# If I eat a pound of chocolate, how come I gain 10 pounds?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 16, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227 "2007-03-16T17:18:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/1 "2007-03-16T17:18:54Z")
I got into a VERY heated debate about this the other night. I’ve tried to find literature or data on this and can’t locate anything.
Question as posed to me: If I eat one pound of chocolate, how come I gain 10 pounds?
Basically, does 1 pound of food, any food, only make you gain, at most, 1 pound?
Also think of it this way: What if that 1 pound of that junk food had 7000 calories in it?
YES, I failed chemistry. 😉
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### Author:  [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/2 "2007-03-16T17:23:17Z")
If you gained 10 lb. it’s probably an increase in retained water.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/3 "2007-03-16T17:27:44Z")
[QUOTE=David Simmons]
If you gained 10 lb. it’s probably an increase in retained water.
[/QUOTE]
Even that to me seems a little extreme, but the bottom line is if I eat one pound of food, the maximum I could gain from eating that one pound (not taking into account factors like water retention or the effect on your metabolic rate) is one pound. It cannot physically be any more.
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### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/4 "2007-03-16T17:27:51Z")
I should clarify. I eat a regular diet, but on Monday, for some reason, I chow down on 1 pound of high calorie food. I then continue with my regular diet. By the next Monday I’m about 4 pounds heavier (I think 10 pounds is a bit of a stretch). That period of time should negate any water weight gain, shouldn’t it?
On the flip side, if I’ve gained 10 pounds in a month, does that mean that during the months I’ve eaten approximately 10 pounds too much of food?
I thought it was based on calories in vs. calories out?
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/5 "2007-03-16T17:35:07Z")
[QUOTE=EmAnJ]
I thought it was based on calories in vs. calories out?
[/QUOTE]
A pound of body weight is generally regarded to be about 3,500 calories.
A pound of _butter_ is about 3,300 calories.
If you drink pure oil, you’ll get to about 4,000 calories in a pound.
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/6 "2007-03-16T17:35:29Z")
What I’ve heard is that you will gain a pound if you eat 3500 calories over what you need for basic metabolism. Since googling tells me that a pound of chocolate is something like 2400 calories, you should gain less than a pound of fat. I’ve found that I can vary by as much as 5 pounds based just on water weight, though, so it may be hard to tell how much of the weight gain is fat storage.
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### Author:  [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/7 "2007-03-16T17:37:35Z")
Although it may be debatable, I think the theory of one pound of chocolate causing one to gain more than a pound of bodyweight has to do with insulin production. Below are a couple snippets from articles that explain it.
> [@](#):
>
> The most immediate and noticeable effect of excess insulin production is unwanted weight gain. Insulin drives fat into cells, prevents fat from being released from cells, and makes people chronically hungry. High insulin levels contribute not only to obesity, but also to the disease states associated with being overweight.
[http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/sep2004\_cover\_fiber\_01.html](http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/sep2004_cover_fiber_01.html)
> [@](#):
>
> The body experiences a sharp spike in blood sugar and releases a corresponding amount of insulin in response. High insulin is bad. Insulin decreases the sugar in your blood and in your brain. Low sugar in the brain means poor concentration, fatigue, and other problems. Insulin also is responsible for turning blood sugar into body fat so you gain weight even as your energy decreases, and insulin is also linked to the serotonin system which regulates mood.
[http://borntoexplore.org/lowfat.htm](http://borntoexplore.org/lowfat.htm)
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### Author:  [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/8 "2007-03-16T17:51:09Z")
I think you wouldn’t gain any weight after the delicious chocolate ingestion if you would just hold your breath and not drink any water ever again.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/9 "2007-03-16T17:53:42Z")
I read an answer to this once, at first I would have sworn Cecil had answered it, but I found no record in the archives. I can’t find a cite, but what I read was, you cannot gain more than a pound from a pound of food.
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### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/10 "2007-03-16T17:55:23Z")
Thanks for the article link x-ray.
So I guess one of the next questions would be is there a food that weighs a pound that is significantly more then 3500 calories?
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### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/11 "2007-03-16T17:57:01Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji]
I read an answer to this once, at first I would have sworn Cecil had answered it, but I found no record in the archives. I can’t find a cite, but what I read was, you cannot gain more than a pound from a pound of food.
[/QUOTE]
I thought their’d be something in the archives too, but my search was fruitless as well.
