Comment by ipsento606
4 months ago
13 pounds of potatoes is about 4600 kcals. That's in the range of what an NFL athlete consumes in a day.
4 months ago
13 pounds of potatoes is about 4600 kcals. That's in the range of what an NFL athlete consumes in a day.
The problem is digesting that quantity of food, not the energy content. Elite athletes typically eat some potatoes but most of what they eat is more nutrient dense.
Seriously guys, get out your scale and weigh 13 pounds of potatoes. Could you really consume that much volume in a day without feeling sick? Let's do a reality check here.
About 6 weeks into a cross country bike tour, I spent a rest day eating all day. I think I ate 4 massive burgers and a large supreme pizza. Probably somewhere around 6000 calories.
A week prior, I ran out of food in the mountains. I finally got to a store, bought a loaf of bread, a pack of Oscar-Meyer bologna, a pack of cheese slices, two sodas, and a red bull. When I left the bench near the store, I had a few slices of bread left.
When you put out incredible amounts of energy, you can eat a fairly incredible amount of food. I don't understand where the food goes, it really doesn't feel like you should be able to eat that much volume but you can.
Those foods you ate are all more calorically dense than plain potatoes so my point still stands. It's not about the calories but the total volume of food that the human gut can process in a day. Have you seen 13 pounds of potatoes?
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I had a HS friend who was a serious swimmer (not quite Olympic level but he won state championships) and watching him eat was insane. He would eat about 3x of what we all ate. Like literally down 3 sandwiches while we had one. I think he was on a 6000 calorie a day diet. I believe the potato thing. It sure sits outside what I think I could eat, but having seen others do similar, it seems realistic.
I do weightlifting and have gone through times where I do more weightlifting and less. The body just absorbs food when you do more work. Can't tell you the mechanics but it's way easier for me to digest more food when I do more weightlifting.