Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - How Much Fat Can You Gain in a Single Day of Bingeing?

Episode Date: February 15, 2018

Here’s an involable truth of nutrition science:If you eat more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight.And the more calories you eat, the more weight you’ll gain, and the more of that weight is going to be fat. That begs the question, though.Is there a limit to how much fat you can gain in, say, a single day? Can 24 hours of uninhibited gluttony really lead to several pounds of fat gain, as some claim?Well, that’s what you’re going to learn in this episode.The truth is that you can gain a large amount of fat from a single day of bingeing, but it’s probably less than you think.By the end of this episode, you’ll know how your body stores fat, how much fat you can really gain in a single day, and how to minimize fat gain if you have your heart set on plundering the kitchen.Let’s jump right in. Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my fitness book for men, bigger,, Leaner, Stronger. Now, this book has sold over 350,000 copies in the last several years and helped thousands and thousands of guys build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 3,100 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that are keeping you from achieving the lean, muscular, strong, and healthy body that you truly desire, and if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate male body, then you want to read Bigger, Leaner, Stronger,

which you can find on all major online retailers like Amazon, Audible, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. Now, speaking of Audible, I should also mention that you can get the audiobook 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which I highly recommend that you do if you're not currently listening to audiobooks. I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend doing stuff like commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth, so much more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my book for free, then simply go to www.bitly.com slash free BLS. And that will take you to Audible. And then you just click the sign up today and save button, create your account and voila, you get to listen to bigger, leaner,

stronger for free. Alrighty. That is enough shameless plugging for now, at least let's get to the show. Hey, this is Mike Matthews from Muscle Life and Legion Athletics. And in this video podcast, I want to talk fat gain. And I want to answer a question that I've been asked many times, and that is how much damage can you do in a day? How much fat can you gain if you just ate calories all day? If you had an all out blowout, 10,000 calorie day, how much fat can you gain? And I actually have good news because it's probably not as much as you think. Now you always will gain some amount of fat. If you overeat, if you eat more calories than you burn, there's some amount of fat gain that's going to occur. Now, of course, I mean, except for if you

ate five calories more than you burned, yeah, there's probably no real fat gain that's going to occur. Now, of course, I mean, except for if you ate five calories more than you burned, yeah, there's probably no real fat gain that's going to occur. But if you eat 500 calories more than you burned in a day, regardless of where those calories came from macronutritionally, there will be some amount of fat gain, but not as much as you're probably thinking. Now, after looking at quite a few overfeeding studies, so these are studies where scientists intentionally feed people more calories than they're burning. My conclusion is that, and this is just like a, this is a rule of thumb. It's not going to be true for everybody. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in a second, but generally speaking, I think about one fifth of a pound of fat gain per thousand calories above expenditure is a reasonable

assumption. So, you know, let's say you burned 2,500 calories in a day and you ate 7,500 calories and that'd be impressive. That's a binge day. You know, let's say the most fat you can probably gain from that is about a pound. And if we take those numbers and apply them to more real world circumstances, I mean, sure, binging does occur, but what occurs more often, at least what I've seen more often in working with thousands and thousands of people is a couple thousand calories over expenditure. So again, let's say you burn 2,500 in a day and you, whether it's a cheat day or a big cheat meal, you go out to a restaurant, eat a bunch of food, you end the day at 4,500 calories, right? So you're 2,000 calories over expenditure. In that scenario, let's say that the most fat gain you can probably expect, regardless of

where those calories came from macronutritionally, is probably about a half a pound. Now, you might be wondering why you've done that many times because we all have, you know, you go for your cheat meal or whatever, you go to a restaurant, just eat a bunch of stuff. And then you wake up four pounds heavier. So what's happening? If you only, if you only can gain about a half a pound of body fat from that, where are the other three and a half pounds coming from? And the simple answer there is water and glycogen because these cheat meals, or sometimes it's cheat days, the cheat foods, the stuff that tastes really good generally is carb dense.

So we're talking about a lot of carbohydrates and we're also talking about a lot of sodium, especially with restaurant food. When it comes to salt in cooking, the rule is you want to be using a lot of salt. Meals should generally be salted right up to the point where if you keep going, it just becomes too salty. There's a sweet spot right below that where you just get maximum deliciousness. And that's what, you know, what's what you get at restaurants, generally very high sodium meals. And when you combine a lot of carbs with a lot of sodium, and of course you're also drinking liquids and eating, there's liquid in food that we eat, that results in a lot of water retention.

