We've all heard the spiel: if you eat celery, you're actually consuming less calories, or negative calories, because it takes more energy to process and digest than the food contains. Therefore, in theory, if you eat a lot of "negative calorie" foods, this can help you lose weight. Sadly, this is not true. There are no magic foods that will help you lose weight, only a balanced healthy diet and regular exercise can do that.
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The Negative Calorie Diet purports that by eating a diet of only negative calorie foods, people can lose weight because it takes more energy to digest them than the food themselves contain. As seen on LiveStrong.com, the theory of negative calorie foods is the human body uses more calories to digest certain foods than they contain so by eating only these high-fiber, low-calorie foods in bulk, you can quickly lose weight and easily.
For instance, your body burns 80 calories chewing and digesting a 25 calorie piece of broccoli so there is a negative of 55 calories. Other supposed negative calorie foods include citrus fruits, berries, asparagus, cauliflower and cabbage. And these are all considered healthy foods, so having an entire diet based on negative calorie foods is a good way to lose weight, right?
Not so, according to MayoClinic.com, there have been no studies to show that eating negative calorie foods are beneficial to weight loss. Furthermore, eating only a few certain foods and excluding entire food groups places this diet in the fad diet category and unfortunately, fad diets are often unsustainable and not healthy for you. By eating only the same foods over and over again, you are not getting all the important nutrients that a balanced diet provides.
The body devotes about 10% of total energy spent to digesting and storing the nutrients from food ingested. If you eat only negative calorie foods, it is possible to lose weight but it's not from negative calories, it's from eating less calories. However, once you resume a normal healthy diet, any weight loss from a negative food diet will be regained.
Instead of eating only negative calorie foods, it is more important to have a balanced diet of lean protein and whole grains and vegetables, which can include the negative calorie foods. For sustainable weight loss, pairing a healthy diet and regular exercise is still the gold standard and scientifically proven way to go.
