How to Lose Weight With Negative Calorie Foods

At the risk of being totally offensive, yet brutally honest, the fact that you are reading this, probably means you are tired of being FAT! Don't worry, I have felt the same way. I have tried every diet known to man and failed at most. Until now!

The day I learned about the concept of negative calorie foods was the day that changed my life forever. Would you like to know why? Of course you would silly, so by all means, if you have tried everything to no avail and would like to find out the honest truth about how to lose weight, then please, read on.

What is a Calorie?

As it pertains to food, a calorie is the unit of energy-producing potential in food that, if not used, is converted to fat and then stored in all those nasty little areas like our hips, thighs and buttocks. As unsightly as this becomes, calorie-rich foods sure taste good, and that is why we eat them.

Calorie conscious individuals, however, who have never been overweight a day in their lives or those who have been successful in weight loss know that in order to lose weight, one must increase energy expenditure (exercise), while decreasing energy intake (diet).

If this is so simple, then why are there 196 million Americans walking around this planet either overweight or obese? It all boils down to one thing, eating too much and exercising too little.

If you thought I was going to tell you about some sort of ground-breaking weight-loss principle, think again. If you want to lose weight, open the mouth to let food in a little less and force the body to move about a little more.

If this seems to be too difficult a concept, then maybe you need a little shove in the right direction and that is where negative calorie foods come in.

Negative Calorie Foods: The Concept

Negative calorie food is a rather misleading term, as there are no foods that are truly negative in calories. But there are foods that require more calories, or energy, to digest than they actually contain, and this is where the term "negative calorie" comes from.

When calories are harder for the body to utilize, much more energy is required to extract their caloric value. AS AN EXAMPLE ONLY, if a slice of chocolate cake contains 450 calories, it takes far less calories for our body to digest it. This results in a net gain of calories that is stored in our body as fat. Multiply this by days, weeks or months and you can imagine the magnitude.

Now, imagine a slice of celery at only 6 calories per stalk. Because celery is harder for our body to digest, it takes more calories to digest it than the food itself contains, resulting in a net loss taken from our fat stores.

If a lightbulb has just went on in your head, then you are not alone. There is something about this concept that I find very motivating. Knowledge has always meant power in my book!

How Does the Negative Calorie Effect Work?

Every piece of food that we stuff into our mouths has the following ingredients:
Nutrients (Carbohydrates, protein, fat)
Caloric Value (calories)
Vitamins
Minerals


Why is this important? Because when we eat, the vitamins and minerals in our food help our bodies to produce enzymes that aid in the digestion of that food. Negative calorie foods cause our bodies to produce even more enzymes that not only break down the particular food's own calories, but additional stored calories as well. This can stimulate effective weight loss in a relatively short period of time.

List of Negative Calorie Foods

There are many fruits and vegetables that are considered negative calorie foods:

Negative Calorie Vegetables
Asparagus
Beet root
Broccoli
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Carrots
Chicory
Chili
Cucumber
Garlic
Green beans
Lettuce
Onion
Radishes
Spinich
Turnips
Zucchini


Negative Calorie Fruits
Apple
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Cranberries
Grapefruit
Honeydew
Lemon
Lime
Mango
Orange
Papaya
Pineapple
Raspberries
Strawberries
Tomato
Tangerines
Watermelon


But Man Cannot Live By Negative Calories Alone!

Obviously, if we maintained a diet of negative calories alone, we would eventually starve to death! The fact of the matter is, even if we didn't starve to death, we would surely die of mouth boredom or something of the like! We must have protein, fat and carbs in our diets or we will be unbalanced and unhealthy.

To get the biggest bang out of your buck, so to speak, when you eat, along with negative calorie foods, try eating more protein and omega-3 fatty acids.

Protein requires our bodies to burn the most energy during digestion. High protein foods include meats, fish, chicken, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds and beans.

Omega-3 fatty acids increase our metabolism. Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids include salmon, halibut, herring, sardines, trout, walnuts, flax-seed oil, canola oil, tuna, shrimp, clams, catfish, cod and spinach.

In considering all three of these food sources, you can imagine that a diet rich in negative calorie foods, protein and omega-3 fatty acids is the one that is going to help our bodies burn the most calories and thus turn our bodies into literal fat burning machines. Try it for a week and see for yourself. IT WORKS!

Mix and Match Your Food

To spice up your meals and save yourself from the pits of dieting hell, try miixing and matching your foods to create exciting meals that are not only good for you, but satisfy your eager taste buds, as well.

For example, include a green salad with mixed vegies at every meal to supersize your negative calorie effect. Try stir-frying vegetables and chicken in canola oil and adding some shrimp and a dab of flaxseed oil for an addiional calorie-burning boost. . Mix some negative calorie fruit in with low-fat yogurt and some walnuts and you have an amazing, fat burning dessert. Once again, use your imagination and have fun with it. The possiblities are as endless as the sky!

Want a delicious, fat burning meal for you and your family? Visit my latest hub:

Thai Basal Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry: Negative Calorie Food Recipes

Conclusion

While watching the latest Weight Watcher's commercial on television the other day, it really hit home to me that diets don't work. Changing the way we think about food does. If you are like me, you want to look and feel better to improve your health and quality of life. By following a healthy weight loss plan that makes sense, you can accomplish this and so much more. Nothing can stop you now!