By ‘weight gain’ I mean weight that would be retained once the food/liquid has passed. So muscle mass and fat gained.
(Simplified) The upper threshold of weightloss is calories in calories out. If I eat nothing in a day I will lose the amount of weight my body burned. Approx 3500cal/lbs.
What is the upper threshold of weight gain? I presume my body can only produce so much muscle and store so much fat in a given time period. If I managed to stuff 35,000 calories down my gullet, I wouldn’t gain 10lbs. Most of it would pass unused.
In: Biology
So you are correct, in that even if you were to stuff twenty pounds of food in you, you would not gain twenty pounds. As to how much you can gain depends on a variety of factors such as sex, age, gut health, physical size of your intestines, the type of food you’re eating, and your metabolism. Because of all these factors, it’s hard to pin down an exact number. However, from what evidence we do have, it appears that the human body maxes out at gaining more than five pounds per day. And even that is not sustainable, but more of a one off thing.
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