Is there a maximum calorie intake your body can handle?

Ok, this might be a little weird, but bare with me.

We always ready about the people that diet fine, lose weight etc, and then they have a fun cheat day, consuming 4000 calories or so, and it doesn't really weight into their weight loss program.

To make my question short, I am wondering if there is a maximum amount of calories your body can handle say in a day. Meaning, say for one person that amount is 3000 calories that the body can store in fett cells, and anything else that person eats during that day will just be passed through the body without being touched.

 So if you burn 2000 a day and your body can, say, handle 3000, it doesn't matter if you eat 3000 or 6000 calories that day, you still only store 1000 extra calories and the rest goes right back out your system.

Has anyone ever heard about this? I haven't read this anywhere, so don't quote me, it's just a thought that's been floating in my head, and I am trying to figure out if there is any validity to it.

Haha I could be wrong but I don't think that would work.. if that was the case everyone who overate would gain weight at the same rate. Any excess calories your body doesn't use is stored as fat. I don't think there's much of a limit to how much you can gain in a day but the limit would be your stomach and how much you can fit in it!

laur2nmae is right.

Your body starts digesting the food as soon as it hits your tongue, so even if you ate to the point where the food was passing straight through you (or came back up - ew), your body would still have absorbed something from the food.

There is a limit to how much fat your body can metabolize in a day, but unfortunately, there is no limit to how much your body can store.

And as a side note, "cheat" days should be more like "maintenance" days, not 4000 calorie gorge fests. As fun as it sounds, it's not a good cycle to get into.

Oh, I know.

My diet includes off days, on sunday, when I won't count calories, and I allow myself to just eat how I feel. That doesn't mean, though, that I will eat three bags of chips and a pack of cookies, that would just be stupid.

However, digesting the food and storing it in fat are two different things, so if we would say someone eats 15,000 calories, that would be over 2 pounds instantly, is that all going to be stored in fat?

You're wrong, ladies..

If you eat too much to burn at once and your body can't store all the food as fat, it just won't be digested. Well.. it may sound disgusting.. but have you ever ate more than 4000 kcal a day and looked what's on the toilet then..? Don't try it, I can tell you - undigested food..

The title of this thread is calling me out like a challenge!

i didn't mean for that to be blank. i tried deleting it by erasing it, but it just didn't quite work. sorry!

Original Post by erwilka:

You're wrong, ladies..

If you eat too much to burn at once and your body can't store all the food as fat, it just won't be digested. Well.. it may sound disgusting.. but have you ever ate more than 4000 kcal a day and looked what's on the toilet then..? Don't try it, I can tell you - undigested food..

 Interesting.  I would not have expected that this is the case.  I would have thought that everything you eat has to be processed, and if your body cannot process so much, then of course you become full and cannot really eat any more, until your body has had time to process.  This is just my uneducated logic though, so couldn't be sure if that is right.

I'll put a little insight from my research.. and give you a bit to think about.

Calories I've found aren't cut and dry - when it pertains to our bodies burning them.     

But, the original poster is correct.  The more you eat the less your body absorbs the calories.  Keep in mind that everything you eat goes into your stomach and all becomes a mixed in.  As you experience bowl movement, then your body does not absorb all of the calories you've intaken (it doesn't have time) - usually here is where you experience indigestion or constipation.   

It's equivalent to dehydration.  You can't go and drink 1 gallon of water to rehydrate.  You'd have to drink 10 glass of water spread out throughout the day.

My estimate, is that your body can only absorb about 50% over the calories to maintain your weight.  

Quick example.  If you are 6'0" and weight of 210 lbs, You should eat around  2500 calories a day.  But you eat 4000 calories one day.  Essentially your calories for the day should be 3725.  Hurray, you just beat the system by 275 free calories...ugh nope besides heartburn, constipation, indigestion, etc.....Let's remember that 3,725 are just enough calories to maintain the weight of a 6'0" 375 lbs. sedintary man.  

Original Post by erwilka:

You're wrong, ladies..

If you eat too much to burn at once and your body can't store all the food as fat, it just won't be digested. Well.. it may sound disgusting.. but have you ever ate more than 4000 kcal a day and looked what's on the toilet then..? Don't try it, I can tell you - undigested food..

 From personal experiance I can tell you this is wrong, or at least for my body. I have had a day of binge eating where I consumed around 10,000 calories. It stayed on my body as two pounds, which would be pretty correct as my burn is usually between 2500 and 3000 calories a day.

Also, the toilet was no different the next day either....unless I consumed say a whole container of nuts. That was never a nice morning after.

I do agree that calories are not cut and dry. I've lost pounds quickly but just reducing carbs and cutting out sugar on the same calorie numbers.

I agree with the idea that there is no "set" behavior for absorption. I think it would be difficult to determine because everyone would vary based on so many factors (how much you exercise, your eating habits over the previous few days, genetics, etc.)

However I have heard of studies that claim that one isolated binge won't contribute to a gain in fat, so I guess erwilka is right in that your body probably wouldn't have time to absorb everything from an excessive binge.