# Calories to Fat **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-to-fat/649232 "2013-02-03T17:13:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![IceQube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@IceQube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IceQube)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-to-fat/649232/1 "2013-02-03T17:13:56Z")
How are calories turned into fat? I know one pound of fat is 3500 calories … but if you drink 3500 calories worth of lard (hardly a pound) … how are the calories in lard converted to 1 pound of fat? ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-to-fat/649232/2 "2013-02-03T17:23:23Z")
> [@IceQube](#): > > How are calories turned into fat? > > I know one pound of fat is 3500 calories … but if you drink 3500 calories worth of lard (hardly a pound) … how are the calories in lard converted to 1 pound of fat? They won’t be. Digestion and metabolism aren’t 100% efficient. You need to eat more than 3500 extra calories to gain one pound of fat. (How much more will depend on your digestive efficiency and your basal metabolic rate, which both differ a bit from person to person.) ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-to-fat/649232/3 "2013-02-03T18:12:09Z")
Why would you **drink** lard?! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-to-fat/649232/4 "2013-02-03T18:22:05Z")
> [@IceQube](#): > > …if you drink 3500 calories worth of lard (hardly a pound)… There are about 4075 calories in a pound of lard, per the [nutritional information here](http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-lard-i4002). So 3500 calories in 0.86 pounds. (Have you ever opened a container of lard? I don’t think you can drink it unless you heat it up first.) Do you mean in general how are calories that we eat turned into fat? Or are you asking about the arithmetic of it? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-to-fat/649232/5 "2013-02-03T19:02:12Z")
[Previous thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=561652) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-to-fat/649232/6 "2013-02-03T20:35:11Z")
From the link, > [@](#): > > a gram of body fat contains only 7.7 calories versus the 9 calories found in pure fat. It’s easy to see that there should be a difference when you consider that body fat contains water, which has no calories. Which is basically what I was going to say: body fat is not stored as pure fat, but rather in the form of fat cells that also contain water (and some carbs and protein that are less calorie-dense than fat.) ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-to-fat/649232/7 "2013-02-04T00:02:54Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > From the link, > > Which is basically what I was going to say: body fat is not stored as pure fat, but rather in the form of fat cells that also contain water (and some carbs and protein that are less calorie-dense than fat.) That makes it sound like it could be possible to gain more weight than you consume\*, if your body needs less than 575 calories to digest and convert the lard into body fat, which sounds likely (if eaten as extra calories in addition to your normal intake). \*Only including the lard, since water and other stuff are needed to make body fat and in the end you will always eat more weight than you gain.