Will negative calorie foods help you lose weight?

What are negative calorie foods

This is definitely a magical thing. Let's say you ate a sausage with an energy value of 100 kcal. And the body, in order to digest it, spent 150 kcal. As a result, a solid profit: both a sausage in the stomach, and lost weight.

Such a conditional sausage, which requires more energy for digestion than it is able to give, and is referred to as foods with a negative calorie content.

The idea itself makes sense. We've heard that eating negative-calorie foods might be a good diet strategy. But what exactly are they? / Mayo Clinic. To recycle food, we actually expend a decent amount of energy - 5-10% of all that we get during the day. That is, theoretically, you can find a low-calorie, but indigestible product, the total calorie content of which (from the point of view of our body, of course) turns out to be negative.

Take celery, for example. It contains a minimum of kilocalories Nutrition facts for celery, raw / NutritionValue - 14 for every 100 grams. And the composition consists mainly of water and fiber, which can be difficult for the body to cope with. Celery, as well as other low-calorie vegetables with a similar composition, can really claim the role of that magic product from the "ate and lost weight" category.

But there is a nuance.

What's wrong with negative calorie foods

So far, there is no authoritative scientific research that would prove: here is a specific product, eat it and you will lose calories. This is due to the complexity of the calculations. So, it is almost impossible to establish exactly how much energy the body has spent on digesting the same celery stalk. Nutritionists operate with only approximate numbers, and they are as follows.

The energy that the body uses to process food is measured as a percentage of the calorie content of the food and depends on what you eat - proteins, fats or carbohydrates.

It is considered the Thermic effect of food / Dietary reference intakes for energy, carbohydrate, fiber, fat, fatty acids, cholesterol, protein, and amino acids that:

digestion of carbohydrates takes 5-10% of the calories they contain;
proteins - 20-30%;
fat - 0-5%.

Pay attention: even the leaders - squirrels - do not come close to the 100% mark. Thus, from the point of view of modern dietetics, foods with negative calories do not exist.

But from the approximate figures, you can still draw a conclusion useful for losing weight. At least about what kind of food to give preference to.

Look. If you eat 100 kcal of lean chicken breast, minus the cost of digesting it, you will get about 70-80 kcal clean. But a tablespoon of vegetable oil will bring you the same hundred kilocalories, which will be absorbed completely.

The conclusion is simple. The most effective way to reduce your calorie intake is to satisfy your hunger:

low-fat protein food - lean meat or low-fat sour milk;
vegetables - they have practically no fat, but they have the same energy-consuming proteins, carbohydrates and a lot of water.

By the way, about water.

What foods can cause calorie loss

If you still stubbornly look for a product with a negative calorie content, then H₂O - albeit with a stretch - is best suited for this role. And that's why.

There are practically no calories in pure water. And although extra energy is not spent on its absorption either, the liquid has an extremely interesting effect: it speeds up metabolism for a while, forcing the body to spend more energy. According to some reports M. Boschmann, J. Steiniger, U. Hille, et al. Water-induced thermogenesis / The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, drinking two liters of water per day is equivalent to losing approximately 100 kcal. You drink and lose weight. Is this not what is expected of mythical foods with negative calories?

What is the bottom line

From the point of view of science, in order to lose weight, you must adhere to the basic principles of a healthy diet:

Lean on vegetables.
Eat lean meat.
Limit the amount of fat, but do not eliminate it at all: they are necessary.
Follow your drinking regime. Try to drink at least 2 liters of water daily.

These simple rules will help you stay full and not go overboard with calories. This means that the effect expected from mythical foods with negative calories will be achieved one way or another.