negative calories

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whitneyps7
whitneyps7 Posts: 409 Member
in Food and Nutrition
so i was hanging out with somegirl friends this weekend and i was tellin them about MFP and how ive been doing good and been losing weight and told them what ive been doing ect...well these are girls i went to college with and we got to talking and they asked me a question and i was like hmmmm i dont know ill ask MFP friends lol...........so in school we learned that eating celery has negative calories cause its mostly water and it takes more energy to chew it, so if eating celery is negative calories then how many negative calories would u have to eat to say be able to eat a pack of cupcakes? lol i was like hmmm then i just started laughing. so im curious as to what yall have to say? :)

Replies

  • LoraF83
    LoraF83 Posts: 15,694 Member
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    There is no such thing as negative calories.
  • tryclyn
    tryclyn Posts: 2,414 Member
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    We asked a similar question in chem class about drinking ice water. The mathematics proved it to be negligible.
  • kdeaux1959
    kdeaux1959 Posts: 2,675 Member
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    One cup of celery is 14 kcal and I read that an estimate for the number of calories burned for eating is 29 calories per hour. Therefore, if you took an hour to eat your cup of celery, you would actually burn 15 more calories than you took in... If you want to consider it that way then eat spinach instead because it is only 7 calories per cup and you would actually come out a bit better.

    Now, for the "mostly water" argument. If you mix one scoop of gatorade in a 16 oz glass of water, it would be MOSTLY WATER....Yet the drink itself would be 100 calories ... (There are certainly other examples where the caloric density would be higher but I cannot think of any at the moment that would defy much argument)... In that case, if you were on a 1200 calorie diet, it would only take you 12 glasses of this to use up your daily calorie allotment... although arguably you would burn up quite a few calories running to the bathroom so I guess you could count that as exercise....

    As another post said... If it were negative it would be so negligible it would not matter.
  • cheerchicksie
    cheerchicksie Posts: 51 Member
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    it's not "negative calories." there's no such thing as "negative calories," at that.

    A calorie is the amount of energy expended to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water, by 1 degree (Celcius). Basically it's a unit used in chemistry. You don't use "negative energy" to burn anything off.

    ...one 5-inch stalk has 3 calories.

    that said, your body does have to break down the cellulose in celery - this process will keep you metabolizing faster, for longer periods of time. so in a sense, you could call it "negative calories" in the sense that eating these sorts of foods will boost your metabolism and help you burn more of the food you eat.

    hope this helps!
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
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    Sixty two and three quarter acres of it.
  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
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    Unicorn meat is negative calories.
  • SomeoneSomeplace
    SomeoneSomeplace Posts: 1,094 Member
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    Go to the gym.
    Burn Calories.
    Eat Cupcakes
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    The calories it takes to chew and digest food are already included in your TDEE, so if you try to take them off of your total for celery then you're counting them twice. Better to just count the calories in the celery and not worry about so called "negative calorie" foods.
  • whitneyps7
    whitneyps7 Posts: 409 Member
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    thanks guys. all helped alot lol
  • msjanetcole
    msjanetcole Posts: 31 Member
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    If it were possible, then you could eat a pack of cupcakes a day and be assured diabetes in the near future. Not wise to exercise enough to eat a pack, same effect to be destined for diabetes.
  • Deipneus
    Deipneus Posts: 1,862 Member
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    Research, my friend, research. Webmd.com says:

    Myth #3: Celery Has Negative Calories, so It Will Compensate for the Extra Cheese!

    At six calories per stalk, celery is unquestionably a weightfriendly food. But, alas, the body doesn't expend more calories than that to chew and digest it, according to David Baer, Ph.D., a research physiologist at the USDA Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center in Maryland. "No negativecalorie foods have been discovered yet," he says.

    http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/9-myths-about-your-salad
  • lasmit4477
    lasmit4477 Posts: 308 Member
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    :laugh:

    Their statement is not valid. Period.

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