Calories

leftyman

Diamond Member
Sep 15, 2000
7,076
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A hypothetical food or beverage item has x amount of calories...say 100 calories.

Does the person consuming the item actually absorb all 100 calories?

Or is that an estimate of what an average person will absorb and your actual mileage may vary?

And if it is an estimate what exactly are the variables involved?
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
52,834
5,713
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a person consumes all 100 calories. but depending on what makes up those calories tells you how good/bad it is for you.

eating 100 calories of carrots will be a lot healther than eating 100 calories of sugar.
 

FoBoT

No Lifer
Apr 30, 2001
63,089
12
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fobot.com
the digestive tract cannot be 100% efficient

putting 100 calories into your mouth X% will be absorbed in you stomach, X% in your small intestine and X% in your large instestine

i did a thread about this a few months ago and some medical dude said it was

small intestine > stomach > large intestine i think , but he didn't know what the actual percentage are

so small amount of calorie has to remain in the waste or else the digestive tract would be 100% efficient, that is unpossible
 

SLU MD

Senior member
Aug 14, 2003
471
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its not 100%, but its not 50% either, its really high, depends on food type, but close to 90%. evolution has done us well or poorly (depending on how you look at it) in this respect.

SLU M.D.
 

goog40

Diamond Member
Mar 16, 2000
4,198
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Your body will burn about 30% of the calories from protein through the process of digestion FTW.
 

DivideBYZero

Lifer
May 18, 2001
24,117
2
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Chew more and you'll absorb more AFAIK. Not the only factor, I have to qualify my statement to pre-empt the flames.