Foods That Burn More Calories Than They Contain – Common recommendations for weight loss focus on eating fewer calories or expending more than stored calories through physical activity.
Some foods have become popular on weight loss diets because they are supposed to be “negative calorie,” meaning you lose calories by eating them.
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This article tells you what you need to know about negative calorie foods, including whether they can help you lose weight.
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Food provides your body with a variety of nutrients, including three main categories that provide energy in the form of calories: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
Your body has to expend energy to digest and process every food you eat. The amount of energy needed varies depending on the diet (1).
The term negative calorie food generally refers to a food that is supposed to take more calories to eat, digest and process than it naturally contains and provides to your body.
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If these foods are present, you can lose weight by eating them because you will use more calories eating and digesting them than you will get from their caloric content.
Other similar fruits and vegetables, such as lemons, cabbage, berries or zucchini, are also usually included in these lists.
Since each of these foods contains calories, the question is whether your body uses calories to process these foods, not the content of the foods.
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Summary Negative calorie foods are thought to require more energy to digest and process than your body actually provides. Fruits and vegetables that are high in water and low in calories are often advertised as having negative calories.
While it’s true that most of these foods are nutritious, it’s unlikely that any of them have negative calories.
Each contains calories, and there is no evidence to support the idea that they require more energy to eat, digest, and process than they provide.
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A limited number of studies show that chewing gum increases the energy your body uses by about 11 calories
Therefore, the amount of energy you use for a few minutes of chewing celery or other foods is probably very small and relatively unimportant.
While it is true that your body uses calories to process foods, the number of calories used is far less than the calories provided by foods (
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In fact, the amount of energy your body uses to process foods is usually described as a percentage of the calories you eat, and is estimated separately for carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
For example, the energy used to process foods is about 5–10% of food calories for carbohydrates, 0–5% for fat, and 20–30% for protein (1).
It is unlikely that the energy used to digest these foods is significantly higher than that of other carbohydrate-based foods, although this has not been specifically studied.
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Like negative-calorie foods, zero-calorie products—like cold water—are often touted as metabolism-boosting.
Some research supports a slight increase in metabolism for a short time after drinking cold water.
However, the magnitude of the increase was small, ranging from about 3–24 calories per hour (13,
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Like chewing, drinking cold water burns some calories. However, such small effects will not increase the calories burned by your body.
Summary Although some calories are used in chewing, digesting, and processing food, this is likely a fraction of the calories provided by food—even in negative-calorie foods. Drinking cold water can cause a slight, short-term increase in energy expenditure.
Although there are probably no such things as negative calorie foods, many of the foods that are often advertised as low in calories are actually very nutritious.
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Also, because of their low calorie and high water content, you can eat a relatively large amount of these foods without consuming many calories.
In addition to the foods listed earlier in this article, here are some other fruits and vegetables that are rich in nutrients but low in calories:
Healthy fats are found in many of the protein sources above, as well as in many other foods and oils.
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Because fat contains more calories per gram than protein and carbohydrates, many sources of healthy fats are not as low in calories as the carbohydrate- and protein-based foods above. However, fat is a critical part of a healthy diet (28).
Summary Although not negative calorie, many fruits and vegetables are low in calories and high in nutrients. There are also a variety of low-calorie protein sources that are packed with other nutrients.
A diet that includes a variety of nutrient-dense whole foods is beneficial for weight loss and overall health (
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Whole foods often contain a greater variety of vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial compounds than processed foods (
One study found that 20% of the calories in a whole grain food are used to digest and process that food, compared to only 10% in processed food (
Importantly, focusing on a select list of foods with supposedly negative calorie content can cause you to miss out on many other foods that provide you with important nutrients.
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For example, foods on negative calorie lists often don’t contain protein or fat, both of which are important to your health.
Additionally, the specific foods listed in this article represent only a portion of the delicious, low-calorie whole foods you can enjoy as part of a well-rounded diet.
Summary Instead of focusing on a curated list of foods with supposedly negative calorie content, it’s best to emphasize eating a variety of nutritious whole foods that can support your overall health, including foods that promote a healthy body weight.
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However, it is unlikely that any of these foods are truly negative calorie, although they can be part of a nutritious and healthy diet.
Instead of focusing on specific foods that trick your body into burning more calories than it consumes, instead aim to enjoy a variety of nutritious foods. physical exercises.
Certain foods have gained prominence in weight loss programs because they are supposed to be “negative calorie,” meaning that eating them burns calories.
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This article covers everything you need to know about negative calorie foods, including whether they help you lose weight and whether they’re true.
Food contains many nutrients, including three main groups that provide energy in the form of calories: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
Every food you eat requires your body to expend energy to digest and metabolize it. Depending on the food, the required amount of energy varies. This is called the thermic effect of food
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A negative calorie food is a type of food that requires more calories to consume, digest and process than what your body naturally has and provides. If these foods are available, eating them can help you lose weight because you burn more calories eating and digesting them than you get from their caloric content.
All the above fruits and vegetables are also low in calories. Now the question becomes, is your body burning more calories to digest these foods than the calories they contain?
Although all the above foods are rich in nutrients and have a good micronutrient profile, the energy required to digest them is unlikely to be higher. In general, TEF represents 10% of total caloric expenditure. The fact is that the highest TEF is for protein, which is 30% of caloric intake.
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Any negative calorie food should have a TEF above 100%, which is not possible, proving that the negative diet is just a myth. Also, there is no scientific evidence to prove this negative calorie diet theory.
However, the increase is small, from 3 to 24 calories per hour. Drinking cold water burns calories in the same way as chewing. However, such a small effect does not lead to a significant increase in the number of calories burned by your body.
Although negative calorie foods may not exist, many of the products that are often marketed as such are extremely healthy.
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Also, because of their low calorie and high water content, these foods can be eaten regularly in large quantities without many calories.
Instead of focusing on food choices that clearly mislead your body to focus on foods that provide the nutrients you need to live a healthy life.
Buschmann, M., Steiniger, J., Hille, U., Tank, J., Adams, F., Sharma, A. M., Klaus, S., Luft, F. C., & Jordan, J. (2003). Water-induced thermogenesis.
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Heinitz, S., Hollstein, T., Ando, T., Walter, M., Basolo, A., Krakoff, J., Votruba, S. B., & Piaggi, P. (2020). Early adaptive thermogenesis determines weight gain after six weeks of caloric restriction in overweight subjects. Even if two diets have the same number of calories, there can be significant differences in how it affects your body. Julia_Sudnitskaya/iStock via Getty Images
Terezie Tolar-Peterson has not worked for, consulted for, owned stock in, or received funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations outside of their teaching of academic subjects.
A calorie is a calorie, at least from a thermodynamic point of view. It is defined as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius (2.2 lb to 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
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For example, some studies report
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