WEIRD QUESTION - weight of food in your stomach..

Okay this is a weird question (that forces me to admit I probably weigh myself too much) but I want to know...

Can you gain more weight than the weight of the food itself...I hope that makes sense?

For example, if I eat a sandwich and weigh 122 with it in my stomach undigested...if it was a very fattening sandwich could I really go any higher than that (pretend there is no sodium).

The answer to this won't change my behavior in any way..I'm just kind of curious..

haha. re-reading this I feel crazy for asking. any opinions?

Original Post by ilovedietcoke:

Okay this is a weird question (that forces me to admit I probably weigh myself too much) but I want to know...

Can you gain more weight than the weight of the food itself...I hope that makes sense?

For example, if I eat a sandwich and weigh 122 with it in my stomach undigested...if it was a very fattening sandwich could I really go any higher than that (pretend there is no sodium).

The answer to this won't change my behavior in any way..I'm just kind of curious..

haha. re-reading this I feel crazy for asking. any opinions?

You question is very confusing, not 100% what you mean. If you eat a sandwich and then weight yourself you are going to weigh what you weigh plus the weight of the sandwich. It's not going to be much but it will be just a little bit.

In order for you to gain fat from that bad sandwich your body has to digest the sandwich and then store fat from that is creates from the sandwich it all depends on how your body process the food and what it does with it.  Does this help?

No you can't. You will weigh the same whether you are holding the sandwich in your hand or in your stomach. Don't forget to factor in the water you drink with the sandwich, though. =)

I think it depends.  You won't gain more weight than the sandwich just from eating the sandwich, but I believe that what's in the sandwich may make you retain more weight than the sandwich.  For example, some foods may make you retain more water since your body needs it to digest the foods.  In those cases, you would gain the weight of the food (at least temporarily) as well as retain the weight of the water or gain weight when you drink water (temporarily).  I'm not a scientist though, so that's just my guess.

Thanks everyone. I forgot about the "fat storing". all of that makes sense. I guess I just have gotten so tuned into calories in / calories out, that I sort of forgot the whole process of what really happens.

I know it was confusing, I was just wondering if I got on the scale after a horrible huge meal, but the number I saw was not bad, if I could assume that things wouldn't get any worse.

Now that I think about it, there really are too many factors to think about it this way...considering if I was particularly dehydrated OR bloated at the time that could really throw it off.

solution : I need to stop weighing myself after meals and stick to once a day. agh.

I, 9 times out of 10, always weigh 3lbs more at night than in the morning. If I weight at night I can know what my weight will be the next morning.