The Negative Calorie diet is based on the idea that
some foods are negative calorie foods. The diet does
not claim that the foods actually contain negative
calories, instead the idea is that some foods take
more calories for the body to process and digest than
are contained in the foods themselves.
The Negative Calorie diet believes that this entire
process of digestion uses many calories, and so by
eating foods that are low in calories, and take longer
to digest, the body will actually be using more calories
than are taken by processing the foods.
The diet claims
that these extra calories required for digestion are
taken from fat stores in the body, and that the more
of these negative calorie foods the dieter eats, the more
weight will be lost.
The Negative Calorie diet gives, as an example,
the net calorie consumption from eating broccoli. It
says that if you eat a serving of 100 grams of broccoli,
which contains 25 calories, it will take the body 80
calories worth of energy to digest it.
This results in a
negative net calorie use of 55 calories which are supposed
to be taken from fat stores on the body. As a
counter example the diet says that if a dieter eats a
piece of cake that contains 400 calories, it will take the body 150 calories to digest it, and the net 250 calories
taken into the body will be stored as fat.
The Negative Calorie diet contains more than 100
foods which are considered negative calorie. These are
mostly fruits and vegetables that are high in fiber.
Some of the vegetables include: asparagus, beets, broccoli,
cabbage, celery, chilies, garlic, lettuce, spinach,
and zucchini. Some fruits considered negative calorie
include: apples, grapefruits, lemons, oranges, and
pineapple.