And you've probably seen that because you get the four pounds of weight gain overnight and you freak out and maybe you really, really cut your calories the next few days and really cut your carbs. So you eat a lot less carbs and also your sodium intake naturally comes down unless you just salt the shit out of everything all the time. And then, Oh, look at that. You know, the more or less all of the four pounds that you gained overnight is gone in a few days. That's because the body then, you know, that, that additional water and carbohydrate retention in the form of glycogen, primarily in the muscles and liver gets flushed out. So to speak, you get back to your normal levels of water and glycogen retention. And then, you know, you see again, that huge in that huge uptick in weight,

then just quickly dissipates. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. Now, another thing you should know about overfeeding is that research shows that

when we're talking about caloric surpluses, and that when we're talking about caloric surpluses, and particularly when we're talking about caloric surpluses in resistance-trained individuals, so those of us that work our muscles and that exercise regularly, not all macros are the same as far as fat gain goes. For example, there are a number of studies, four if I remember correctly, that have shown that when you're in a surplus, very high protein dieting. So we're talking about protein intake upward of like 1.7 to 2.2 grams per pound of body weight per day results in less fat gain than high protein dieting when calories are matched and high protein dieting being around one gram of protein per pound of

body weight per day. So what that tells us then is those of us that resistance train regularly, that regularly train our muscles, when we are overfeeding, protein seems to result in less fat gain than carbs or fats. I draw that distinction between resistance trained individuals and untrained individuals. So people that train their muscles and people that don't is again, we have, if I remember correctly, about four studies that show in resistance trained individuals that appears to be true, but then there are overfeeding studies and just untrained everyday normal people that shows that that is not true. That in that case, it does appear that it kind of like a calorie is a calorie as far as the surplus goes, that fat gain, whether it's overeating, overfeeding protein versus carbs versus fat, it's going to be about the same.

So how we can apply that then is twofold. One, we can continue our resistance training workouts and we're going to be overfeeding. So take the holidays, right? We know we're going to be overfeeding. Continue training your muscles. Even if you can't necessarily get into the gym or do your normal routine, if you can just do body weight stuff every day, whatever you can do, if you can go, let's say your normal routine has you in the gym three, four days a week, maybe five, six days, who knows. If now you can only get into the gym, maybe one day a week, you could do a full body workout. Let's say two days a week, then I'd recommend either two full body workouts or maybe an upper and lower. If you really want to push more intensely, an upper and lower is going to be better for that. And if you can't even get to the gym at all, you can do something. You can

do pushups. You can do all types of body weight squat variations. Even stuff like pistol squats are actually quite difficult. You can do split squats. You can get a simple pull-up bar and do pull-ups. There's a lot you can do, or maybe even you have a TRX. Just again, if you can do something to continue training your muscles, you are going to gain less body fat, not just because of increasing energy expenditure, but also because of something called nutrient partitioning. So basically you are giving your body other things. I mean, this is, again, this is a simplification, but you're giving your body things to do with the calories that you're eating other than just store them as body fat. So that's the first tip is when you're going to be overfeeding, continue your resistance training

workouts. And the second tip is if you can, if it's worth it to you in terms of enjoyment, because obviously most overfeeding just comes down to eating delicious food. If you enjoy overfeeding on protein, so if you can get just as much satisfaction out of eating, let's say, you know, a big hunk of meat as, as, you know, a pie or something like that, then, then go for the high the high protein over the high carb and the high fat. That also is going to reduce fat gain. Another little tip is to keep your dietary fat intake as low as possible when you're overfeeding, if you want to minimize fat gain. So again, I'm assuming that you want to minimize fat gain. Maybe you don't care. And I understand there are, I usually don't go for stretches over the holidays. Like I'm not going to go for three weeks saying, I don't care how much fat I gain. I'm just gonna eat everything. I'm not that much of a foodie anyway, but there are definitely meals where if it's like Thanksgiving or if it's, you know, one of a few Christmas dinners that, that my family and extended family has,

yeah, I'm just going to enjoy myself and I don't care. You know, again, I know that what's the worst that could happen, uh, from, from this one meal, a half a pound of fat gain maybe. And that's like eating myself until I'm in pain. Oh, well, but when I want to minimize fat gain, uh, keeping my dietary fat intake as low as possible helps tremendously because pretty much all of the dietary fat that you eat gets stored as body fat. And this again has been shown in overfeeding studies. And that's one of the primary reasons we need to eat dietary fat is to replenish our body's fat stores, which are being tapped into every single day. Unless we were literally just to be eating food

