Hi, I was just wondering if there is such a thing as "negative or zero calorie foods" meaning that they take as much to burn them as they give your body so the net is zero calories, or even negative calories. I'm asking this, b/c I've seen different sites that advertise certain things are (apples celery, oranges, spinach) I am wondering, because if there are, then technically during your diet, you could still eat as much of "those" foods as you would want. I figured someone on here somewhere knows more about this, and has tried some of these, and had success or failure as to whether or not they've gained extra weight while adding these to their diets (on top of your regular diet intake) Thanks in advance, for any insight anyone can provide.

sincerely,

Richard

http://weightlossinternational.com/newsletter/free-list-of-negative-calorie-foods.html

Calories are calories. If you eat an excess of foods you will get fatter. Because vegs and some fruits are very low in calories per 100g, they allow you to add them into your diet without too much impact. But as I said, if you eat too much calories, you'll be hitting into your surplus range.

Heres a link about celery.

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/celery.asp

Those "negative calorie foods" (especially the fruit listed) are complete and utter garbage. How did our ancestors in times of a lack of meat live off of fruit if it is negative calories? Wouldnt it then be smarter to not eat at all if eating fruits and vegetable resulted in "negative" calories?

While alot of those foods are very low calorie, they still have them. Dont pay attention to the "negative calorie" stuff. Part of losing weight is changing eating concepts (like eating too goddamn much is a bad thing). While every diet should contain a variety of nutritious fruits and vegetables, they certainly arent "free" foods and you cant eat as much as you want without gaining weight.

Anyway, even if I am wrong, and you still count them, you are talking about a 200-300 calorie difference per day (and thats if you eat ALOT of vegetables). If you are trying to lose weight, I say err on the side of caution.

Cold Water and Celery are negative calorie foods...I think that's about it though.

Interesting what snopes says about celery; I've never seen it described that way before. I always assumed that the negative calorie claim was based on the fact that the calories in the food were burned by lifestyle factors (ie. watching paint dry) that would occur even if you did not ingest the food. However, they explained that you are burning extra calories by eating the celery.

The problem I have with this theory is that it supports the "calories are evil" viewpoint. Calories are not something you should try to consume in as small amounts as possible. You should choose your foods based on the nutrients they provide and the benefits they give to your body at the most reasonable calorie level.

You need vitamins, minerals, and energy (Calories) to survive. Choose your sources wisely.

I saw something about a soft drink that was supposedly getting released that was called a negative calorie drink. It included some thermogenics like green tea extract, and they said it had negative 10 calories :D

Interesting marketing I suppose more than anything.

Even if there were negative calorie foods and drinks (ie like mannish boy's -10 cal drinks) you'd need 50 of those to burn off 500 calories a day. 50 cans, for 7 days, for weeks on end will end up costing you a lot!

Even if there were negative calorie foods and drinks (ie like mannish boy's -10 cal drinks) you'd need 50 of those to burn off 500 calories a day. 50 cans, for 7 days, for weeks on end will end up costing you a lot!


But hey, its easier than exercise right :p .

Article on Celsius (http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=60799-metabolism-elitefx-celsius), the negative calorie drink.

Twenty healthy men and women were randomly assigned to two groups. One group received 12 ounces of Celsius, which contains natural botanicals, micronutrients, amino acids and caffeine, and no high fructose corn syrup, chemical preservatives or carbohydrates.

The other group consumed 12 ounces of Diet Coke. On a different day, the two groups were switched to the other drink.

Their metabolic rate was measured pre-ingestion and for ten minutes at the end of each hour, for three hours following ingestions.

With Celsius, the metabolic rate increased by 13.8 percent at the end of the first hour, 14.4 percent at the second and 8.5 percent at the third. With Diet Coke, an increase of between 4 and 6 percent was observed.

As to the efficacy of Celsius, it seems that the science is present and correct – even if the study group was rather on the small side and the duration of the trial was just one day.

But when the results of the trial are converted into a real life scenario, the message fed to consumers may give them an unrealistic picture of what Celsius could do for them.

Celsius website (http://www.drinkcelsius.com/)

The test should have also compared water. I suspect this is pretty worthless in the big picture, but interesting.

Hi, I was just wondering if there is such a thing as "negative or zero calorie foods" meaning that they take as much to burn them as they give your body so the net is zero calories, or even negative calories.

Sure - some huge negative calorie foods are possible. Trouble is they are foods you should not eat. If you eat stuff like live salmonella culture, your body can spend more calories fighting off the infection than you could possibly extract from digesting the little bastards in the first place. Eating uncooked meat so you can get worms is another negative calorie food. Trouble is they don't just eat your calories - they can eat your brain. Want a crash diet? Go for bush meat and see if you get Ebola.

But seriously, folks, it's pretty hard to come up with a negative calorie food. Otherwise it would be really easy to treat obesity.

This is a dead-end approach. Celery may have so few calories that digesting and chewing burn more than what's in it, but apples have 90 for a medium sized apple. Basically the only calorie-free/negative foods would be hot or cold water (burn energy to stabilize the temp) and chewing on caffeine tablets.

Fiber. That is why you can't digest it.

it's pretty hard to come up with a negative calorie food. Otherwise it would be really easy to treat obesity.
The obesity problem is more than slightly related to hunger. People eating huge amounts of celery are not protected from obesity because even if you ate two big bunches of celery and a whole lot of sugar free Jello, you'd still be pretty hungry, and likely quite lethargic.

The obesity problem is more than slightly related to hunger. People eating huge amounts of celery are not protected from obesity because even if you ate two big bunches of celery and a whole lot of sugar free Jello, you'd still be pretty hungry, and likely quite lethargic.

The way you would use negative calorie foods (and good ones don't exist, but supposing they do) would be that someone who was overeating - could slightly "uneat" more than the difference. If they were couch potatoes (likely) then because they would sit around having eaten the fictitious negative calorie food, then their bodies would burn fat to digest it (low state of exertion). You could even add free fatty acids in supplement to make sure that fat metabolism was upregulated as opposed to burning carbs or proteins.

If a food was available that had significant negative calories, you would be able to do some really cool things. But there isn't a food with a big negative calorie density. At least nothing safe has a big negative calorie density.

So we have to use the non-food item with the negative calories: Exercise!

I'm sure -calorie potato chips would taste like crap.