Negative Calorie Foods

Last week a blogger brought up an old diet theory that's been around since the 90's.  It's based on the premise of "negative calorie" foods. It goes like this: your body burns calories just through the mechanical and chemical process of digesting your food.  Since some foods actually contain fewer calories than the actual digestion process requires, it therefore takes more calories to burn the food than the food contained. The result will be weight loss. Theoretically eating these kinds of foods can help you lose weight quickly.

A good example of this is:  Celery contains about 7 calories a stalk.  Your body needs about 30 calories digesting it. So you end up with some "negative calories."  It does sounds good. You can seemingly eat your way to weight loss! But remember you still need to burn more total calories than you take in to lose weight. (Use ND's free Daily Needs Calculator to determine this.) This should be taken into account of course but I'm not sure if this is regarded as a pertinent factor in the food plan supporting the negative calorie diet.

One problem as I see it, is that there is no real scientific studies that I know of (or few are available) to really validate this theory.  Dr. Neal Barnard is the author of a popular book called the Negative Calorie Diet. Other health authorities don’t seem to give it much creditability.  It seems somewhat of a limited eating plan but at least many of the suggestions are fruits and vegetables which most Americans are really lacking in. Maybe if you are eating more fruits and vegetables to actually replace higher calorie foods this plan could work.

The bottom line is to lose a pound of fat every week you need to create a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day (or 3500 calories a week). In my opinion, a more optimum way to accomplish this is to eat less and exercise more.

Have any of our readers been successful on this plan?