Negative Calorie Foods List

The amount of calories found in the food that we eat is a big deal for many people in current times as we become a nation of weight watchers! With calorie counting becoming something of a regular activity people are constantly on the lookout for low calories foods to eat in order to try and lose weight. Low calorie foods are great but what about negative calorie foods? You may or may not be aware that there really is such a thing as a negative calorie food and this page will explain to you exactly what negative calorie foods are and also provide you with a negative calorie foods list.

You may have though that negative calorie foods are a myth but that is not the case and here is where you will find out why!

What are negative calorie foods? Explaining the negative calorie foods myth

We are going to start of by explaining exactly what negative calorie foods are before we go on to provide you with a list of negative calorie foods are. Many people will have heard of what is known as the 'negative calorie foods myth' and think that it is too good to be true, that there simply cannot be any foods out there that contain a negative amount of calories. Of course this is true, no food can have a negative amount of calories that would just be impossible and if it were real then the whole world would know about it as that is one thing that people would not be able to keep a secret. However, a food that has a negative calorie balance is not necessarily the only thing that can be referred to as a 'negative calorie food'.

What negative calorie foods are believed to be are in actual fact are foods that if consumed into the body either raw, or in a few instances cooked only slightly on their own with nothing added to them, will use more calories to process and digest than the amount that they contain. There are many foods that are known as metabolism boosting foods and these are foods that will burn calories when they are consumed because the body is forced to work that extra little bit hard to process, digest and actually extract the calories from them. In the case of negative calorie foods the concept is the same but these are already very low calorie so the number required for the body to burn will turn the total into a negative figure, pretty amazing huh?

Foods that have am overall negative calorie value generally contain vitamins and minerals that will produce enzymes that are able to break down the food's own calories and also further calories from the body in digestion too. This useful effect is referred to as 'the negative calorie effect'.

A basic example of how negative calorie foods are believed to work compared to a regular piece of food:

• Food A contains 50 calories - The body will have to burn 100 calories in order to process and digest food A - 50 calories minus 100 calories gives a total of minus 50 calories so food A is therefore a negative calorie food
• Food B contains 300 calories - The body will require 100 calories in order to process and digest food B - 300 minus 100 still leaves a high amount of calories absorbed into the body that will need to be burned in another way so food B is a positive calorie food

By eating a regular amount of negative calorie foods you are giving yourself a helping hand in losing weight and burning off any excess calories that you may consume in your overall total.

Although the whole concept of negative calorie foods is one that can benefit you, it is important to remember that this is not going to be something that loses you a large amount of weight, it is a helping had as opposed to a full blown solution. There are many people that believe that negative calorie foods are in fact a myth and further down the page we will cover some of the reasons as to why these people think that the effect that we have just explained is as profound as it sounds.

Negative calorie food list

Now that we have explained what negative calorie foods are it is time to move on to what most people will be visiting this page for, a negative calorie food list. As you will see on our list of negative calorie foods there is nothing but fruit and vegetables, it may come to a surprise to you but not only are these some of the lowest calorie foods that are available for you to consume but they are also natural and full of many other healthy vitamins and minerals that are fantastic for the body.

Negative calorie foods - Negative calorie fruits

Berries stand out amongst the negative calorie fruits as they contain decent amounts of protein. Protein is something that is valuable in dieting, and is something that people often do not recognise that they need. They instead prefer to sacrifice heavier foods in favor of those that are generally empty of any nutritional value. Many berries taste great on their own, and can easily be added to other foods. They are rich in antioxidants, Vitamin C and a wide range of other nutrients that boost the efficiency of your immune system. Cranberries and blueberries help flush out your system and keep you regular. Blueberries are also known, along with raspberries, to aid your eyesight. All these factors combined with a very low calorie count make berries a highly valuable negative calorie food, by low calorie count they are on average under 50 calories per cupful. For more information on protein rich foods please click here.

Negative calorie foods - Negative calorie vegetables

Negativity towards negative calorie food

Negative calorie foods do get a lot of negative publicity and the main reason for this is that many people believe that the amount of calories that the body will use to process and digest a food is rather small. For instance something that requires a lot of effort to chew and that is already very low in calories may be regarded as a negative calorie food, however if the body really does not use up many calories for this then is the effect something that is really worth taking into consideration? This is not helped by people thinking that by eating loads of items on the above negative calories food list they will start to just drop weight because they are never going to add calories because the negative numbers are going to take care of a lot of calories taken in from other sources, this is not the case it is only going to make a slight difference at best and that is more of a common sense view than a sceptical approach.

Whether you have faith in negative calorie foods or not, the items that are found on the negative calorie food list will provide your body with a whole range of benefits and are encouraged in almost every diet that you will come across. By consuming them you are going to be going some way to aiding to increase your metabolism and taking on much needed protein that helps the maintenance and growth of the cells in your body. For more information on metabolism boosting foods and high protein foods please check out our pages on them.

Thank you for reading our page and we hope that we have gone some way to explaining the negative calorie foods myth and given you some valuable ideas with our negative calorie food list. There is a lot more to this site than an explanation as to what negative calorie foods are so please take a look around.