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We could always discuss something else if you prefer.

If your 'simple equation' were even close to accurate, we could all get to 400 pounds easily.

Are you saying that I couldn't? Is there a magic switch in my body that sweats out calories if I go over 200 lbs? I doubt it.

I am reasonably fit and trim, but I know that I gain weight if I eat or drink more than a sensible amount. I know that as I get older, that tendency will increase as my metabolism slows, but the basic principle still applies.

If I decide to eat 1 whopper w/cheese (760 kcal) and 1 medium Coke (200 kcal) per day for a year on top of my normal diet, I would be taking in about an extra 960 kcal per day, and will likely add about 1.5 to 2 pounds of body fat per week. Oh, wait, I forgot the fries. That's an additional 400 kcal per medium serving. At that rate, given my current weight of 185 - 190lbs, I'd probably be at 400 lbs within 2 years, tops. Even if by some peristaltic miracle my digestive tract eliminated half the calories I was taking in, I would only be delayed in getting to 400 by a couple years.

Of course, that's assuming that my metabolism stays the same, and that my muscle mass doesn't change. If I were heavier, perhaps I'd avoid strenuous activity, my muscles would atrophy, and my ability to burn calories would be diminished, accelerating my weight gain.

After we adjust for different metabolic rates, hormonal imbalances, bad genes, how much we poop out and every other variable that we'd like to include, it still comes down to thermodynamics and the conservation of energy. If you do exercise that requires about 3600 kcal of power, you have burned the caloric equivalent of 1 pound of fat. That power came from either a) stuff you just took in, or b) your body breaking itself down to feed its own engines. If you are doing it right, your body breaks down fat instead of muscle.

Conversely, no human can create a pound of fat out of only, say, 1200 kcal food input. People don't get fat just breathing air. It comes from somewhere.

All the information on farts and more..
http://www.heptune.com/farts.html

Considering most of the things we eat are carbon-based and the composition of our farts... To some extent, yes. Drop the petroleum-based part and it is conceivable.

...the same way the guy at the back of the elevator "quietly releases" flatulent gas. In which case, the poster is the infuriated person next to him, covering his face and coughing like mad.

All you wanted to know and more, here!

So wait... if the daytime average temperature next year hits 200degF, but we determine it's because of termite farts, that makes it not our problem? ;-)

As Maslow put it in A Theory of Human Motivation:

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be, he must be.

actually, there are also hydrogen-producing bacteria in the gut, which account for some flammable farts

Why did they have to go at the bottom of the ocean to get some of those, when they could've just probed their own asses?

You can't put QED there unless you've proven something. It means "That which has been demonstrated", and you haven't demonstrated anything, or even supplied a premise to start with.

If you truly care:

Floaters is an appropriate name for these types of ads.

Remember, even the worst farts aren't 100% methane

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas... ^H^H oops sorry... wrong comment.

Here's the lowdown on fart gas content, for those interested in such things:

(source: Facts on Farts)

What is fart gas made of?
The composition of fart gas is highly variable.
Most of the air we swallow, especially the oxygen component, is absorbed by the body before the gas gets into the intestines. By the time the air reaches the large intestine, most of what is left is nitrogen. Chemical reactions between stomach acid and intestinal fluids may produce carbon dioxide, which is also a component of air and a product of bacterial action. Bacteria also produce hydrogen and methane.
But the relative proportions of these gases that emerge from our anal opening depend on several factors: what we ate, how much air we swallowed, what kinds of bacteria we have in our intestines, and how long we hold in the fart.
The longer a fart is held in, the larger the proportion of inert nitrogen it contains, because the other gases tend to be absorbed into the bloodstream through the walls of the intestine.
A nervous person who swallows a lot of air and who moves stuff through his digestive system rapidly may have a lot of oxygen in his farts, because his body didn't have time to absorb the oxygen.
According to Dr. James L. A. Roth, the author of Gastrointestinal Gas (Ch. 17 in Gastroenterology, v. 4, 1976) most people (2/3 of adults) pass farts that contain no methane. If both parents are methane producers, their children have a 95% chance of being producers as well. The reason for this is apparently unknown. Some researchers suspect a genetic influence, whereas others think the ability is due to environmental factors. However, all methane in any farts comes from bacterial action and not from human cells.

...it will be indisputable evidence of living, farting Martian beings!

Actually, a couple of sources indicate that humans emit little or no methane when they pass gas.

Although it's very fine and noble to try to minimize unpleasant odours aboard spacecraft, what can be done about us stinky mammals? Humans supposedly produce half a litre of gastrointestinal gas daily -- I would imagine that in an enclosed space occupied by several humans, that could get unpleasant quickly.

Farts!

Are you saying you have a more ready supply of methane or hydrogen gas then you do electricity?

Sure I do, but I'm not sure how I would ummm... harvest it, and maybe it's best not to discuss the matter in mixed company.

I hate to burst your bubble (no pun intended), but bean farts are mostly carbon dioxide given off by bacteria in your intestines. They aren't as rich in methane as other types of farts that take longer to produce.

Q: What's the white stuff in bird poop?

Astonishingly enough (or not), there is a website that answers these and other tough questions:

Scoop on poop

Scroll down to "Why is bird poop white?"

Unlike mammals, birds don't urinate. Their kidneys extract nitrogenous wastes from the bloodstream, but instead of excreting it as urea dissolved in urine as we do, they excrete it in the form of uric acid. Uric acid has a very low solubility in water, so it emerges as a white paste. This material, as well as the output of the intestines, emerges from the bird's cloaca. The cloaca is a multi-purpose hole for birds: their wastes come out of it, they have sex by putting their cloacas together, and females lay eggs out of it.

I was thinking of a different two words.