For example, let’s say that I typically consume 21,000 calories in a week. If I space that out as evenly as possible, that would be 1,000 calories every 8 hours. If I were to eat 10,500 calories in a single sitting twice during that week, would my body be able to absorb the same number of calories?
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It could, but it most likely wouldn’t affect things much for the average person. When you eat, your body senses how much is coming in and what types of nutrients. Then, signals are sent that affect the rest of the intestinal tract. Some of these signals cause your body to move stuff that’s further along more quickly, basically to make more room. In people who have certain medical conditions or who have had surgeries like stomach bypass, these signals can be a little haywire, to the point that things move through so quickly that your body doesn’t have enough time to absorb as much of the nutrients. In those cases, eating smaller amounts can dampen the signals enough so that isn’t a problem.
The simple answer is yes, the complicated answer is no. Your body does not store calories and nutrients in that way. Some calories will be turned into fat to be used later, and some nutrients are capable of being stored in the body for later use like salt. However some nutrients can’t be stored in the body long term and need frequent replenishment on a day to day basis. As well if you over load your body with food your body will likely purge some of it as it can’t process that much at once. This can lead to vomiting or diarrhea.
This also heavily depends on what macronutrients you’re consuming. Is it mostly sugar? Proteins? Fats? This will massively impact how much your body is able to process in a small amount of time.
While technically you can “live” this way, it is in no way a healthy way to eat.
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