Yesterday I was watching a show on weight loss and they mentioned ‘negative calorie foods’. What came to my mind is what I teach in my Love Your Body Program, my clean eating and weightloss program, that you don’t need to be hungry to lose weight if you eat the right foods. By eating some of these ‘negative calorie foods’ instead of high calorie foods, you’ll burn more calories and you won’t experience the hunger – this will help you to shed the pounds.

What are Negative Calorie Foods

Negative calorie foods are foods you can eat that are so low in calories and supposedly take as much or more energy to chew & digest than they calories contain. This would mean they don’t contribute to a calorie surplus, in other words – to weight gain.

Plus watercress, garlic, beetroot, honeydew, tomato, mushroom and tangerines, to name a few more.
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What is the Negative Calorie Food Effect

The assumption is consuming negative calorie foods will burn more calories in chewing and digestion process as compared to the calories they provide for the body. Eating these foods will create a calorie-deficit (aka negative calorie effect) ultimately helping your weight loss. But before you go eating these foods, you’ll need to understand that this would only work if they are lightly cooked or raw, one reason why many weight loss recipes call for this.

How do Negative Calorie Foods work

We know our body burns calories (10-15%) during the digestion process for any foods we eat (I love this 🙂 ). We know our body also needs energy to break down the food and to absorb carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, and other nutrients. So we eat the food for the energy to digest the food and for other body functions.

Why include Negative Calorie Foods

It’s pretty simple… you feel fuller from these high carbohydrate, protein, vitamin, mineral, and other nutrient rich foods, so you eat less unhealthy foods (and this is always a good thing). Plus the amount of water + fiber in these foods don’t contribute much to calories but they do have a great impact satiety. By filling up on negative calorie foods, you’ll feel fuller and you’ll be less likely to choose empty calories foods (think: potato chips) that’ll add to your waistline.

Here are a few negative calorie recipes for you to try.

Negative Calorie Vegetable Soup Recipe

6 cups vegetable stock
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup cauliflower and/or broccoli floretts
1 cup green beans, cut into about 1 inch pieces
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 medium zucchini, diced (about 2 cups)
1 cup small turnip, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small jalapeno seeded and deveined, finely chopped
2 cups baby spinach
salt & pepper

1. Combine all ingredients, except the spinach, in a soup pot and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce to a simmer and cook covered for 20 minutes. Add a little salt and pepper if desired.

3. Stir in the spinach and cook for another minute.

4. Remove from heat and serve.

Negative Calorie Apple Chips Treat

2 large granny smith apples
1 tsp cinnamon
coconut oil spray

Thinly slice apples crosswise as thin as you can. Arrange slices in a single layer baking sheet, and give it a light spray with coconut oil cooking spray. Sprinkle the cinnamon evenly over apple slices.

Bake in the top and bottom third of the oven until apples are dry & crisp (about 2 – 2.5 hours). Make a big batch and have as a snack with some almond butter for protein and healthy fats.