Eating and reducing weight

Negative Calorie Food list

Max. D Gray
By Max. D Gray. Updated: March 24, 2022
Negative Calorie Food list

There are a number of foods that use more calories when being processed by the digestive system than those given to us when we eat them. These foods are known as negative calories that, although the term is not strictly correct as there are no foods as such and all contain calories, the result of their caloric intake and digestion is negative, i.e. you burn more than you eat. This happens because the body needs ten to 15% of the calories in the digestive process. To clarify any possible doubts you may have about it, in this OneHowTo article we will reveal the negative calorie food list.

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Contents

  1. What are negative calories
  2. List of negative calorie foods
  3. Recipes with negative calorie foods
  4. Slim down healthily

What are negative calories

Firstly we must clarify that all foods have calories. Therefore, when we talk about negative calorie, we are referring to the final result. We further explain:

When you eat any product, your digestive system works to process and transform it into energy and this process requires a given amount of calories which will be burnt when doing this task. There are a number of foods that have fewer calories than those required by the body to assimilate that ingredient, these are the ones known as negative calorie foods.

Therefore, the term 'negative calories' refers to the negative energy balance resulting from the eating of a particular food. These are just a few ingredients that have this power, so if you want to eat without gaining weight it is very useful to know what these are and incorporate them into your diet.

Negative Calorie Food list - What are negative calories

List of negative calorie foods

Having clarified the concept we now detail the negative calorie food list. First of all we must make clear that to enjoy a healthy lifestyle and lose weight you can not base your entire food supply on these products, select a balanced diet which is low in fat and incorporate these ingredients into some of your meals. Like so you will give your body the essential nutrients needed without overdoing the calories.

The negative calorie foods are:

  • Artichoke
  • Apricot
  • Anise
  • Cinnamon
  • Coriander
  • Cloves
  • Cayenne
  • Cress
  • Ginger
  • Flax seed
  • Celery
  • Pumpkin
  • Plum
  • Papaya
  • Prunes
  • Cauliflower
  • Asparagus
  • Fennel
  • Bell
  • Beetroot
  • Round courgette
  • Radishes
  • Raspberries
  • Turnip
  • Apples
  • Pineapple
  • Watermelon
  • Garlic
  • Guava
  • Endive
  • Broccoli
  • Onion
  • Chicory
  • Spinach
  • Strawberries
  • Lettuce
  • Cucumber
  • Orange
  • Carrot
  • Peach
  • Blueberries
  • Melon
  • Grapefruit

These ingredients listed require approximately twice the calories to digest than those you are eating. To give you an example: every 100 grams of asparagus contains 17 calories and your body will spend 30 calories (13 more) to process the food. We can therefore say that asparagus has -13 calories, doing the subtraction of what you take and you burn.

Negative Calorie Food list - List of negative calorie foods

Recipes with negative calorie foods

It is important that you take into account that you should not focus your diet on only these foods as the body needs calories to function and have energy to burn throughout the day. So, to lose weight and enjoy a healthy lifestyle you can add some recipes with negative calories to your diet but never focus all your nutrition into on these as you could make yourself ill.

Here are some ideas for dishes with negative calories that you can enjoy in some of your meals.

  • Artichokes with garlic: Both ingredients are in the list above, so it is a perfect dish for slimming
  • Lettuce salad with celery, onion, cucumber and carrot
  • Broth made with carrot, celery, garlic and onion
  • Natural melon or watermelon juice
Negative Calorie Food list - Recipes with negative calorie foods

Slim down healthily

While you want to lose weight you should remember that health comes first and that the measures you take to achieve weight loss should be consistent with your real needs, with your body and your habits. Healthy Living is not about dieting occasionally and then going back to poor eating habits; like so you will spend your life fluctuating between weights.

The ideal is to understand the needs of our body and how to eat healthy, so you can enjoy food without gaining weight. Taking this into account, we will now give you some key tips which are basic to enjoying a healthy and lower calories life:

  • Eat 5 times a day: It is important that you do not skip any meals so that your body speeds up its metabolism and so you can avoid reaching main meals feeling too hungry.
  • Healthy snacks: commit to fruit, oatmeal or low-fat yogurt at times when hunger strikes.
  • Drink lots of water: The daily consumption of 1.5 liters or 2 liters of water is recommended to help the body eliminate toxins and purify itself.
  • Reduce consumption of carbohydrates and eat more protein: As hydrates have a high sugar content, if not burned away they end up becoming saturated fats.
  • Light dinners: It is essential that you treat food coherently, approach it like a fuel for our body so, at night, if you are going to bed you need not fill yourself with calories; choose vegetables and low fat proteins to remove hunger without adding calories.
  • Exercise: It is vitally important to keep your body fit and regularly burn calories. Moreover, sport works perfectly to prevent cardiovascular diseases that may appear over the years.
Negative Calorie Food list - Slim down healthily

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Negative Calorie Food list