The Negative Calorie Diet

What is it?

The Negative Calorie diet works on the theory that certain foods create negative calorie effects, allowing you to lose weight. The Negative Calorie diet is controversial because the theory is not scientifically sound. No foods actually possess ‘negative calories’. A negative calorie diet ebook has even been published on this topic.

How does it work?

The theory behind the Negative Calorie diet is extremely appealing. It works on the idea that your body has to burn energy in order to digest certain foods. As a consequence, your body is actually burning fat. For example, take an orange, which may contain 50 calories, it would take a certain amount of energy from your body to process all of the nutrients and vitamins within the orange. In doing so, you would burn more than 50 calories. However this is also highly dependent on the speed of your metabolism.

The Negative Calorie Diet claims that after consuming certain ‘negative calorie foods’ (like an orange), your body is left with a net calorie results which is a negative calorie deduction. So for every orange you eat, you should burn off 25 calories. Previous participants of the Negative Calorie Diet encourage you to eat frequent healthy meals, in doing so you are actually increasing the speed of your metabolism. Thus burning more calories.

What do the critics say?

Critics argue that no foods possess ‘negative’ calories and you cannot eat your way to weight loss. They also believe that by following the Negative Calorie Diet you are potentially offsetting your positive calorie energy reserves, cancelling out the effectiveness of weight training. This criticism argues that we need calories to create energy both for exercise and for recovering from exercise. On the other side of the debate, advocates of the Negative Calorie Diet concede it is true that there is no such food, which contain ‘negative calories’. However they do argue that the by ingesting certain foods you are increasing the metabolic processes which can result in weight loss.

Views against the ‘negitive calorie diet’:

• No scientific proof to confirm its effectiveness
• Very little information surrounding diet
• More theoretical than practical

View for the ‘negitive calorie diet’:

• Little effort involved
• Promotes consumption of foods rich in vitamins and minerals
• Increases the body’s metabolism

How does the diet increase my metabolism?

The Negative Calorie diet works on the concept that certain negative calorie foods contain a surplus of vitamins and minerals which can speed up enzyme production in quantities sufficient to break down not only its own calories, but possible additional calories present in the digestion system. These negative calorie foods includes:

• Asparagus
• Watermelon
• Pineapple
• Grape Fruit
• Papaya

For additional information, please view the official website