There are a number of foods that are championed as ‘negative calorie’ foodstuffs – but many people often think of these as ‘no calorie’ foods. But the reality is that there is no such thing as a food that doesn’t have calories in it – all food has calorie content, apart from water. However, the concept of negative calorie foods is that eating and digesting them takes more energy than you actually get from them in first place. This simple concepts suggests that you can actually lose weight by eating these foods as you don’t have the excess calories, so the body has to burn off fat from your bodily stores.
The example would be that if you eat a dessert that has 400 calories in, but that takes 150 calories for your body to digest, you’ll have an excess of 250 calories that you’ll have to burn off in other ways if you want to lose weight. Alternatively, eating a portion of broccoli the same size as the dessert might be equal to about 100 calories. This would mean that you would burn off 150 calories in digestive the broccoli, so you would be ahead by 50 calories and that if you follow this logic to its conclusion, you will lose weight. While this is clearly a fine idea in principal, this question is: does it really work?
The majority of negative calorie foods are very high in water and it is this large water content that can make you feel fuller. In a sense this is the same tactic that is recommended by many dieticians and nutritionists, who say you should drink a glass of water before your meal in order to add to the contents of your stomach so that you feel fuller for longer. Negative calorie foods are also generally high in fibre, and it is this that makes them more difficult for the body to digest, and therefore uses up more calories in the process.
While negative calorie foods are certainly able to make up a good part of a healthy diet, it is clearly not possible for you to eat lots of negative calorie foods to be the only part of your diet. Trying to eat only foods that didn’t give you enough energy would leave you feel constantly fatigued and could even lead to serious medical problems. The best diet that you can have for weight loss doesn’t just focus on one type of food, it promotes a balanced range of foods as a part of your daily intake including protein and healthy fats.
Nevertheless, it is a good idea to add more negative calorie foods to your diet as they can clearly play a role in weight loss and maintaining a great figure. There are plenty of them out there including many vegetables and fruits and you can enjoy them as part of a healthy and nutritious diet. They do live up the hype and can help you. But more important than the specific idea of eating negative calorie food in order to lose weight is the concept of common sense.
It is clear to us that if we want to lose weight we have to burn off more calories than we consume. Yes, this can mean eating food that is offer negative calorie content but it also means you will need to do lots of exercise to burn off the calories the normal way. Talk to your doctor about ways to lead a healthy life, but generally it includes doing any sort of exercise and always remembering to eat well every single day.
