The Negative Calorie Diet Review
These foods are certainly NOT negative calorie!
The Negative Calorie Diet Review
Imagine a world where the foods you eat daily were sinfully rich and delicious. Imagine a world where these mouth watering gastronomical feasts were so difficult for the body to break down and release the calories stored within that by the time it did, you were running a caloric deficit.
Sounds great, right?
What are Negative Calorie Foods? Is There Even Such a Thing?
There’s been a fair amount of hype about “negative calorie foods” and diets lately, and I’ve been receiving more than my fair share of questions on the legitimacy of such claims. Let me first say that no, there is no such thing as a “negative calorie food.”
To repeat, no. There is no such thing as a negative calorie food. Maybe in fantasy land, we’re we’d all happily live. But in the real world… mmm, not so much.
Yes, some foods do elevate the metabolism more than others. And some require energy to digest. For example…
… it requires 25-30% of the caloric value of any protein source to be digested and utilized by the body. So a 400 calorie protein-rich meal would only add 275-300 calories to your daily caloric intake. The remainder of those calories would be required for processing. For carbs, only 6-8% of calories is required for processing, and for fats, it’s only 2-3%.
Obviously then, your best bet is to eat protein rich foods, if you want to minimize the caloric value of your foods.
Not so on the Negative Calorie diet.
What Do You Eat on the Negative Calorie Diet?
The focus here is on vegetables, fruit, and the “Negative Calorie” soup, which you’ll be eating until you’re “blue in the face.” In fact, the lack of variety on this diet will make it very difficult for most people to stay on it for any length of time (although this diet is not meant to be a replacement for your regular eating habits). Lean protein is allowed on this diet, but not until a little later in the program.
Snacks consist of water, celery, and apples, lunch and dinner is soup (with perhaps a backed potato), and breakfast is fruit — cantaloupe, honey dew melon, grapefruit, orange, papaya, pineapple, strawberries, or watermelon — eat until you are full. (In my opinion though, the main problem with this diet is the fact that the food choices are dead boring, and most people will have a heck of a time sticking to the program).
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Will this Diet Work?
Will the Negative Calorie Diet work for you?
Yes, this diet will definitely lead to weight loss (it claims to help you lose 14 lbs. in 7 days), but most of this weight loss will be comprised of water and muscle.
Not fat.
In fact, if you’re going to experiment with this diet, I highly recommend you focus on tracking your bodyfat percentage, and not your body weight for a true measure of success. Otherwise, you threaten the lean tissue mass which has a positive effect on your overall metabolism.
Science and Proof? None. Zip. Nada.
The most alarming thing about the Negative Calorie diet is the complete lack of scientific based evidence to back up the claims touted by the publication. The author presents no compelling data that negative calorie foods are anything more than a pet theory of his, and the same goes for some of the deep breathing exercises also touted to elevate metabolism.
In the end, this diet works because of simple caloric restriction, and the preponderance of high fiber, low energy density foods consumed (these are foods that have relatively few calories per gram), not because of any magic or negative calories. Foods high in fiber and volume tend to make you feel full longer, and you eat less during the day.
Be sure to eat lots on this diet though… because the extremely low calorie intake of this diet will leave you famished!
