Maximum daily caloric intake

Help...we've got a bet for .25 cents in my office among engineers.

The bet is this....Does the body have a "maximum" amount of calories that it can absorb on a given day.  

Now note..we know it would vary from day to day and person to person.

The situation would be...if a person chose to gorge themselves on one day and took in let's say 30,000 calories...what does the body do?

I say there is a line in the sand for that day and when it is crossed the body simply sends the food on out through the intestines or it could be thrown up.

[eskiemama]

I'm not sure what the maximum amount for anyone's body would be. But I do know that if I ate 30,000 calories in one day I could guarentee that I would be throwing up the rest of the evening.

[Loren S]

[Loren S]

Exactly....that is the point...there is no way the body can handle an "excessive" amount of calories at any given time.

It can only process so much, and the rest has to go.

[eskiemama]

Not only the calories, but imagine how much food it would take to get to 30,000 calories. Unless one is over 1,000 lbs, your average person's stomach can't handle that much food. LOL I'm getting a stomach just imaging what it would be like LOL

[hbp702]

30000 calories is possible (for some people), and done by both some extreme bodybuilders and food addicts.

[dahmooser]

Loren,

I've yet to be able to find ANY info that validates your/our line of thinking.  I've been wondering the same thing myself.  If I took in that many calories, can my body absorb them all? I mean, diets talk about creating a calorie deficit daily to get rid of fat, because "calories in equals calories out", right? But if this is the case, when I eat 30,000 calories, if I only use 2000 that day, then why don't I gain 8 pounds (3500 per pound) of fat, just like that?
We know that doesn't happen, even in a less dramatic binge of maybe 10000 cals. SO, what happens???  I cannot find any answer online that truly lay this out.

My guess?  That the intestines have a upper threshold of "saturation" where so much work is being done, all the lining is fully working to its maximum. Kind of like when you mix salt with water.  At the saturation point, the salt will no longer dissolve (unless you raise the temp).  Perhaps our intestines have a saturation point?

[walden]

Undigested waste or vomit.