Negative Calarie Foods: Is Watermelon a Negative Calorie Food?
A common assumption is that if water is zero calories, then watermelon must be a negative calorie food. While in theory this makes sense, in reality it's not the case. Watermelon has snuck onto several "Negative Calorie Foods Lists," but this is a little bit baffling since it didn't show up on many of the original lists.
While this post is dealing mostly with whether or not watermelon is a negative calorie food, and what foods really are negative calorie fruits and negative calorie veggies, as opposed to the posers. Not knowing the actual lists is what leads many to believe that watermelon is on the list, but they don't thinkg that pineapple and kiwi are negative calorie fruits (they are).
Before there are any angry comments, let's also deal with the many negative calorie myths. Some of the most common myths, or questions, about negative calorie foods and the negative calorie food diet, are:
- Is there really a such thing as negative calorie foods?
- No foods have negative calories, so negative calorie foods is a scam, right?
- Do negative calorie foods work?
Almost all the arguments about the negative calorie foods diet are based around these questions. The truth about negative calorie foods go as follows:
- There are no foods that take more calories to burn than consumer (except maybe, and a big maybe, ice water) - this concept is from a misinterpretation of Calorie, with a "C" versus calorie, with a "c."
- There is no such thing as a "negative calorie"
- The diet still works for losing weight
So how is it that the negative calorie diet works even with #1 and 2 being true? Simple. There are so few calories in foods that are labeled negative calorie foods, and virtually no fat or carbs, that it is impossible to eat enough to keep gaining weight. How are you going to gain weight every week eating carrotts, celeries, pineapple, apples, blueberries, cabbage, and water? It's not going to happen. In fact, if you had a diet of ONLY negative calorie foods, you would eventually starve to death.
So while technically the people who argue that negative calorie foods don't exist are correct, they miss the forest for the trees. The point of a diet is to lose weight. Will taking on a negative calorie foods diet do that? ABSOLUTELY!!
This doesn't make watermelons bad food. Not only are negative calorie foods great for filling the stomach and losing the weight, but so is a diet very heavy in veggies and fruit with less carbs, fat, and meat. The negative calorie foods diet is a supplemental diet, however, and if you want the full quality effect that a diet chock full of negetive calorie foods can do, you need to find a diet plan, or a cheap negative calorie foods cookbook.