 pounds! Good thing I went backpacking and walked a lot those 5 days because I'm sure I would have gain a lot more! So I'm now back on track, lowering my cals to 1200 for the next fews days so those 2 pounds will go away (hopefully!) as quickly as they came!

no problem smurfy! Don't worry about the 2 pounds! Weight changes with water over the course of the day. Weigh yourself once a week, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach on the same day of the week to get an accurate weight. If those 2 pounds are still there well then you did indeed gain 2 pounds but oh well at least that's not a biggie!