# 20,000 calories a day. can you even eat that much?



## Crothcipt (Nov 13, 2013)

Last night the guy that made my subway sub said he ate 20,000 cal. a day. I gave him 3 or 4 outs on it being a mistake thinking he ment 2,000. He explained to me that he has had extensive leg, and joint surgeries so he exercised a lot, running 16 miles a day. I can see him needing more calories a day, but 10x more. I'm asking if there is any validity to this?


----------



## scott6452 (Nov 13, 2013)

When you think that Michael Phelps during heavy training was consuming 12000 calories a day, to have two thirds more than that seems incredible. 

I would absolutely (just for 1 day) love to give it a try though!


----------



## tripleq (Nov 13, 2013)

An average size male will burn about 3000 calories running a marathon - 10 miles more than his stated daily run. He either has a lack of understanding of his intake or is engaging in hyperbole.


----------



## JBroida (Nov 13, 2013)

I was eating between 30000-50000 calories a week at one point and it was a disgusting amount of food... the thought of 20000 in a day is just crazy to me


----------



## Birnando (Nov 13, 2013)

He is mistaken, and badly so.
I am an avid runner, running 60-100 miles a week in heavy training periods.
In addition I work as a technician for 40-50 hours a week doing rather heavy jobs on a regular basis.
With that activity level I will use 4-6000 cals a day on average.
And that is more than average as I am 6'5" and weighs about 220lbs.

Edit:
A sumo wrestler will get up to those numbers when bulking up from what I understand.
Those guys are not using anything near that though, so that kind of numbers are just to reach the impressive size they actually do.


----------



## Crothcipt (Nov 13, 2013)

Just to bring up how much 20k of calories is. 20 lbs. of hamburger is pretty much around 20k. That equals out to 80 quarter pounders from Mickie Dees. Also taking into account that 20 hrs a day is spent awake, that makes 1k a hour.


----------



## Zwiefel (Nov 13, 2013)

I would guess it's not even possible to process 20k Cal per day, just from a pure digestive perspective.


----------



## scott6452 (Nov 13, 2013)

When you consider that there's regular chocolate brownie portions out there with 1300 calories, it does seem possible.


----------



## JBroida (Nov 13, 2013)

try eating 20k worth of calories of those brownies and let me know how it goes


----------



## scott6452 (Nov 13, 2013)

I don't think you'd hear from me again!


----------



## apicius9 (Nov 13, 2013)

I weighed 360 pounds in my best days and I am a scientist, and I say, with authority; "Nonsense!, on several levels." Nobody could survive on 20,000 calories for any amount of time. Why not? Well, the unit you are thinking about actually is kilocalories, and he would eat 20kcal when the recommendations are somewhere between 2100 and 2700kcal per day, more if he really runs like a maniac. And 20,000kcal is just as impossible because there is no way he could metabolize that much during one day unless he is on fire. 

Stefan


----------



## Zwiefel (Nov 13, 2013)

JBroida said:


> try eating 20k worth of calories of those brownies and let me know how it goes



Not just that...but day after day....week after week....month after month.


----------



## ChuckTheButcher (Nov 13, 2013)

I google 20,000 calories per day. The only person I could find that does it, is actually the fattest man in the world. He has a 6ft waist.


----------



## convis (Nov 13, 2013)

It seems unlikely to me. I had to do a week of recording one summer during college and I was around 8500, but I was engaged in some sort of physical activity about 6- 7 hours a day. If I remember correctly about 1500 of those were beer too.

One of my friends eats considerably more than that but still no where near 20000. And he is the most active person I have ever met. (The only time I ever saw him fatigued was after running a marathon then hiking about 2000 vertical with skis on his back)


----------



## ChuckTheButcher (Nov 13, 2013)

convis said:


> (The only time I ever saw him fatigued was after running a marathon then hiking about 2000 vertical with skis on his back)



I hear ya. That always wears me out.


----------



## mr drinky (Nov 14, 2013)

If I worked at Cinnebon maybe

k.


----------



## JohnnyChance (Nov 14, 2013)

10lbs of foie a day will do it.


----------



## chuck239 (Nov 14, 2013)

I'm glad to see someone else eats 37 big macs a day in order to get to their 20,000 calories....

-Chuck


----------



## scotchef38 (Nov 14, 2013)

scott6452 said:


> When you think that Michael Phelps during heavy training was consuming 12000 calories a day, to have two thirds more than that seems incredible.
> 
> I would absolutely (just for 1 day) love to give it a try though!



Deep fried Pizza supper ,bottle of Irn Bru and Tablet for dessert-got to be pretty close.


