You may have heard of foods with negative calories and thought it was a pipedream or part of a scam to get your money. While food doesn’t actually have negative calories, because of the thermic effect, it takes more calories to digest than the food contains, which ends up providing the body with a negative total calorie count. Digesting food takes energy and most studies note it’s about 10% of the calories they contain.
Fruits and vegetables don’t have a negative calorie count, but it’s close
Foods high in fiber, like vegetables and fruit, use about 20% of their total calorie count for digestion. Protein uses 30% and fat just uses 3%. When you consider the calorie intake of vegetables, deducting 20% of the calories from the already low calorie count makes them excessively low in calories. The water they contain also reduce the calorie amount. For instance, watermelon has almost zero calories due to the liquid, fiber and thermogenesis—the amount of calories used to digest food. Leafy greens are another low calorie choice.
Celery is a diet favorite for a good reason.
When you want food that’s high in fiber and water, celery should be one of the first to come to mind. The calorie count is extremely low and theoretically, it takes far more calories to digest than it contains. The word theoretically is used, since there are not actual studies that prove it one way or another, but you can’t go wrong including it in your diet. The juice of celery is also a diuretic, which can help you lose water weight.
Adding spices it can reduce the calorie count, while enhancing the flavor.
Hot spicy foods make you sweat. That heat it builds in the body actually increases the temperature, burning extra calories as it does. Cayenne or other types of hot peppers are two most often used to spice meals. When it raises the body temperature, it increases your metabolism. That makes the food it’s added to have a lower calorie count. Turmeric, cumin and cinnamon also help you lose weight.
Boost your calorie burning with spices.
Cayenne peppers and other hot food actually boost calorie burning with the heat it builds in your body that increases the temperature. That temperature increase also increases your metabolism, to burn even more calories and lower the calorie count in your food. Other spices that can help weight loss include turmeric, cumin and cinnamon.
- If you’re looking for a unique snack with almost no calories and loads of nutrition, steam baby asparagus. Top it with lemon, salt and pepper or chill it and make a lemon sauce for dipping.
- Even zero calorie foods require the right preparation. No matter how low of calories the original food is, if you bread it and fry it, it changes the calorie count. Think breaded deep-fried mushrooms as an example.
- Make a low calorie dressing and top shredded cabbage and carrots for a coleslaw that’s tasty and low in calories, thanks to thermogenesis. The dressing adds the extra calories to prevent it from being a negative calorie dish.
- Our personalized weight loss program can help you find ways to add more food to your diet that’s low in calories or has negative calories.
For more information, contact us today at Targeted Nutrition Technologies
