What are your weight loss goals? 10 pounds? 20 pounds? More? If you plan to lose weight, something to consider are negative calorie foods.
Negative calorie foods are very low calorie foods. They are defined as foods which burn up more calories in digestion, than are actually contained in the food. Celery and apples are two examples. Each of these foods have very few calories and burn more calories in digestion than the calories they contain.
We all know that fruits and vegetables are healthier for us but tend to not include as many of them in our daily diets. However, including lots of fruits and vegetables, without added condiments, fats, or sugars, can help you lose weight really fast!
Your Weight Loss Goals
The basic principle of weight loss is that when you eat more calories than you burn off, you gain weight. When you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight. This seems like common sense but can you really lose weight eating negative calorie foods?
Negative calorie foods burn up more calories in the process of digesting them than are actually contained in the foods themselves. This begs the question: are there really such things as negative calorie foods?
The idea that certain foods could take more energy to digest than they actually provide, took the diet industry by storm. The notion that you can eat from a list of 'wonder foods' and not only lose weight but actually help counteract some of the calories contained in the rest of your diet, certainly has an instant appeal.
The truth is however, that all foods contain calories although some contain fewer calories than others. However the human body has one thing which actively works against it. The calories contained in even the lowest calorie foods render many times more energy to burn than to digest them. There is only one true negative calorie food.
If you are thinking about eating only negative calorie foods to meet your weight loss goals, you may want to rethink it. To truly burn more energy than a food provides, you'd in fact have to be eating cardboard which is 100% cellulose.
Since humans lack the digestive enzymes to break it down (as opposed to cows or horses that can happily live on it), eating cardboard is not such a good idea. The process of moving cardboard through the digestive tract would take a small but measurable amount of energy. The result? A true negative calorie food. Naturally, since we can’t digest cardboard, it’s not recommended that you try it.
The foods listed below are the only foods considered to be negative in calorie.
If you want to find out how many calories you burn in a day, please use the free RDA calculator. You may find that negative calories foods help you kick start weight loss and help you attain your weight loss goals.