Are Negative Calorie Foods for Real?

The notion of negative calorie foods has been around for quite a while.  The logic is that certain foods are so low in calories and so hard for our bodies to digest, that you burn more calories digesting them than actually come in the food, so you can eat as much as you like and actually cause weight loss.

Commonly listed negative calorie foods are water rich fruits and vegetables like apples, carrots, celery, cabbage, lettuce, strawberries, zucchini and oranges.

Many diets use the same idea and claim that there are “free foods” that can be consumed as often as the eater would like.  Weight Watchers is one of the most widely known and respected diet programs, where eaters are given a certain number of point allowance for food a day.  Weight Watchers awards most fruits and veggies zero points, and there are even some vegetable heavy soups that get the zero point rating.

But is this for real?

Yes and no.

NegativeCalorieFoods.com clears it up a bit, saying, “No food actually has a negative amount of calories, because all foods have some caloric value. But the overall effect of these particular foods balances out as negative because the energy we use to digest them is greater than the energy (or calories) than we consume in eating them.”

While this technically is true, don’t expect to be able to burn off a piece of chocolate cake with a few apples.  The difference is almost negligible, and won’t result in measurable weight loss, especially if you do not eat healthy otherwise, or do not exercise.

As a personal trainer, I would do a happy dance on my desk if people told me they were cramming as many fruits and veggies into their bodies as they could, but for different reasons.  Eating fruits and veggies because they are full of vitamins, minerals, fiber and water is awesome- eating them because you can gorge guilt-free and think it will help you lose weight isn’t any way to eat.  The goal when losing weight, or even just being healthy, for that matter, is to learn to listen to your body and eat intuitively.  Even though you are scarfing healthy foods, finding a loophole that allows you to eat copious amounts of food is not a healthy lifestyle or mind frame.

You know another source of negative calories?  Exercise.  A walk, run or a few crunches will scrotch more calories than digesting a belly full of celery, and will also do wonders to increase you mood, energy level and prevent disease.