Sunday, January 24, 2010

So Are Negative Calorie Foods Really a Diet?

Do Negative Calorie Foods = Diet?

Negative calorie foods have come under fire for a lot of things, and it brings up a really basic question that maybe even the very title of this blog muddles: are negative calorie foods a diet in and of themselves? The general thought seems to be that negative calorie foods are meant as a diet, and that an eating plan should be composed wholly out of the vegetables and fruits that are included in this list. That said, were they meant that way, or not?

This is a hard question to tackle, because there are so many asterisks to any statement I could make, or a lot of "ifs, ands, or buts." That said, all of these foods are extremely low in calories, have high amounts of water and fiber, and are all seen as great snack foods because of the lack of calories and general healthiness of all these garden samplings. That said, negative calorie foods are not meant to be a diet where they are the only food that anyone ever eats. So in that sense, no, there shouldn't be a "negative calorie foods diet," unless you consider it a temporary crash diet that allows you to lose some weight or get past a plateau before going back onto a far more sustainable eating plan for weight loss.

What a negative calorie food list offers is a list of foods that you will not gain weight from, but that will fill your stomach and provide water, fiber, and some basic vitamins that will help your body function and help supplement any diet or work out schedule. This list of foods is very useful in helping out an eating plan, but use them as a heavy supplement to a diet, not as the end all be all of your new weight loss plan. These foods are like hypnosis for weight loss, they can be a huge help, but they won't be enough alone for permanent positive change.