[Nick]

What are negative calories? How to they affect the weight loss process? I've been hearing out a lot about them and I would like to learn about them.

Thank you,
Nick.

[Holly]

To make a negative calorie food list, we must be precisely clear on what we mean. There has been some confusion about this phrase. Some have thought that this kind of food contains no calories at all. This can't be right as long as all kinds of food contains at least some energy.

We're going to present you with a list of this kind of food. If you follow it, not necessarly without any other kinds of food, it will increase metabolism naturally, and the result will be weight loss - especially compared with eating a meal where these foods are not included.

Now, it's time for a definition. When we say nagative calorie food, we mean foods which contain so little energy that the body actually uses more energy to digest and absorb the nutrients. So if you subtract calories you'll burn from the calories you eat, the result will be negative. Only by digesting the food you have eaten, there will be a net loss of energy or a negative energy balance. This is what must happen if you want to lose weight but with this food you don't have to do anything but eat it to accomplish that.

You can also eat protein in combination with such food. Good protein will help you control your appetite as well as increase your metabolism because the total amount of calories are not reduced too much.

Here is the list:

Vegetables

Fennel, aubergine, gourd, broccoli, leek, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, marrow, cauliflower, peppers, celery, radish, chicory, spinach, cress, tomato, cucumber, turnip.

Fruits

Apricot, mandarin orange, blackberry, melon canteloupe, blackcurrant, peaches, clementines, plums, damsons, raspberry, grapefruit. rhubarb, guava, strawberry, honeydew melon, tangerine, lemon, watermelon.

[Brer Rabbit]

Thanks Holly!!

This reminds me of the lists in the Picture Perfect Weightloss program. Lot's of "free" foods mentioned in the book.

There are a lot of dishes that can be made up of just those items that can really fill a person up. Like a huge salad or a vegetable soup. I've been using the new "Spray" dressings that are 1 calorie per spray and they are really good. It takes about 10 sprays for a regular serving and this added to the veggies listed makes a very low low cal meal.

[Nick]

Thank you all. Great and simple explications.
Does anyone knows any negative calories recipes?

[Brer Rabbit]

Hi Nick,
With a majority of the negative calorie foods being veggies and fruit, I would stay a mixture of sliced vegetables maybe steamed or grilled. I use a lot of lemon and seasoning salt when I cook and maybe marinate them in a mixture of something and then grill.

Although fruit is a negative calorie food, it does contain a lot of sugar, although natural sugar, but if you are watching your sugar intake, some fruit whether negative calories or not wouldn't be that good.

I have a really good simple recipe for a fruit dip though. And I heard that Splenda now has a brown sugar..... if you take a 16 oz carton of sour cream or any alternative, and mix in about 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar and let it set in the refrigerator for an hour or so, it makes a delicious fruit dip! I haven't tried the Splenda brown sugar, but it's GREAT with regular brown sugar.