So, I look at this bottle of lemonaid. 130 calories per 8fl oz.
That seems simple enough. But it's liquid. Why do the calories even metabolize at all? Why do they not simply get pee'd out? I understand with solid food, it's because your body takes the chewed up food, and puts it into your stomach, where it then decomposes.
But the liquid shouldn't even have time to decompose. It's liquid.
Also, I don't understand when you gain the calories. If I eat 3 of these snacks that say 100 calories, which is now 300 calories, do I gain the calories over the next few hours? Or is it delayed a day or two?
Because there will be days when I eat almost NOTHING, and then my scale says I gained 3 lbs. But then there's other days where I feel I ate like a slob, and somehow lost 2 lbs.
So I'm wondering if it's delayed as it decomposes.
Losing weight is hard, but it might be easier if I understood the rules of how this all works.
Also, do farts have weight? Like if I weigh myself, and then after that let out a massive fart, and weigh myself again, would there be any weight difference? Or is it just weightless air that FEELS like you're lighter afterwards?
Calories are a useful approximation, but not how humans actually operate. A Bomb Calorimeter burns material and the resultant heat generated is what we call a calorie. As a illustrative example of the difference - gasoline is very calorie dense, but not helpful if eaten by a human.
The human body will break down all food and drink into its base components then decide what it will keep, what it will excrete (more or less). So when you consume something you "gain" it immediately (its in your system), the time until its used in the body could be minutes (like carbohydrates), hours (fibre), etc. Often the body will decide to store any excess (carbs again) for later use (weight gain).
The human body is an amazing homeostatic machine, it's trying to self regulate to optimal body composition. The trouble is lots of modern western food messes with the bodies ability to self regulate..... which brings us to the real topic
The big secret is hormones, don't interfere with your hormones and the body will self regulate body composition to optimal (lose weight if your obese).
[Paper] The Carbohydrate-Insulin Model of Obesity - Beyond “Calories In, Calories Out” - 2018
TLDR - Eating sugar and carbohydrates forces blood glucose levels to rise (within minutes), elevated blood glucose forces insulin to rise (to reduce blood glucose), elevated insulin forces the body to go into anabolic (gain weight) state. Basically you can't lose any fat while your insulin is high, so every time someone eats a bunch of sugar or carbohydrates with a meal/snack they are putting a 2-4 hour pause on any fat loss.
I'm no scientist but I have lost ~100 lbs of fat. But even if eating carbs puts a 'pause' on weight lose if you continue to eat in a deficit you will lose weight. Not saying your wrong but if I didn't know anything or was confused and I read your TLDR I would understand that as 'carbs = bad' that I do disagree with
Sure, a energy deficit means you body needs to be in fat burning mode. If you don't spike your glucose throughout the day you spend more of the day in fat burning mode.
Not bad so much as unnecessary. Like Alcohol isn't bad by itself if enjoyed occasionally, but some people don't tolerate it well and form chemical dependencies that can impact their health.