3500 Calories per pound of fat?

[Rootman 1,101]

I've lost over 100 pounds since last Thanksgiving. Today it occurred to me that someone out there must of divined how many calories there are in a pound of fat. When Googling it the answer I keep coming up with is 3500.

https://encrypted.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=how+many+calories+in+a+pound+of+fat&aq=f&aqi=g2&aql=&oq=

There are many days that I've lost a pound a day while eating a little less than 1000 calories a day. There is no way that I am running up a deficit of 3500 calories per day. I wasn't even exercising and the fat was melting off.

How can 3500 be right? What am I not seeing in this "formula"

[TijuanaPlication 87]

Some of it coulda been Water weight. Also carrying around 100 extra lbs is a workout in itself (that's partly why it gets harder towards the end).

[coops 1,790]

I am with you rootman... I don't get it either!! Be interesting to see if anyone can make sense of this... or is it just a case of; we are very different in the way our body works and each and every body reacts differently... such a complex but highly interesting subject.

My body, for sure, is a complete enigma!!!!

[BlackBerryJuice 349]

I think it's a nice guideline, but as we all know, weight loss and weight gain are so much more complex than that! Your BMR fluctuates every day, which is why people are able to maintain the same weight consistently even though every day we eat a little more or a little less than the day before. Then your BMR also fluctuates based on your weight; your lean body mass (fat-free weight); your recent weight changes - your body naturally tries to resist weight changes by revving up or slowing down your metabolism accordingly; whatever supplements you're taking and what you are eating/drinking - caffeinated beverages, green tea extract pills, etc; temperature of your surroundings - which is why you get so hungry after swimming in the chilly pool; etc, etc, etc. And the same for the calorie burn you get with exercise - unless you've got a heart rate monitor and have logged your weight into the machine, the calorie reading could be totally off.

Bottom line: don't worry about this too much. If you are losing, all is good; if you are not, something needs to change, that's all that matters!

[MeMeMEEE 206]

I have always heard that in terms of a week - like if you eat 3500 less in a week so 500 less a day you lose a pound in a week. So not sure how that works - but definitely makes you wonder just how many calories you were eating - I know some things will give you a days worth of calories - like a big mac - and that is just part of a meal. I know I have been guilty many times of eating something sooo full of calories - heck even a blizzard is pretty high, or a piece of cake. Soda is like 120 calories in a can, think if you cut a few cokes a day - etc. It all adds up so if before surgery you were eating 2500 calories in a day and now only 500 - that is 1500 less a day - so 3-4 pounds a week loss...

[FindingMe75 9]

If I'm not mistaken, part of the formula that's used includes the body burning calories for maintenance activities. You're burning calories sleeping, showering or watching TV. I think the idea of the 2,000 calorie a day diet is based on the notion that that's what an average person needs to replace a day's worth of calories burned. Once you add in calorie deficits, activity and fluctuations from Water weight and such, it's conceivable to have a loss of a pound a day, at least for a little while.

Congrats on losing over 100 pounds!!! I hope to join you in due time...

[Becca 108]

Great question! I have always wondered this too. Especially since I went to a wedding a couple of weekends ago out of town. I ate wedding cake, lots of my mother in laws great cooking, and we ate out at restaurants a few times. I know I was eating more than I normally do, but I didn't calculate it. Then I LOST two pounds. I just don't get it!

[AutumnLily 77]

According to fit watch at 375 lbs a person will burn approximately 161 calories an hour during sleep. At 275 lbs it is 118 calories burned an hour durning sleep. So if you sleep 8 hours that is over 800 calories burned just doing nothing. Then there is the awake hours when you are moving around and doing some form of activity.

So I can see how a deficit is produced if you are feeding your body 1000 cals you have almost burned that up sleeping.

Im just guessing here and am not a specialist. Just adding my 2 cents.

[Candace2314 117]

I took a healthy lifestyles class last summer and we actually had a formula on how to calculate all of that. Of course, I don't remember how but it makes perfect sense. I wish I could find the formula so you guys could see it. It calculates caloric intake and deficit and all kinds of stuff depending on your life style. It also lets you put in how much you want to loose in a week and it gives you how many calories you would have to burn and how many you would have to intake. It's pretty cool.

[Susanne 32]

There are many days that I've lost a pound a day while eating a little less than 1000 calories a day. There is no way that I am running up a deficit of 3500 calories per day. I wasn't even exercising and the fat was melting off.

It's 166 not 100 days since Thanksgiving, and it is not a perfect linear "per day" loss, but let's look at the whole picture:

In order to lose 100 pounds, you'd need a deficit3,500 calories per pound lost. 3,500 x 100 pounds = 350,000. That means, over 166 days, you must run up a deficit of about 2100 a day.

You started at 375 pounds and a BMI of 50.9, which means you are around 6 foot tall.

With those values, your BMR should be 3044 calories. This is resting, so even if you don't exercise, your actual daily burn is probably higher.

You said you eat less than 1000 calories a day....and voila, comes out pretty much perfectly.

3044 - 2100 = 944 calories per day!

[Luv4me 0]

Now that makes my head spin! But I get it! It's all about BMI.

Thanks Susanne

[lunarose 97]

You have to consume 3500 calories above your daily metabolic rate (what you expend) I don't know about men but the average adult woman expends between 1500-1700 a day add exercise maybe 2000 -2300 so if post sleeve she would technically lose 1/2 a pound a day but then other things come into play Water retention/loss, starvation mode, the need to dump the toxins that build up during rapid weight loss. In other words it is complicated those 3500 calories do equal a pound of fat but it works cleaner on gaining it then losing it.

[MelleyMeister 2]

I took Nutrition back in college ((ok ok wayyyyyyyyy back in college)) and learned that there are 4 calories per gram of carbs, 4 calories per gram of Protein, and 9 calories per gram of fat. 1 pound is approximately 454 grams. so if you do the math, you need to burn approximately 4,086 calories to lose 1lb of fat. I think they round it down to 3500 to take into account things like breathing, digesting, sleeping, and all those "approximately"s in there.

xoxooxoxoxox