Whenever I donate blood platelets, I feel like I’ve run ten miles. It really takes a lot out of me, energy-wise, so I feel like it must take something out of me tangibly as well.
I’ve never thought to weigh myself before and after, although I doubt that would tell me anything since they replace the platelets’ volume with saline solution and anti-coagulant.
My body reacts to the insult of getting pricked by a needle, so I imagine the immune response and adrenal rush from that would burn some calories.
Also, the blood and saline solution come back into me much cooler than 98.6 degrees (I can feel the numbness in my lips), so I’m sure I burn calories warming those fluids back up to body temperature too.
But is there any way to quantify this? How many Nutter Butters should I snarf afterward to bring me back even?
Yeah, it takes a bunch of platelets out. Isn’t that obvious?
Platelets are not an energy storage mechanism, so the overall caloric impact is probably negligible. Getting beat up in a bar fight will leave you feeling pretty tuckered out, but is there any reason to think that that burns calories?
I’m not sure the numbness in your lips is from the temperature, since it can be eased with consumption of calcium. I feel drained (ha ha) from the anticoagulant (I yawn to jaw-cracking extent when it’s going in and recover my energy after I get taken off) and you’re right that the gearing up for the pokes can exhaust you some. Only twice over a few years have I felt sick to where I had to go home.
