Myths are common in the food and nutrition world, and can
spread quickly, leading to a misinformed public. One topic of interest within
the general public is weight loss, and a long-lasting myth is that of
“negative-calories”. Negative calories is an idea that certain foods will help
with weight loss, even when consumed in unlimited portions, due to the negligible
number of calories (thought to be quickly burned by chewing, digesting and
absorbing the nutritional content) while also boosting your metabolism after eating,
ultimately causing weight loss. Yes, this for anyone sounds extremely enticing,
an idea I for one would love to believe, but there is no evidence of support. Even
though some foods, say lettuce or cucumbers, have a low number of calories,
they still count towards your daily caloric intake. To challenge the myth, all
you need to know are some basic facts about metabolism. Our bodies burn
calories at rest, a function called our basal metabolic rate, or BMR, which
fluctuates between each person and depends on factors such as height, weight or
age. Next is the thermic effect of food, the energy exerted to chew, digest and
store nutrients. Our bodies burn the least amount of calories during these two
acts, therefore, despite a small rise in our metabolism after eating, even
extremely low-calorie foods cannot be expected to cause weight loss. Research
has yet to be done specifically on negative calories, but for now, facts of
metabolism seem to debunk this myth.
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