How many calories does it take to gain 1 pound?

Answer 1

How many unused calories is what's important here. Remember that you're burning calories just sitting around- about 80 an hour or so. You burn at least 1000 calories in a day just breathing, thinking and so on.

A pound of fat contains roughly 4082 calories. So you'd have to consume 4082 calories beyond what you burn in a day to gain a pound of fat. Conversely, you'd need to burn 4082 calories more than you consume to lose a pound of fat. That may seem like a lot, but realize that an extra hundred calories a day, everyday, over the course of a lifetime can really add up, a pound a month, 12 pounds a year.

A pound is equivalant to 453.592 grams, and 1 gram of fat is equal to 9 calories. Therefore 453.592 grams per pound*9 calories per gram of fat= 4082.328 calories per pound. But in all reality all of those calories wouldn't be stored as fat. They could be stored as protein or carbohydrates, which both contain 4 calories per gram, so plug in four instead and you get 1814.368 calories per pound. So calories needed to gain a pound are 1814.368 to 4082.328 calories.