Hi, I am a student at UT. We have a lot of people on campus asking us to give blood right now, which is fine, but I have a question about their “sales pitches”. They claim that by donating blood, a 30 minute process, you burn 650 kcals. Is this possible? I h’ve asked a few volunteers how they got that number and the only response has been, “I don’t know but it is a fact”. I am not trying to knock giving blood just want to know if the pitch is true.
Thanks.
stillearning,
I doubt the calorie calculation (650) as it seems like a lot and I’ve never seen it reported anywhere. However, donating blood does have health benefits, particuarly for men who consume large amounts of protein. You can search this site “Keep the Iron on the Bar”
old dogg
The Mayo clinic has the same kcal number on their site: Blood donation frequently asked questions - Mayo Clinic
Think of it this way: you give up a few pints of blood… which needs replaced…and that costs calories to manufacture all those red cells, white cells, platelets, etc. You get the point.
djoh is right. You don’t burn the cals during the 30min process, it’s afterwards you burn them to make up for the blood loss.
Donating blood = good. We always need more donors than we have. I cannot think of a time in my entire career that we said “ya know what? Y’all take the month off, we’ve got enough blood already…” 
Lowery has an article on this “keeping the iron on the bar” or something close to. Most weightlifters eat too much iron and thus you need to donate blood to balance it out.
One quick question about blood donation. If you are taking finasteride can you still donate? Probably a stupid question but I recently got a prescrip for it and was curious.
Pudge.
[quote]pudge wrote:
One quick question about blood donation. If you are taking finasteride can you still donate? Probably a stupid question but I recently got a prescrip for it and was curious.
Pudge.[/quote]
Not a stupid question, pudge. The answer is no. Anyone taking Proscar or other medications like Accutane, for example, is unable to donate blood or blood products like plasma or platelets for 4 weeks following the last dose.
what about donating platelets? where the take something specific out of your blood.
would that mess the training up? i saw this in a thread before but dont think it was ever really answered.
i could make some extra cash doing that, they pay decent around here and i could use that to beef up my supps surplus.
[quote]vizunaldth wrote:
what about donating platelets? where the take something specific out of your blood.
would that mess the training up? i saw this in a thread before but dont think it was ever really answered.
i could make some extra cash doing that, they pay decent around here and i could use that to beef up my supps surplus.[/quote]
Platelet donation is especially helpful to us medical folks. You see, a lot of chemotherapy patients suffer from thrombocytopenia, which is basically “not enough platelets”, and I even see a couple of folks around here who don’t have barely any platelets at all.
This is very bad.
Cancer patients have enough on their plate without having to worry about bleeding to death as well.
Anyway, don’t perform anything strenuous on the same day as a platelet donation (like a workout), and the next day you will be fine.
On behalf of some very sick people, I hope you decide to go through with it.
If you’re capable of donating, I urge you to do it. Not just because it can burn calories, but because as a veteran of the war in Iraq, I see a lot of people get very badly hurt…usually burned and shot. I just got back from a year tour, and when I went to donate again, I was turned away. Unfortunately, the military blood supply program doesn’t let us donate for a while after getting back because we’re exposed to some seriously dangerous vectors and chemicals. People are getting seriously hurt every day, and a little bit of blood from as many people as possible will save a lot of lives that otherwise would have been lost. Donated blood saved a friend’s life there. It might save your life, or someone you care about. I’m sure a great deal of donated blood, plasma, platelets, or whatever will go to save someone in Iraq. I hope you all help us out.
I was recently turned away also… not for time spent in nasty third world countries (there have been a few), but because I was stationed in Germany from 86-89. It sucks because I am O- too.
I think this is a fairly recent change due to mad cow disease fears. I had previously donated a few times post 89.
I learned that approximately 43% of our active duty military is now ineligible to donate because of the issues with European beef.
If you are eligible, please do so.
LA