zero cal foods, count them or no?
nykole56
Posts: 21 Member
So I keep seeing these lists of zero or negative calorie fruits and veggies and my question is do I even count them or not? You know the ones it says takes more energy to chew the food them it has calories..,what's everyone's opinion?
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Replies
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You count them.2
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They still have calories. I even log my vitamins the days I take them and they have no listed calories.2
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Negative calorie foods is a great example of utter woo. They still have calories, you can still eat a lot of them, and they still add up. (And I surely burn calories chewing a cookie, but I don't give myself a 15-calorie discount or whatever on the cookie). If you got fat chewing every day, it is probably inadvisable to give yourself credit few chewing if you are trying to get thin--it is included in your daily life activities.
Of course, as I started writing this, I was thinking of celery and lettuce, but I hit the googles and, naturally a list of 20 foods from Dr. Oz hit the top of the list: "negative calorie foods that boost metabolism!!!!" These include lentils, beans, oatmeal, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, corn, citrus, peas and pineapple. These foods have a LOT of calories--far more than lettuce or celery. Holy crap! If you are a smaller woman trying to lose weight on a 1200 calorie diet, you just shot yourself in the foot if you do not log these foods. http://www.doctoroz.com/gallery/20-negative-calorie-effect-foods-boost-metabolism
These are fantastic foods to include in your diet, but you need to weigh and log them. Also, if you are tracking carbs, fiber, and various micronutrients in order to achieve a healthy, balanced diet (seems like an important goal to me), it is important to have even the lower-calorie veggies reflected in there.15 -
If I enter a food and it gives me 0 calories ( ex: Pam spray or certain sugar free sweeteners) I'll do a quick add 5 calories. If you enter any fruits or veggies in the database, none of them come in at 0.3
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There is no such thing as a negative calorie food. Zero calorie foods don't actually exist either, but if a food had less than 5 calories per the serving on the package the manufacturer can label it as zero calories. If I want to know the actual calorie value of a cup of coffee or a pickle I can look it up on the USDA database. It will give you the calories per 100 grams so you can weigh your food, do the math, and get the real calorie count. Many foods from the USDA database are already in MFP. Just type in the food plus USDA and it will come up, like "pickle usda". Whether or not you want to count 15 calories of black coffee over the whole day is up to you.
*edit cuz I can't type on my phone2 -
Those lists are complete BS. There's no zero calorie foods. Don't fall for the nonsense unless you like seeing the numbers on the scale increase.3
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Yes you still log them as their normal food entry, not some zero calorie or "negative" made up entry. The body supposedly burns 15-18% of the calories from protein I eat just processing it. That does NOT mean that I get those back or deduct them in any way. People nit picking their diets to that degree are making the whole weight loss thing way too complicated. Those sort of calculations probably aren't even needed for olympic athletes.4
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That list of negative calorie foods is a complete crock of doodie. It has absolutely no basis in fact. It's just another piece of misinformation that continues to thrive thanks to social media. Count them. Because even if you don't your body will.11
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Even if the food is negligible in calories, there are other important bits of info, like sodium, carbs etc. I track everything so I can see the whole picture at the end of the day.1
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Negative calories is bs. I even count things like diet pepsi and splenda HA0
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TeacupsAndToning wrote: »The only non-calorie things I have are coke zero and water and I don't bother logging either of those things.
..and even Coke Zero has around 3 calories per liter.0 -
I track Coke Zero because I track the sodium under my micros. Splenda packs are not zero calories they are 4 calories each. Pam is not zero call, it's 4 calories per half second spray, etc.1
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Negative calories mean that when I eat that food it actually takes energy out of my body. Lmao0
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Negative calories mean that when I eat that food it actually takes energy out of my body. Lmao
Heh, pretty much. There's this silly list going around stating that some foods, mostly fruit and veg, use more calories to digest than they contribute to the body. Trouble is, it's hogwash. The body is very efficient at digesting and it takes nowhere near as many calories to digest a number of things than it adds to your count.0 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »Negative calories mean that when I eat that food it actually takes energy out of my body. Lmao
Heh, pretty much. There's this silly list going around stating that some foods, mostly fruit and veg, use more calories to digest than they contribute to the body. Trouble is, it's hogwash. The body is very efficient at digesting and it takes nowhere near as many calories to digest a number of things than it adds to your count.
Someone just listed paper towels (along with bread and spaghetti) on a "what the heck is a carb" thread today. LOL. I bet those are negative calorie!3 -
If you're talking about paper towels, or iceberg lettuce, or celery. not counting them is likely not going to cause harm... unless you're soaking/covering the towels in Karo, or the iceberg in ranch, or the celery in Peanut butter.1
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If it's negligible in any reasonable quantity and doesn't have any nutrients I bother to track, then I don't count them. So, pretty much lettuce (which is like 1 calorie-ish per leaf) - I consider it free volume/bulk for the stuff going on it. Most fruits aren't negligible. A lot of vegetables aren't either. Stuff that is <5 calories that you don't consume often during the day - sugar-free water flavor drops, gum (not wise if you have like >20 a day though). Oil spray that doesn't register to 1 gram on the scale (yes- you really can use the <0.5g in spray form that is quoted on the label)(most <$20 scales only have 1 gram resolution).0
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So I keep seeing these lists of zero or negative calorie fruits and veggies and my question is do I even count them or not? You know the ones it says takes more energy to chew the food them it has calories..,what's everyone's opinion?
