If a person eats 1 pound of food (any food), can they ever gain more
than 1 pound of weight?

This is not meant to be a trick question, but always creates
controversary when asked. I believe the answer is NO.

Dear ram01-ga;

And you are right – at least initially.

One pound of cotton weights the same as one pound of lead. Both of
them weigh one pound, though their visual difference in physical
volume is readily discernible and quite different.

The consumption of one pound of food, in the immediate present, can
add up to one pound of weight but no more. The additional weight
“gained” by the food is limited only to the actual weight of the food
itself. No more can be gained beyond that amount unless the weight of
the consumed product is increased. It is the same as stepping onto a
scale with empty hands and then stepping on the sale with a half-pound
of food in each hand. The first reading is your weight alone, while
the second reading is your weight plus one pound of food.

It is the prolonged consumption of fattening foods (among other
factors) that can cause a person’s body weight to increase over time.
This, of course, is not the same if we happened to be discussing food
volume vs. body SIZE. One pound of dried fruit, for example, could
significantly expand your waistline (because most dried fruits absorb
liquid and expand dramatically once inside the stomach) as opposed to
eating one pound of meat (which does not necessarily react this way
and therefore poses a lesser threat of expansion).

So, in short, if “weight gain”, as you intend it for the purposes of
this question, means adding an actual measure of weight to the body,
one pound of food will only produce an “immediate” gain of one pound,
and no more.

If, however, the term “weight gain”, for the purposes of this
question, is meant to indicate the immediate addition of inches to the
waistline, then yes, in some instances, depending upon the absorption
properties of the food consumed, one pound of some foods can produce a
significant gain (in inches; not pounds) while one pound of other less
absorptive foods will not.

I hope you find that that my research exceeds your expectations. If
you have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by ram01-ga on 09 Jan 2003 05:11 PST

Thanks for the answer and interesting, thought provoking
comments...however the comments seem to be in response to the original
answer rather than to my question. My question only concerns weight
gain.

Can you gain more WEIGHT than the weight of the food you intake?

Thanks again.

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Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 09 Jan 2003 06:55 PST

Dear ram01-ga;

Please excuse the comments. They are merely consequential as this
forum is also open freely to visitor comments.
Non-researchers/visitors (whose usernames you will note, appear as
non-links) frequently feel the need to "weigh-in" (no pun intended) on
posted answers. They have little or no impact on the relationship
between the customer and the researcher.

Please refer to paragraph #2 and paragraph #4 of my answer, which I
feel explains my answer to your question.

Regaards;
tutuzdad-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by ram01-ga on 09 Jan 2003 07:23 PST

I am certainly getting more than $2.00 worth of information.

Would the short answer to my question be NO?

Thanks again.

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Request for Answer Clarification by ram01-ga on 09 Jan 2003 07:33 PST

Restating question:

If a person eats 1 pound of food (any food), can they ever gain more
than 1 pound of weight FROM THAT 1 POUND OF FOOD?

Yes or no?

Thanks again.

---

Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 09 Jan 2003 10:04 PST

Dear ram01-ga; 

The answer is definitely, NO.

I'm sorry to have gone on a rant, but the fee is really of little
consequence to those of us who admit to being obsessive with research.
We tend to get started and can't seem to find a place to stop.

I hope your experience in our forum has been an enjoyable one.

Regards;
tutuzdad

"One pound of dried fruit, for example, could
significantly expand your waistline (because most dried fruits absorb
liquid and expand dramatically once inside the stomach) as opposed to
eating one pound of meat (which does not necessarily react this way
and therefore poses a lesser threat of expansion)."

This isn't true. If fruit expands inside the stomach due to liquid
absorption, then the absorption causes a *transfer* of the free fluid,
thus keeping the stomach volume constant.

I'm unsure what alextron ment by transfer, but the water to digest the
pound of dried fruit would come from the blood if you drank no water
with the pound of dried fruit, so I think tutuzad is correct , that
the waste line might expand a bit. It would be hazardous to your
health to eat a pound of dried fruit without water even if you drank a
lot of water just before measureing your waistline and eating the
fruit. While water is generally not classed as food, it can increase
your waist line slightly, and your weight at least temporarilly. You
exhail consciderable water vapor when the humidity is low so I don't
think there is any simple way to test the conclusion that weight gain
is always a bit less (typically lots less long term) than the combined
weight of the food and water you injest, however I believe tutuzad is
correct. Very short term (seconds) your weight would increase by about
the weight of the food and water you injested unless you deficated or
urinated while injesting.  Neil

Well spoken neilzero. Oour friend alektron-ga is misinformed. He/she
assumes the same displacement of dried food (which also happend to be
compressed by the drying process) is equal only to the amount of fliud
absorbed. This is clearly not the case. The food, which is virtually
solid at the time of consumption becomes bloated with fluid AND gas.
This gas is produced by the reaction of the digestive acids and
enzymes. This decomposition process CAUSES the otherwise absent gas,
thus expanding the previously dried fibers and previously compressed
cavities in the food. These cavities fill with gas causing much of the
expansion. The same gases might be produced in response to other foods
as well, but being less fibrous and pocketed, the decomposing food
does not hld the gas, rather the result is usually a belch or
flatulence rather than bloat.

Expansion is merely the result of bloat, which can be so severe in
animals (in particular with domesticated farm animals eating dried
feed) that it has been known to prove fatal. I'm sure too that if
you've ever owned a goldfish, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Good call neil.

tutuzdad-ga

As has been intimated, if one eats a pound of food and consumes
nothing else, it's not possible to gain more than a pound. But if,
say, in the course of a day, one eats a pound of food and also drinks
water ad lib, then later the weight gain would vary depending on what
was eaten, and could indeed exceed a pound. Heavily salted food, for
example, would cause the retention (in some people) of more water than
other kinds of food, so the person would urinate less and retain more
water. Whereas that is not retained weight, there would be a
short-term increase on the scale above the amount of food taken in.

<B>
Non-researchers/visitors (whose usernames you will note, appear as
non-links) frequently feel the need to "weigh-in" (no pun intended) on
posted answers. They have little or no impact on the relationship
between the customer and the researcher.</B>

Other than, occasionally, to provide a correct answer.

Hi ram01!

I can't resist jumping in here, even though tutuzdad has done a
fabulous job of answering the question already. I just wanted to point
you to a nearly identical question that I answered several months ago:

 When I lose weight, where does the mass go? 
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=57797

I thought you might find the added information (and reiteration of
tutuzdad's points) interesting.

-K~