The more calories a food has, the more energy it can provide to your body. When you eat more calories than you need, your body stores the extra calories as body fat. Even a fat-free food can have a lot of calories. Excess calories in any form can be stored as body fat.
Eating an excess of 3,500 calories contributes to a weight gain of roughly 1 pound of body weight, according to MayoClinic.com. As you eat excess calories, the fat accumulates inside your adipose cells causing the cells to expand and increase in size. After enough fat cells enlarge in an area, you begin to look fat.
“After about 30 to 60 minutes of aerobic exercise, your body starts burning mainly fat,” says Dr. Burguera. (If you're exercising moderately, this takes about an hour.)
Traditional wisdom claims it takes 3,500 calories extra to gain a pound of fat, but you won't necessarily gain one pound of fat in a day, it usually takes multiple days of excessive intake to increase body fat storage.
It can be useful to remember that, just as one day of dieting will not cause a person to lose weight, a day of binge eating will not cause weight gain. Although an episode of overeating can happen to anyone occasionally, some people have a binge eating disorder, which usually requires professional attention.
Binge eating is when a person eats a much larger amount of food in a shorter period of time than he or she normally would. During binge eating, the person also feels a loss of control. A binge eater often: Eats 5,000–15,000 calories in one sitting.
On the other hand, a 2,000-calorie diet would exceed the calorie needs of some people, likely resulting in weight gain. Though 2,000-calorie diets have the potential to aid weight loss, it's important to tailor your intake to your individual needs, as calorie needs vary based on many factors.
Running is the winner for most calories burned per hour. Stationary bicycling, jogging, and swimming are excellent options as well. HIIT exercises are also great for burning calories. After a HIIT workout, your body will continue to burn calories for up to 24 hours.
Foods for gaining weight quickly and safely. People who need to gain weight can often do this by increasing their intake of foods rich in whole carbohydrates, healthy fats, and protein. Examples include whole grains, dried fruit, potatoes, avocados, oily fish, eggs, and dairy products.
And if you eat fewer calories and burn more calories through physical activity, you lose weight. In the past, research found about 3,500 calories of energy equaled about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat. So researchers thought burning or cutting 500 calories a day led to losing 1 pound a week.
Your fat-burning heart rate is at about 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate is the maximum number of times your heart should beat during activity. To determine your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220.
Drinking Water Can Make You Burn More Calories
Drinking water increases the amount of calories you burn, which is known as resting energy expenditure ( 4 ). In adults, resting energy expenditure has been shown to increase by 24–30% within 10 minutes of drinking water.
"In general, muscle is not lost before fat—it is very dependent on nutrition and activity volume," Miranda-Comas says. "A person who is attempting to lose weight by not eating may lose weight in muscle first before fat."
It's better for your body to gain weight slowly than to put on weight quickly. Eating a surplus of 500 calories a day more than you burn results in a new pound of body mass per week. General rules include eating more often (five to six times per day), eat more fat and eat more protein.
It originated from researcher Max Wishnofsky, MD, in 1958, who calculated that 1 lb of fat stores approximately 3,500 kcal of energy.
“It is accurate that a pound of body fat contains approximately 3,500 calories, but a calorie deficit of 500 calories does not necessarily equal a pound of lost fat for every person,” says Gary Foster, PhD, chief scientific officer at WW (formerly Weight Watchers).
Not Eating Enough Fiber
A lack of fiber in your diet could be making you gain fat. This is because fiber helps control your appetite to keep you fuller for longer ( 33 , 34 , 35 ). One study showed that eating an extra 14 grams of fiber per day may decrease your calorie intake up to 10%.
There are some medical conditions that can drive weight gain and make it much harder to lose weight. These include hypothyroidism, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and sleep apnea. Certain medications can also make weight loss harder — or even cause weight gain.
Obesity is generally caused by eating too much and moving too little. If you consume high amounts of energy, particularly fat and sugars, but do not burn off the energy through exercise and physical activity, much of the surplus energy will be stored by the body as fat.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
HIIT workouts, which involve repeated bouts of very vigorous exercise and recovery periods, are far and away the best way to burn fat. Research indicates that HIIT workouts burn as many calories as a moderate-intensity, steady-state workout in one-third to one-half the time.
Overeating one day will not have much impact on your weight, but it will surely leave you feeling bloated. You can have an extra slice of your favorite cheesecake occasionally, but do not make this your habit. The next day, return to your fitness routine and everything will be fine.
You probably can't eat enough to gain weight with just a couple of days of overeating, but according to the website SFGate, any extra calories you consume end up stored as fat, which means if you continue to regularly overeat, it'll make it easier for you to gain weight in the long run.
A 1,500-calorie diet fits the needs of many people who want to lose fat and improve health. Like any healthy diet it should include mostly whole, unprocessed foods. Reducing excess calories and using some of the simple tips in this article can help you succeed in your weight loss journey.