First, let's get a few things straight:
I am overweight.
I am counting calories in order to lose weight.
I am NOT bulimic.
I do throw up sometimes.
I spent two stressful days on the road for a funeral. I ate fair food, fast food and gas station food.
For TWO DAYS!
I ate a LOT of calories.
My first night home, I woke up sick. I'm sure it was my body rejecting my poor excuse for nutrition. But, it made me curious. I wondered if the calories would still count against me.
I searched this question and found some disturbing answers. Most of them were along the lines of
"If you're sick, you shouldn't be worried about calorie counting."
OR
assumptions that the question implied the person asking had a problem such as bulimia.
But, I'm curious and I like the math to be accurate. I like to think of things scientifically. So, I changed my question.
What is a calorie? A calorie is a measurement of the heat that is required to heat one milliliter of water one centigrade. Read more here.
How does the human body get calories? Here's the basic answer from a microbiologist:
Food is broken down into smaller parts to make it easier to digest in the mouth and stomach. (macro-nutrients into micro-nutrients).
Nutrients are not absorbed into the body until they are broken down into their simplest parts, which happens in the small intestine. These nutrients contain the calories.
So, the short, uncomplicated answer is this: Calories enter your body in the small intestine, so food you throw up does not contain calories you can count.
Another simple explanation can be found here. Keeping this phrase in mind, "Absorption must first occur so that fuel can enter the cell."
So, there you go. If you are just curious like me, I hope this helps you understand the process. Sometimes, you just have to ask the right questions.