----------



## erikz (Nov 14, 2013)

This dude must be inches away from cardiac arrest.

But seriously, what he's been telling you is either a pun or someone caught in a spiral of lies in where he's started to believe his own lies.


----------



## Crothcipt (Nov 14, 2013)

Ya I think the guy was trying to troll me. Not sure what his end goal is.


----------



## erikz (Nov 14, 2013)

Crothcipt said:


> Ya I think the guy was trying to troll me. Not sure what his end goal is.



Trying to sell you 20.000 kcalories worth of subs so you wouldnt feel out of tune?


----------



## erikz (Nov 14, 2013)

I found a 20kcal chocolate cake on youtube btw:

[video=youtube;pBJOIvzk-1w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBJOIvzk-1w[/video]


----------



## mano (Nov 14, 2013)

*"The guy that made my subway sub said..." *


----------



## apathetic (Nov 14, 2013)

He could have mistaken kj for kcal, in that case 20kj is around 4.78kcal which would make more sense


----------



## Delbert Ealy (Nov 14, 2013)

Yeah I think this guy is blowing wind, 
I had a very active metabolism and lifestyle in my 20's and I did go through a period when I ate about 7000 cal a day. I was also working a full time job and coming home to hand forge Damascus for 6 hours a day after my regular shift. Its a disgusting amount of food. 5 regular meals a day plus snacks. For almost 3 times that you would have to eat almost constantly, and it has been stated above, that it would not be feasible for a persons digestion to take care of all that food.
My metabolism has slowed down now and I get the regular 2k plus or minus a few brownies 
Del


----------



## boomchakabowwow (Nov 14, 2013)

apathetic said:


> He could have mistaken kj for kcal, in that case 20kj is around 4.78kcal which would make more sense



this..or something like this.

i remember in high school health class..2000 calories is really 20,000 calories..or kcal. the food industry thought food labeling would look awful, and decided to cut out a few zeros.


----------



## AFKitchenknivesguy (Nov 14, 2013)

Well, I was a nutrititionist in my past life and that is BS. Also, I know I sound like a snob but he works at Subway. He's either young and ignorant or old and uneducated.


----------



## quantumcloud509 (Nov 15, 2013)

mmmm brownies.....


----------



## Crothcipt (Nov 15, 2013)

he's a kid. He seemed to like me when I went in with my work clothes on. I def. thought he was just mistaken, and maybe the surgeries just (slim) might put him up there.


----------



## hambone.johnson (Nov 15, 2013)

yeah. My GF and I have done the tracking thing. seeing as I have a 15 mile commute every day to and fro work . then there is the actual work day. ... I topped out at 3800 on a "hungry day". I don't think you _could _process 20k in calories


----------



## Twistington (Nov 15, 2013)

A member of a polar expidition need around 6000 kcal per day, but that is to keep the body warm in extreme cold... so either he has it really, really cold at home, Wyoming is colder than I thought OR most likely he just pulled a number out of his rectum.


----------



## Crothcipt (Nov 15, 2013)

Lol not that cold at all. I will have to say his rectum was involved. I was just wondering if 20k calories was even able to eat in one day. Maybe with nuts.


----------



## mr drinky (Nov 15, 2013)

Twistington said:


> A member of a polar expidition need around 6000 kcal per day, but that is to keep the body warm in extreme cold... so either he has it really, really cold at home, Wyoming is colder than I thought OR most likely he just pulled a number out of his rectum.



I think rectum is the correct answer. 

k.


----------



## Paradox (Nov 24, 2013)

Crothcipt said:


> Lol not that cold at all. I will have to say his rectum was involved. I was just wondering if 20k calories was even able to eat in one day. Maybe with nuts.



18 Big Macs and 208 Mc-Nuggets ads up to about 20,000 calories. Even if I liked that **** I don't think I could ever eat that much of it in a day. I'd think nothing of having a 24oz. steak or slice of prime rib though. <shrug>


----------



## mc2442 (Nov 24, 2013)

Are the mc-nuggets with or without sauce there?


----------



## Paradox (Nov 26, 2013)

Without.  Looks like sauce adds anywhere from 8 - 28 calories per nugget. WOW! Dipping the 208 nuggets in ranch would add 5800 calories.


----------



## GlassEye (Nov 29, 2013)

Paradox said:


> Without.  Looks like sauce adds anywhere from 8 - 28 calories per nugget. WOW! Dipping the 208 nuggets in ranch would add 5800 calories.



So one could also dip the bigmacs in that sauce to help bump that calorie number up even more quickly. :dazed:


----------

