How Long Does It Take To Put On Weight

It may feel like you can put on weight by just looking at a cheeseburger. But it’s actually harder than you think. 

There’s 7700 calories in one kilogram of fat. So that means eating 7700 calories over maintenance calories would equate to 1kg of fat added to your body.

Well, the good news is it’s not that black and white. When we acutely overfeed our bodies do things to mitigate weight gain. This includes fidgeting more, moving more (without realising it) and a temporary increase in metabolism. This means if you do have a night where you eat a little too much, please don’t stress! It takes much more than that to ACTUALLY put on fat mass.

Read More: The Truth About Your Metabolism As You Age

So then how long would it take to put on weight? 

This all depends on you and your body, because we are all snowflakes and our bodies are all unique. But science does give us an idea of how it works.

To put on weight you would have to eat over your maintenance calories over a period of time. Our bodies don’t work on day to day calories, it works on averages over time. Which means if your weekly average calories are over the amount of energy your body needs for day to day movement/activity you will gain weight.

Here are some examples;

• You eat 500 calories over maintenance everyday for a week might equate to 500g weight gain.
• You eat 3500 calories over maintenance over the weekend for two weekends may equate to 1kg weight gain
• You over eat by 200 calories a day for a month may equate to just under 1kg.

I did say MAY in all these examples because as I said, our bodies aren’t DIRECT science when it comes to this. But I just wanted to show you how much energy is in body fat and how long it might take to put on actual weight. 

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment box below.

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 "My goal was to lose 2-3kgs while taking part in the 30 Day Slim Down Program and I lost 2.9kgs in 21 days"