all day, our body does have to go to our body fat for energy when it runs out of energy provided by food. And if it didn't have a way to replenish that body fat, of course, eventually we would run out of body fat and we would die. I mean, again, you can find this in studies where there's a point where if you lose too much body fat, if you get too lean, you die. You have like a heart attack and that's the end of it. So you need to have a certain amount of body fat just to have your body function properly. Body fat is an organ. It is involved in production of hormones. It's not just an ugly, greasy flesh that we want to have as little of as possible. And so coming back to dietary fat, that is one of the primary roles is to be stored

as body fat. And it doesn't cost very much energy to store dietary fat as body fat because it's chemically very similar. Whereas carbohydrates, for example, are chemically very different than body fat. And therefore your body needs to process the carbohydrates to turn them into a very different type of molecule. That's known as de novo lipogenesis. And research shows that that doesn't really happen much. Like you need to eat a shit load of carbs, or there are certain health conditions where actually DNL levels are, are, are much higher than usual or much higher than normal. But under normal circumstances, your body is not converting, uh, much not converting much of the carbs that you're

eating. Very little, if any, actually are being converted into body fat. Your body is relying mainly on the dietary fat for that. Now, studies do show though, if dietary fat goes too low, then DNL ramps up and that your body then goes, well, shit, we need more of these fatty acids to survive, to continue functioning. We need more. We're not getting it through diet. What are we going to do? All right, let's take more of these carbs and let's make fatty acids out of those. It costs a lot of energy. It's not a very efficient process. Studies show it can cost up to 40% of the energy contained in a gram of carbohydrate just to process and turn it into body fat. But the

body's going to do what it has to do, right? And so then this is why if we're looking at just a single day, and again, this has been confirmed in overfeeding research, that if you look at a single day or even a single meal, that a high carb, low fat meal, let's say it's just a thousand calories, high carb, low fat results in less immediate fat gain than a high-fat, low-carb meal. Again, let's peg it at a thousand calories. That has been proven a number of times in overfeeding research. And so we can use that. If we are, let's say, we're planning a cheat meal or cheat day, or we're going to go to a restaurant or something, we can just be cognizant of that. And we can decide, hey, if I don't mind just eating a bunch of carbs here and keeping my fat intake low,

I know that that's going to minimize fat gain. And that's it. That's, I think, everything that you need to know about overfeeding and fat gain. At least those are the practical highlights. And those are really the key takeaways that you can use to minimize fat gain when you are overeating or just not worry about it. At least know that, you know, it's not that bad and it's pretty easy to undo. Even if you have a really bad weekend and you gain a couple pounds of fat over the weekend. Okay. You know what I mean? So what? So you cut for 10 days, let's say 10 to 14 days and it's completely undone. Not a big deal. And again, just to summarize what we

covered, it's one that when you are overeating by a significant amount, you are going to gain some amount of fat regardless of where those calories come from macronutritionally. And two, a good rule of thumb in terms of how much fat you can gain is about a fifth of a pound per 1,000 calories you are over your caloric expenditure. And three, if you really want to minimize fat gain when you are overfeeding, continue doing your resistance training workouts and try to eat a lot of protein and a lot of carbs while keeping your fat intake really as low as you can and still enjoy yourself. keeping your fat intake really as low as you can and still enjoy yourself. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful.

And if you did, and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out.

All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously, though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead, I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my fitness book for men, Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. Now, this book has sold over 350,000 copies in the last several years and helped thousands and thousands of guys build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 3,100 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that are keeping you from achieving the lean, muscular, strong, and healthy body that you truly desire, and if you want to learn the

simple science of building the ultimate male body, then you want to read Bigger, Leaner, Stronger, which you can find on all major online retailers like Amazon, Audible, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. Now, speaking of Audible, I should also mention that you can get the audiobook 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which I highly recommend that you do if you're not currently listening to audiobooks. I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend doing stuff like commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth, so much more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my book for free,

then simply go to www.bitly.com slash free BLS. And that will take you to Audible. And then you just click the sign up today and save button, create your account. And voila, you get to listen to Bigger, Leaner, Stronger for free.