Simply put, negative calorie foods cause us to burn more calories through digestion than the food actually contained in the first place. It sounds a little bit confusing doesn’t it? So let’s take a look at a quick example:
1. Let’s imagine you have a serving of sticky toffee pudding after dinner; it contains 450 calories. In order for your body to digest the pudding it only burns up 125 of those calories. This leaves you with a net gain of 325 calories.
2. Let’s pretend that you chose a whole orange instead; which contains about 35 calories. This time your body needs to burn 50 calories in order to digest the food. So, you are left with a net loss of 15 calories.
It sounds like negative calorie foods could be a great idea to help us burn belly fat, right? Let’s take a closer look to make sure.
The Negative Calorie Effect
The negative calorie effect describes the process seen in example 2 above. There isn’t a food in existence that actually contains “negative calories” per se.
So what causes this effect? Well, all foods contain micronutrients (i.e. carbohydrates, protein, fat), vitamins and minerals. The number of calories contained within a food depends on the quantity and structure of these micronutrients.
When you eat food, your body automatically produces enzymes to break it down. The micronutrients in negative calorie foods stimulate so much enzyme production that the fat burning food is broken down completely, and some calories stored by the body are burned too.
It sounds a bit funny, but this is a natural process and it’s nothing to be worried about.
Calorie Intake From Natural Foods
I’m going to give you a sample list of these foods in a moment, but it might not come as a surprise to find that they are all natural, fresh and unprocessed foods.
If you’ve ever read one of my articles before, you’ll know that I am a massive fan of unprocessed foods. Not only are they delicious, but they are key to losing weight and ugly belly flab.
The main reason for this is that all of the calories found in these foods are naturally occurring. This means that your food is jam packed with all of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals you need to stimulate a fat burning hormonal response in your body.
Free List Of Negative Calorie Foods
Negative Calorie Fruits: Strawberries, Mango, Tomato (some call it a vegetable), Apples, Oranges, Raspberries, Blueberries, Grapefruit and many more.
Negative Calorie Vegetables: Celery, Broccoli, Hot Chilli, Asparagus, Spinach, Onion, Cabbage, Turnip, and the list goes on…
Just look at all of the nutritional powerhouses in the list above!
Negative Calorie/ Zero Calorie Diet?
It’s hardly surprising that some folk have designed whole diet programs around these foods. The negative calorie and zero calorie diets are born from the thinking that burning more calories that you eat without even doing any exercise is too good to miss out on.
Just be aware that negative calorie foods will never make up for eating junk foods. If you really want to lose stomach fat then you have to stick to a balanced nutritional program.
To find out more about Negative Calorie Foods and how to use them in a nutritional program, check out my Fat Burning Foods blog.
