Information on Negative Calorie Foods and Weight Loss Diet

Negative calorie foods! Is it true?
Can a food be without any calorie?

In fact no food has negative calories. A food may have very few calories but not without any calorie. So the name "negative calorie foods" appears to be inappropriate. But there are reports of negative calorie effect in some food items.

Our body expends energy (calories) all the time, even if we are sleeping. We burn roughly 60 calories per hour while asleep and 85 while eating! Likewise we also expend calories while eating. Some foods need more calories and some less.

According to this effect, the negative calorie foods use more calories in eating and digestion than the actual calorie content of the food. In order to extract calories from these foods, the body has to work hard. The extra number of calories needed in this process are taken from the stored fat in the body. For example, if you eat 100 calories of a food that requires 150 calories to digest, then you have burnt an additional 50 calories from the stored fat in your body, simply by eating that food. This gives these foods a tremendous natural fat-burning advantage. These foods may also be termed as fat burning foods or minus calorie foods.

Explanation of Negative Calorie Effect

Has this negative calorie effect been scientifically explained or evaluated? Is there any explanation (explaination) to the theory of negative calorie effect? To get answers to these questions, we searched on the Internet and got the following supporting reports:

• NFPT Personal Trainer Magazine (www.nfpt.com/Library/Articles/negprft.html) has tried to give the explanation of this effect. It reports, "...Surprisingly, in the case of the negative calorie foods in question not only do they contain sufficient vitamins & minerals to break down the host calories, there is actually a surplus of these enzyme producing biochemicals. This simply means that once ingested these “negative calorie” foods provide for enzyme production in quantities sufficient to break down not only its own host calories, but possibly additional calories present in digestion as well." The surplus of vitamins stored in these negative calorie foods may create a reaction in your digestive process that can to lead to weight loss. The big question is that do these foods produce sufficient enzymes to break down calories from body. The results of weight loss by eating these so called negative calorie foods indirectly shows that this happens.

• The Urban Legends Reference Pages (a reliable source) at snopes.com, says that celery has negative calories.

• If you look at the list of negative calorie foods, you will find that these foods are natural plant foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, etc. These foods have low fat, low calories, good amount of carbohydrates and dietary fibers. In the countries where the people who eat mainly these dodos are found to be lean and thin.

• Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D. of the University of California has reported the results of a diet consisting mostly of fruits and vegetables with no prescribed exercise program that he gave to his patients. He found a dramatic weight loss in his patients that could only be attributed to the consumption of these so-called negative calorie foods.

• Dr. Neal Barnard M.D, author of the Book "Negative calorie effect" has supported this concept. He says that the carbohydrate present needs much energy to breakdown these foods in the process of eating and digestion.

• Many of the users of negative calorie diet have posted on the forums that they have dropped weight eating these foods.

Although the above studies / reports do give some explanation directly or indirectly in support of the negative calorie concept, yet a scientific thorough study is needed. Till that time, it can be said that eating these foods is a better alternative to fad diets. Since these foods are low in calories (100 g of celery, cabbage, cucumber, or lettuce have about 14 calories each; asparagus has 20 calories, carrots 40 calories, broccoli 25 calories, etc.) and fat, one thing is certain - these are not going to increase your body fat. At least you can eat these foods to offset calories in other foods. These so-called negative calorie foods can therefore form part of a perfectly balanced diet. You may include maximum number of foods from the list of negative calorie foods in your daily diet without any adverse effect. It will definitely improve your health and you will feel energetic.

Because of inherent negative calorie effect, it should be possible that the more you eat these foods, the more you burn fat and lose weight! Is it true?

These negative calorie foods can be important ingredients in weight loss diet programs