There are no zero/negative calorie foods. Track everything you consume if your goal is weight loss. (if negative calorie foods really existed you could starve to death while eating a bushel of apples a day.......)0 -
So I keep seeing these lists of zero or negative calorie fruits and veggies and my question is do I even count them or not? You know the ones it says takes more energy to chew the food them it has calories..,what's everyone's opinion?
This is a myth. Celery & lettuce comes close, but they are still not negative calories.
Fruits & veggies are great, but measure and log everything.0 -
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If it's negligible in any reasonable quantity and doesn't have any nutrients I bother to track, then I don't count them. So, pretty much lettuce (which is like 1 calorie-ish per leaf) - I consider it free volume/bulk for the stuff going on it. Most fruits aren't negligible. A lot of vegetables aren't either. Stuff that is <5 calories that you don't consume often during the day - sugar-free water flavor drops, gum (not wise if you have like >20 a day though). Oil spray that doesn't register to 1 gram on the scale (yes- you really can use the <0.5g in spray form that is quoted on the label)(most <$20 scales only have 1 gram resolution).
But it is also worth noting that I did indeed weigh out my very large plate of lettuce that very first time and check the database, BEFORE I decided it wasn't worth logging then (or ever again).0 -
I take it a step further. I don't count low calorie green vegetables like lettuce, broccoli, spinach, etc. I figure I eat more of them that way (don't have to make "room" for them in my calorie count) and if I go over 100 calories or so on green veggies it will be a tiny (and healthy) blip on the overall radar. I've lost 60 lbs. so far and it seems to work well for me.2
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So I keep seeing these lists of zero or negative calorie fruits and veggies and my question is do I even count them or not? You know the ones it says takes more energy to chew the food them it has calories..,what's everyone's opinion?
They are low calorie...but no, their TEF doesn't wipe out all of the calories. When I logged I was a lot more loose with vegetable logging, but I typically logged something unless it was just a piece of celery or something.1 -
If it goes into your mouth you count it.1
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ninavalentine wrote: »I take it a step further. I don't count low calorie green vegetables like lettuce, broccoli, spinach, etc. I figure I eat more of them that way (don't have to make "room" for them in my calorie count) and if I go over 100 calories or so on green veggies it will be a tiny (and healthy) blip on the overall radar. I've lost 60 lbs. so far and it seems to work well for me.
The only problem would be if someone is tracking fiber intake, then the amount of fiber our veggies eaten is important to track.
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French_Peasant wrote: »Negative calorie foods is a great example of utter woo. They still have calories, you can still eat a lot of them, and they still add up. (And I surely burn calories chewing a cookie, but I don't give myself a 15-calorie discount or whatever on the cookie). If you got fat chewing every day, it is probably inadvisable to give yourself credit few chewing if you are trying to get thin--it is included in your daily life activities.
Of course, as I started writing this, I was thinking of celery and lettuce, but I hit the googles and, naturally a list of 20 foods from Dr. Oz hit the top of the list: "negative calorie foods that boost metabolism!!!!" These include lentils, beans, oatmeal, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, corn, citrus, peas and pineapple. These foods have a LOT of calories--far more than lettuce or celery. Holy crap! If you are a smaller woman trying to lose weight on a 1200 calorie diet, you just shot yourself in the foot if you do not log these foods. http://www.doctoroz.com/gallery/20-negative-calorie-effect-foods-boost-metabolism
These are fantastic foods to include in your diet, but you need to weigh and log them. Also, if you are tracking carbs, fiber, and various micronutrients in order to achieve a healthy, balanced diet (seems like an important goal to me), it is important to have even the lower-calorie veggies reflected in there.
Great post.
OP - whatever sites you are going to that are advertising negative calorie foods, I would stop visiting those sites because they probably have other ridiculous nonsense like "10 foods to avoid in order to lose belly fat" and "Never Eat THESE if you want to lose weight!" kind of clickbait.
There is no gimmick, short cut, or magic pill. Eat a varied, balanced diet at a reasonable calorie deficit, logging as accurately as possible. That's the secret to weight loss.3 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »That list of negative calorie foods is a complete crock of doodie. It has absolutely no basis in fact. It's just another piece of misinformation that continues to thrive thanks to social media. Count them. Because even if you don't your body will.
You mean my lb of celery doesn't actually give me 100 exercise calories for chewing it? Damn.
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MommaGem2017 wrote: »ninavalentine wrote: »I take it a step further. I don't count low calorie green vegetables like lettuce, broccoli, spinach, etc. I figure I eat more of them that way (don't have to make "room" for them in my calorie count) and if I go over 100 calories or so on green veggies it will be a tiny (and healthy) blip on the overall radar. I've lost 60 lbs. so far and it seems to work well for me.
The only problem would be if someone is tracking fiber intake, then the amount of fiber our veggies eaten is important to track.
The ~nil calorie stuff usually doesn't have much fiber (like lettuce..I track fiber and would log it if it did). Bananas, beans, green beans, which do have a good quantity of fiber all have significant calories. Exception probably being (a small amount of) sugar-free stuff that uses locust bean gum.0 -
Of course!! There are no negative calorie foods lol. I usually add extra 100 a day to account for all the gum, pickles, mustard, hot sauce, spices, truvia, 0 cal coffee syrup, walden farms dressing, etc I have.0
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I don't bother with the calories in coffee or most spices in the diary. I figure I have plenty of other measuring errors that make up for those few calories. I do periodically keep track of sodium and when I'm doing that I'm more careful to make sure not only that I list EVERYthing but that I check the USDA database to make sure the numbers are right.0
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