Every time you eat you burn calories no different than when you ride a bike or climb a flight of stairs. How can eating burn calories? How? It’s part of the metabolism, the breaking down of food to obtain the energy/calories. It takes calories to break the food down into small particles, to open up the energy inside the food and to fully digest, absorb and utilize them. This process is called thermogenesis. It accounts for about 10% of your total daily energy expenditure.
Negative Calorie Foods: Can You Really Increase Your Metabolism By Eating More?
The “thermal” effects of food, i.e. that eating foods can increase calories burned has been a popular Internet subject recently. Consequently there is a lot of misinformation. The theory is that you can lose weight by eating lots of these negative calorie foods. Proponents claim, for example, that you will burn 80 calories digesting a 25-calorie piece of broccoli, for a net loss of 55 calories. Celery is another commonly cited example of a negative calorie food because it’s made mainly of water and cellulose, an indigestible vegetable fiber. Other foods sometimes labeled as negative calorie include asparagus, berries, broccoli, cauliflower, grapefruit and cabbage. These foods that contain few calories do require a large amount of energy to digest compared with the amount of calories they provide, however, this does not mean that it is significant enough to result in weight loss.
Here is a list of foods, where the energy to digest them might exceed the total calories:
- Cayenne Pepper
- Salsa
- Hot Peppers
- Ice Water
- Green Tea
- Apple Cider Vinegar Drink
- Cabbage
- Celery
- Brussels Sprouts
- Broccoli and Cauliflower
- Lemon or Vinegar
- Vinaigrette Dressing
- Grapefruit
- Berries
- Fatty Fish
- Soup
Many of the foods presented as “negative calorie foods” are vegetables, fruits and nearly zero calorie drinks such as lemon water, ice tea, and green tea. All of these can help in any weight loss plan. But they are not a magic bullet for weight loss.
Adding HCG to these foods increases your metabolism even further.
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