Buenos Aires Food Marathon: 12 Places, 12 Hours

A few Saturdays ago I woke up in my apartment in Buenos Aires with a single goal for the day: eat as much crap food as I physically could.

At the time I was on the Slow Carb diet, which gave me a "once-a-week free pass" to eat whatever I wanted. Saturdays = faturdays.

I was also curious about testing the "Calories In, Calories Out" model. Could I consume thousands of calories in one weekend without gaining fat when I measured myself on Monday morning?

The answer: Yes.

So I set myself a challenge: 12 places in 12 hours. Time-boxed from 1pm to 1am.

Before we talk about the results, let's run through all the stops on my food marathon.

My first "stop" was actually my own kitchen. To prevent complete body destruction I armed myself with two defenses.

Defenses:

• Lentils and eggs: A protein and fiber-rich breakfast to keep me satiated and protect my digestive system from constipation / diarrhea
• Grapefruit: A high dose of fructose to flatline my insulin levels and prevent spikes across the days. Insulin spikes tell your body to store any incoming energy as fat. Of course, we don't want that.

Next we go for a big serving of milk, which I normally avoid on the diet.

Defense: The caffeine in the coffee was my third "defense". It induces bowel movement and makes you poop. More food out of the body = less food stores as fat.

These are devilishly heavy. All the deep-frying and cheese must've contributed to at least a thousand calories.

Little caloric monsters of sugar, butter, eggs, and flour. But so delicious.

Defense: In the cafe restroom I did air squats and wall push-ups for about 2 minutes each. There is debating research that a few minutes of resistance training activates the mTOR pathways, which can direct energy towards building muscle rather than storing fat.

I did, in fact, eat that entire pizza by myself. I specify "Italian" because it's quite different from its Argentine cousin, which is usually thicker and - no surprise - full of cheese.

Argentinian ice-cream is my guilty pleasure. I went for dark chocolate and pistachio.

All that lactose was creating deep trouble in my stomach, so I took the next one easier with a glass of Malbec over a rooftop view.

Defense: After the wine I had a few cups of Yerba mate. Another source of caffeine that works as a laxative.

Diabetes on a plate. This was the most dense brownie I've ever had, easily another thousand calories.

Pumpkin / ricotta stuffing. By this point my stomach had realized that brownie was a mistake.

I couldn't finish the bowl. I was punching way above my weight with all the calories and started to feel sick. So in interest of my health, I ended the challenge at place #11.

Results

• 11 places visited (did not meet my "12 places" goal ❌)
• Estimate 7000-10000 calories consumed ✅
• (TMI) Pooped 3 times

My biggest realisation was how logistically difficult it is to eat at so many places in one day. The commuting, waiting for food, and waiting to pay made up for 70% of my time. I was often stressed about "running behind schedule" and compensated by eating quickly. Which, in turn, took out the fun from eating.

Energy-wise, I spent the entire feeling sluggish and tired. By the end I had to force-feed myself spoonfuls of the burrito bowl. I spent the next 30 minutes hunched over the sink, inches from puking.

The following Sunday I couldn't stand the thought of eating. I fasted the entire day until dinner.

Monday morning, I took my post-binge measurements.

• Pre-binge weight (Saturday morning): 72 kg
• Post-binge weight (Monday morning): 72.1 kg (✅ +0.1 kg)
• Body measurements (waist, hips, thighs, biceps): ✅ no changes

By some miracle, I maintained my body weight before and after the binge.

But weight doesn't give you a full picture, so I also took measurements across different parts of my body. No change. In an ideal world, I would've also directly measured my body fat percentages.

How much of my results were caused by my "defense mechanisms" versus the Sunday afternoon fast? I'm not sure. But either way, I'd consumed 4x net calories in one day and returned to my baseline two days later.

That was enough for me to lose faith in the "Calories In, Calories Out" model of eating. Clearly, there is more to eating and weight gain than counting your calories.

Written by Aryan Bhasin