Negative Calorie Fat Burning Foods
Here I am in the meeting room … a beautiful corner office high above the city.
I’m sitting at the table with a professional athlete and his agent.
“Chris – here’s the deal” the agent said, “we need to get 37 pounds off of him ASAP. We need a plan in place to do this.”
Now, keep in mind, there is a lot at stake here, so when he says ASAP, exactly how it sounds.
Mind you, this wasn’t the first of our meetings, so some things have already been 
in place and this athlete was already down 17 lbs. But hit a bit of a plateau for the last few days.
His agent said “What’s the deal with those foods that burn calories – shouldn’t he be eating these?”
Ahhhh, the foods that “burn” calories.
You’ve probably heard this before. The thought is that eating certain foods will burn more calories than they provide. In other words, they have “negative” calories.
Celery is one food that often gets promoted most as a negative calorie food. But cucumbers, some berries, grapefruits, and others fall into the mix as well.
Is this true, though?
Can we eat certain foods that burn more calories than they provide to your body?
Let’s break this down.
Every food we eat cause and increase in metabolism – this is called the thermic effect of food. Some foods cause a bigger “jump” than others.
Protein, for example, causes the biggest jump, followed by carbohydrates, and finally fat. When I say “jump” – it’s estimated to be at around 10-15% of your overall calories. In other words, if you eat 2000 calories each day, the thermic effect of food would be around 200-300 calories each day.
So where does this “negative calorie” thing come into play?
Well, it doesn’t. It’s a myth (surprise, surprise).
No food causes a bigger increase in metabolism than the calories the foods provide.
Now, of course celery is a very low calorie food, but the negative calorie “thing” is still not true. It’s a 100% nutrition myth that has been around for years and apparently still pops its ugly head once in awhile.
Don’t get me wrong – celery is a great snack, particularly with a little natural peanut butter. And, at the end of the day, all those fruits and veggies mentioned above are. Eat more of these, the non processed whole foods, and less of the prepackaged, high fat, high sugar, high calorie stuff, and you’ll not just lose weight, but you’ll be much healthier.
So how did our conversation end with the athlete and his agent?
Well, hopefully I effectively squelched another nutrition myth with at least 2 people…
…but I am 100% confident there will be more questions about similar fat loss myths down the road.
