You may have heard about “negative calorie foods” on TV, radio, forums or in health magazines and wondered to yourself “sure this has to be too good to be true?”  Let’s now have a look at the truth.

As you’ll know everything you eat will have some calories in it which you need to stay energized.  However if you eat more than you burn off you’ll end up storing the excess calories as fat.  There’s nothing really complicated about that.  However it’s been found that certain foods take a lot of energy to chew and digest.  Actually the amount of calories you spend eating these foods is more than the calories found in them.

So, technically the foods aren’t negative in calories however you need all of these calories and more so in order to digest them.

Here’s a simple example:

Each portion of celery has in the region of 5 calories.  However chewing swallowing and then digesting the celery uses up 8 calories.  This means for every portion of celery you eat, you’re losing 3 calories!

It’s not just celery that will have this effect.  Other foods include fruit and vegetables such as cabbage, grapefruit, cucumbers and cabbages.  Drinking water also uses up calories however water doesn’t even contain calories to begin with.

Are negative calorie foods the answer to weight loss?

Yes and no.  The problem is that your body needs calories in order to function properly.  Being energetic enough to be able to walk, run and exercise is important for so many reasons.  Also, your body desperately needs essential fatty acids (eg fish oils and olive oil) and if you become deficient in them you can develop health problems such as dry skin, alopecia and has been linked to MS and neuropathy.

Instead negative calorie foods should be used as part of a healthy calorie-controlled diet.  So enjoy fruit and vegetables as snacks and part of your main meals along with healthy protein and fat sources such as chicken, fish and liver.

If you’re the sort of person with too big an appetite and want to reduce the number of calories you eat, eating fruit and vegetables is an excellent way of filling yourself up.

What’s the conclusion?

If you think that eating a diet consisting entirely of negative calorie foods then this would be a very bad idea because over the long-term you’ll become deficient in many much-needed nutrients.  For instance, vitamin B12 is only available in animal products such as meat, eggs and cheese, which is why vegetarians and vegans should supplement with B12 (the best form is methylcobalamin).

However if you want to include these foods in your diet along with protein and essential fatty acids then they are very healthy as they provide a wide range of nutrients that will benefit your health.

If you’re still finding it difficult to lose weight then you can always consider taking a diet pill such as Meratol as it’s able to help you lose weight in a variety of ways.