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### Author:  [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/12 "2007-03-16T18:04:10Z")
There are two ways to answer this question, as the above posts indicate. First, whatever you ingest ultimately can affect your appetite. This can, obviously, affect your weight. Can. Not necessarily will. Second, putting one pound of material (chocolate cake) into a bag (yourself) cannot cause the bag to become more than one pound heavier. If you stand on a scale and eat a pound of food, you can not become more than one pound heavier. Over a week, your eating habits can change, however, as a result of what you ingest. Therefore, you could be more than a pound heavier a week after eating a pound of chocolate cake, but it’s not simply the addition of cake that’s done it. We’ve had lots of threads on this topic over the years. I’d suggest searching them and reading some of the in-depth articles referenced.
xo, C.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/13 "2007-03-16T18:06:31Z")
It’s not the physical weight of the food that makes you gain the weight, but the caloric content of that food that metabolizes in your body as added weight.
Besides, it’s _how you eat the chocolate_ that dictates how many calories you will ingest. If you pop into your mouth whole chocolate chips you will gain more weight than if you eat the equivalent amount of bar chocolate. That’s because true chocolate experts break the bar first and turn it on its side for a few minutes before eating. This allows the extra calories to leak out from the broken edge before eating.
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### Author:  [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/14 "2007-03-16T18:12:13Z")
[QUOTE=Duckster]
It’s not the physical weight of the food that makes you gain the weight, but the caloric content of that food that metabolizes in your body as added weight.
Besides, it’s _how you eat the chocolate_ that dictates how many calories you will ingest. If you pop into your mouth whole chocolate chips you will gain more weight than if you eat the equivalent amount of bar chocolate. That’s because true chocolate experts break the bar first and turn it on its side for a few minutes before eating. This allows the extra calories to leak out from the broken edge before eating.
[/QUOTE]
That’s exactly why I only eat broken cookies!
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/15 "2007-03-16T18:13:58Z")
[QUOTE=EmAnJ]
Thanks for the article link x-ray.
So I guess one of the next questions would be is there a food that weighs a pound that is significantly more then 3500 calories?
[/QUOTE]
Considering pure fat totals a little over this amount, no. And I’m not sure anyone would consider a pound of canola oil “food.” Butter, maybe. Especially if you coat it in sugar and make sweet butter balls out of them. Still, those calories would add up to less than 3500 per pound.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/16 "2007-03-16T18:16:45Z")
To clarify the above post, the approximate numbers are:
Fat: 1 gram = 9 calories
Protein: 1 gram = 4 calories
Carbohydrates: 1 gram = 4 calories
Alcohol: 1 gram = 7 calories
Since all the dietary calories from food come from one of those four categories, the maximum possible would be ingesting pure fat, unless there’s a caveat I’m missing.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/17 "2007-03-16T18:21:26Z")
[QUOTE=Duckster]
Besides, it’s _how you eat the chocolate_ that dictates how many calories you will ingest. If you pop into your mouth whole chocolate chips you will gain more weight than if you eat the equivalent amount of bar chocolate. That’s because true chocolate experts break the bar first and turn it on its side for a few minutes before eating. This allows the extra calories to leak out from the broken edge before eating.
[/QUOTE]
Don’t forget that calories don’t count if you eat while standing up, while alone, while in your pajamas or directly out of the fridge.
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### Author:  [@lilflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilflower)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/18 "2007-03-16T18:29:37Z")
Nuts are very high in calories. If I did my math correctly, a pound of cashews has about 5000 calories. A pound of Brazil Nuts - about 4500.
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### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/19 "2007-03-16T18:33:07Z")
[QUOTE=MonkeyMensch]
I think you wouldn’t gain any weight after the delicious chocolate ingestion if you would just hold your breath and not drink any water ever again.
[/QUOTE]
Wrong. You would gain EXACTLY the weight of the chocolate. (Hint: It’s in your belly now)
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-eat-a-pound-of-chocolate-how-come-i-gain-10-pounds/396227/20 "2007-03-16T18:36:57Z")
[QUOTE=lilflower]
Nuts are very high in calories. If I did my math correctly, a pound of cashews has about 5000 calories. A pound of Brazil Nuts - about 4500.
[/QUOTE]
What numbers are you using? I’m getting numbers of about 160 calories per ounce on the web for cashews, or 2,560 per pound.
The calories in any given food roughly equals (grams fat \* 9) + (grams carbs \*4) + (grams protein \*4) + (alcohol \*7), so it’s not possible for any food to have any more calories than if it were made of pure fat.
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