If to gain 1 pound (450 grams) you need to eat 3500 calories over your maintenance, how does it make sense that eating 400 grams of straight oil (which is 3536 calories) leads to a 450g gain which is more than the weight of excess food Where does the roughly 50 extra grams come from?

Question

If to gain 1 pound (450 grams) you need to eat 3500 calories over your maintenance, how does it make sense that eating 400 grams of straight oil (which is 3536 calories) leads to a 450g gain which is more than the weight of excess food Where does the roughly 50 extra grams come from?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Others have directly answered your question but I want to give you some more context as well. The stat that eating 3500 calories over your maintenance level will add 1 pound to your body is just an *average*.

The individual, their diet, their exercise, their metabolism, what time of day the food was eaten, rather their body is in a caloric surplus or deficit, and of course the type of food that is eaten, all effect the true amount of weight a person will gain.

3500 calories = 1 pound is an averaged guideline, not an absolute rule.