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Asked by mennie13 to Helen, Mark, Stu on 24 Jun 2011.
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Helen O'Connor answered on 23 Jun 2011:
Our bodies are very good at being efficient, and when we eat a similar amount of food each day, and do a similar amount of exercise (or not), the body will gets used to the energy we put in (food), and the energy we use (physical activity), and works around that to keep our weight stable.
But, after a big meal or a big day of eating (like Xmas Day, Hannukah or Diwali) it is possible to notice that you have gained a few pounds. But this doesnt mean you have gained fat – what has happened is that the meal has not yet been processed and eliminated from your system, and your body has also retained water to digest it. A day back on your usual eating pattern would usually get you back to your normal weight.
I am not sure why we don’t lose weight when we go to the toilet but a poo is actually not as heavy as you think! Also, if you eat a regular diet, you probably go to the toilet regularly as well because your body is very efficient at processing waste. If you were constipated for a week, that might be a different story!
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Mark Burnley answered on 24 Jun 2011:
The answer is you will put on weight weing you eat (or, more specifically, increase body mass), and lose it when you go to the toilet. However, bathroom scales are not nearly accurate enough to show a significant difference. When we do experiments in hot environments, we weigh our participants nude before the experiment and nude and dry after the experiment. We also record all the food and fluid they have ingested during the exercise and use this information to calculate sweat rate – that is, how many litres of sweat do they produce per hour. Because 1 litre of water has a mass of 1 kg, we can work out fluid balance by measuring body mass – it’s much easier than trying to collect all the sweat!
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