I always marvel at the reports I get from men and women who
claim to have gained 10 pounds over a weekend. In truth,
this is next to impossible.
It doesn't matter how much you try to pig out, you just
couldn't gain 10 pounds of fat in a weekend. Not even 5
pounds. Nor 3. Maybe 1, but no more.
So despite how much weight you worry you are going to gain
this Easter weekend, the truth is, it's tough to actually
gain pounds of fat in a weekend.
Take for example the traditional notion that there are 3500
calories in a pound of fat. To even gain 3 pounds of fat
over a weekend, you'd need to consume an extra 10,500
calories. Now that's tough. In fact, that's about the
number of calories in 19 Big Mac's.
Now please tell me you don't eat 19 Big Mac's in a weekend?
If you do, then you have trouble. Plus, that doesn't take
into account the 1500-2000 calories a normal person burns
each day. So over a 3 day weekend, you'd have to throw
another 10 Big Macs into your diet to gain the 3 pounds in
one weekend for our example. So let me know how eating 29
Big Macs in 3 days turns out.
I really hope no one tries that!
Also, take a look at this study. Researchers from Virginia
State University gave men an extra 1000 calories per day
for 8 weeks. For most people, that would be a tough
challenge to eat that many extra calories unless they were
eating all types of junk food.
By the end of the 8 week study, the men gained an extra 11
pounds. That's 11 pounds after 8 weeks of "pigging out",
not just a weekend where they went to the Outback
Steakhouse and had a "Blooming Onion".
Reference: Obesity 15:3005-3012 (2007)
What most people see on the scale after a weekend of "road
trip eating" is just an increase in fluid retention due to
the high-sodium and high-carbohydrate diet, as well as some
fat (but certainly not 10 pounds of it in only 48 hours).
So the next time you get off track with your weekend eating
and are shocked to discover that you've gained 10 pounds,
just take a deep breath and realize that is not an accurate
measurement of the real damage.
If you get off track, just focus on getting back in charge
of your nutrition, sticking to whole, natural foods, and
cutting out the high-sodium, high-carbohydrate processed
snacks. This shouldn't be too hard, because you'll probably
feel terrible from the weekend's junk food.
In addition to returning to fruits, vegetables, nuts, and
protein for your meals during the week, make sure to add
three total body resistance training workouts and 3
interval cardio workouts to help you burn fat and return to
your normal weight.
Start with a bodyweight warmup, then do resistance training
supersets to boost your metabolism, and then finish the
workout with fat burning interval training.
If you do that, you'll lose weight, not gain fat!
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