Is It True That Celery Contains Negative Calories?

Before this question is answered, there are few concepts which you should be clear about. Doing so will help you better understand the answer to this question.

Negative Calories: Myth, Fact or Sensationalized Meme

Negative calories are the term used for some foods that are claimed to burn more calories as they are eaten. The concept behind such foods is that the act of eating or rather chewing them and then digesting them requires more calories than they provide. This creates a calorie deficit bringing in the weight loss. When this effect was discovered the dietitian and weight loss enthusiasts named it negative calories.

As a matter of fact calorie count is always done taking into account the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF). TEF is energy required to process food for storage, which exhausts 10% of the calories. But for some food TEF increases to be 20%. And though the TEF increases, this is too minuscule to induce substantial weight loss.

Does Celery Have Negative Calories?

Celery is one of the most popular foods with negative calories. A single stalk of celery offers 6 to 8 calorific value apart from the irrelevant cellulose calories. And, because more than 6 calories are required to digest celery there is some extra calories expended. However, touting this calorie expenditure to bring big difference for weight loss is a serious folly.

Guzzling celery couple of times a day won't ensure weight loss. You need to include major lifestyle changes, eat healthy and exercise to lose weight effectively. Moreover, celery is not only low in calories but also vitamins and minerals.

Negative Calories for Weight Loss Diets

Any benefits that negative calorie diets offer will be temporary. Besides it is an extremely restricted diet, usually lacking essential nutrients, proteins and vitamins. They exclude the comprehensive food groups that are considered ideal for health. The only good these calorie wasting foods bring is that they only assist in weight loss.

Bottom Line on Celery - One Of The Negative Calories Foods

Delving into the calorie count science reveals that 3500 food calories need to be burned to budge one pound fat. In fact eating celery the whole day would amount to calories burned whilst you sleep. Celery's contribution in weight loss would be so minute that the effect would be lost down the line. So the bottom line would be that replacing your high calorie, weight inducing snacks with a stalk of celery may just save you from adding those pounds but not garner drastic changes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shruti_T
http://EzineArticles.com/?Is-It-True-That-Celery-Contains-Negative-Calories?&id=7044278