Negative Calorie Foods

Thank you for visiting our page all about negative calorie food where we not only provide you with a list of negative calorie foods but we also talk about the negative calorie food myth as well as answering the related questions 'what are zero calorie foods?' and 'what is a calorie?'. If you are somebody that is interested in calorie counting and wants some information on such foods that almost sound too good to be true, then there will be something on this page of interest to you.

What is a calorie?

First things first, as the main topic of the page is calories it only seems to right to briefly explain what calories are to those of you that are not totally sure. Anyone that is looking to eat right or lose weight will have been told to reduce their calorie intake, but what is a calorie?

In plain and simple terms what a calorie is is a unit of energy in exactly the same way that a pound or a gram is a unit of weight. These units of energy are found in everything that we eat and drink and what calories do is fuel our body much like gas fuels a car. Calories come in the shape of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, each of these having a different number of calories inside them, as all foods and liquids have different amounts of these in this means that they too have different amounts of calories, some way more than others. Some foods are even deemed as zero calorie foods or negative calorie foods, for more information on these please see our list of negative calorie foods further down the page and our section on the negative calorie food myth!

So we now know what a calorie is, but what do calories do? We have mentioned that calories are fuel for our body and this means that they are needed in order for us to be able to do anything, like a car needs gas to get from A to B. When we exercise, brush our teeth, type on our computer or even talk to somebody else we are burning calories and using this fuel up. Without eating or drinking to get calories on board your body will shut down because it has no fuel, however on the flip side, if we eat and drink more than we need to and take on too much fuel then we end up storing the extra calories as fat and put on weight.

Every person needs a different amount of calories in order to gain weight, to maintain weight or even lose weight, to find out how many calories you need a day please click here.

In a nutshell calories are good because they fuel our bodies to be able to do every single task and bodily function that we carry out each day, however there is a balance between taking on the right number of calories in order to do this and taking on too many so that we have an excess of fuel that turns into fat and causes weight gain. Keeping on top of this is always a sensible idea so that you are not left looking for ways to reduce the calories in your diet in order to try and lose weight. Never the less if that is the case then eating negative calorie foods and zero calorie foods is a step in the right direction.

For more information on calories found in food please click here.

We hope that we have been able to answer the question 'what is a calorie?' for you and that you now fully understand not only what calories are but what they do for your body.

Negative calorie food myth - What are negative calorie foods?

If you have landed on this page then the chances are that you are interested in not only finding out what a calorie is but just what all the fuss is about when it comes to what negative calorie foods are! Before we go on to provide you with our free negative calorie foods list we are just going to set the record straight about the whole negative calorie food myth and what the term actually means by answering the question 'what are negative calorie foods?'.

Naturally if you hear the term 'negative calorie foods' you automatically think of some sort of food that actually loses you calories when you eat it as opposed to providing you with any, if this was the case then people wanting to lose weight would be spending their whole time eating these foods, the word would have spread like wild fire and there would be no such thing as being over weight any more. Unfortunately the reason this sounds too good to be true is because it is.

So negative calorie foods are not some sort of weight loss miracle but instead they are a variety of foods that if eaten raw or slightly cooked without anything added to them, can cause the body to use a large amount of calories to process and digest them, almost as much as the calorific value of the food itself. In essence the body is cancelling the calorie consumed out by the calories burned as fuel to consume the food! This is because there are just some foods that the body finds harder to break down, or can take more effort to chew, this may not be as good as the initial thought of what a negative calorie food is but it's still quite good right? We hope that setting the negative calorie myth straight hasn't upset you too much!

A basic example of what a negative calorie food can do is as follows:

• A food contains 20 calories but the body will need to burn off 25 calories in order to chew, process and digest it, 20 calories minus 25 gives a negative value of minus 5 calories making it a negative calorie food!
• Another food contains 30 calories but the body will need to burn off 15 calories in order to chew, process and digest it, 30 calories minus 15 calories gives a plus figure of 15 calories, BUT the initial amount is still significantly reduced due to the work the body has to put in so this is also a negative calorie food.

The more of these negative calorie foods you eat the more of an advantage your body has of being able to lose weight or at least maintain your current weight. When it comes to counting calories and keeping yourself to a strict amount each day every little hint and tip helps.

Foods deemed as negative in calories and what they can do for the body should be something that is seen as useful but it would be impossible to rely on eating these thinking that you are just going to shed weight so it is probably not a good idea to see them more as a solution but more as a helping hand or another weapon in your arsenal against weight gain.

If you want to find out about zero calorie foods please see the next section.

List of negative calorie foods

Now have come to our main section our list of negative calorie foods. As we have highlighted previously in our negative calorie food myth section, these foods are essentially foods that are already low in calories and that will cause the body to burn more calories than usual in order to chew, process and digest them, this does not mean that they all have a negative calorific value after being consumed, only that the amount of calories they add to the body are reduced. You could be in for a bit of disappointment here if you don't like fruit and vegetables but at the end of the day anyone that wants to lose weight and eat healthily is going to have to consume these, not only because they are low in calories but also because the contain all of the vitamins and minerals in food that our bodies need.

We hope that you have found our list of negative calorie foods useful, for more information on calories found in food please click here.

What are zero calorie foods?

So we have now answered the question 'what is a calorie?' and also talked about what negative calorie foods are, but what are zero calorie foods? This final section is going to talk about zero calorie foods and the role that they can play in your diet.

There is only one thing that you can take into your body that is literally zero in calories and that is water, you can drink water all day long and you will not gain a single ounce of weight. It is vital to drink lots of water as our body requires this natural liquid to carry outs all of it's functions, just as it needs calories to act as fuel.

The term zero calorie foods is closely tied with negative calorie foods and that is a food that you can eat that is already very low in calories but will cause the body to use up almost the same amount of calories to process meaning that they make little or no impact to your calorie intake!

These types of food can really help if you are counting the amount of calories that you eat. If you want to find out how many calories you should be eating a day then please click here.

More than negative calorie foods

We really hope that this page has been able to clarify not only what the negative calorie food myth is but also the answer to the questions 'what is a calorie?' and 'what are zero calorie foods?' for you. There is much more to our website than just information on negative calorie foods that can help you to maintain a quick metabolism. Besides our negative calorie foods list we have information on other foods that boost metabolism as well as some great hints and tips as to how to increase your metabolism. Please take some time too look around while you are online as you are guaranteed to find some of our free information useful!