If I were to eat a thousand Snickers bars, I would put on significantly more weight than if I were to eat a thousand heads of cabbage despite the huge disparity in weight of the pre-consumed food. Where does this mass come from?

Question

Per Google:

A regular Snickers bar is 57 grams, and is good for 280 calories.

An entire head of cabbage is ~714 grams, and is ~176 calories.

Being much more calorie-dense, the Snickers bar would naturally result in greater weight gain. But where does this weight come from when the pre-consumed product is so light? Is the difference just what your body expels through heat/faeces?

In: 0

Answer 1

The cabbage has a lot of fibre that will pass through you (although this is good for your gut), and water as well that you’ll just pee out.

You don’t gain the weight of what you eat anyway. You need to process and digest it, which uses energy, and your body uses energy to heat itself, do basic processes, keep your brain running, etc.

Per gram, each macro (fat, carb, protein) has a different calorie value. It’s based on how easy it is for your body to break it down and use the components as energy. Calories are just energy.

The macros/foods might have other properties. Protein is also used for muscle building and repair.