Let's say you are in pretty good shape.. work out consistantly, eat very clean and all that stuff. But, you take a full week off and drink and eat pretty much anything you want. Is there a hard number concerning a time from of which you will gain weight from this binge? Should you be expected to gain it slowly over the matter of a week or two weeks or possibly three? does bieng in pretty good shape mean you will probably gain less weight than if you were in bad shape?
I figure the more muscle you have the higher the metabolism the faster the calories burn of course.. . I understand that weight gain vs weight loss always comes down to calories taken in and calories burned. I am more interested in the rate and or time span of which the newly aquired excess calories are distributed as body fat?
Before I went on my week long binge I was sitting @ 168 lbs.. when I came back and weighed myself I was @ about 185. Now, I know alot of the weight was water retention.. I was consuming ungodly amounts of sodium and not drinking nearly enough water as I should, as well as about 3 days of that week consuming vast amounts of adult bevrages and greasy tasty foods :).
Starting the beggining of this week I got back on track with diet and exercise drinking at least a gallon of water a day and cutting back on sodium drasticly. After just (2) days I am weighing in @ 172 which basically means I gained roughly 4lbs of fat or so, give or take a half lb because I was weight training hard before I went on the binge. I am not really concerned with the newly added fat as I train very hard in a variety of activities and have an iron will for dieting. I am more fascinated with the knowledge of how quickly the body stores fat.. and as well, how the body stores fat comparable to a stagnate person from a very active athlete.
The answer probably lies in a long drawn out mathmatical puzzle made up of many variables including, genetics, exact calories consumed, which calories consumed and how active the athlete. Which means the exact answer is completely impossible without research on the particular case. If anyone has a general answer that would be great, thanx. (sorry for the ramble)