Does Celery = Negative Calories? Help Solve an Argument

Options
2»

Replies

  • TerryMyfitbitsnbobs
    TerryMyfitbitsnbobs Posts: 238 Member
    edited December 2016
    Options
    Keep talking everyone; I'm nearly there...
    For a nerd bag like me, that is as stimulating as it gets.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,750 Member
    Options
    TerryMyfitbitsnbobs wrote: »
    Keep talking everyone; I'm nearly there...
    For a nerd bag like me, that is as stimulating as it gets.

    I am now slightly uncomfortable...
  • SlothLady_97
    SlothLady_97 Posts: 6 Member
    Options
    There's no such thing as negative calories. Everything contains calories, you don't really burn of more than what is absorbed. It's a myth. Heck, there's not even such thing as 0 calories. A serving of "zero" cal diet coke can have up to 5 calories in it. It's negligible until consumed at a larger quantity. That being said (I hate celery and don't eat it) but if I did, I would 100% count it toward my daily calories.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    Options
    SlothLady_97 wrote: »
    There's no such thing as negative calories. Everything contains calories, you don't really burn of more than what is absorbed. It's a myth. Heck, there's not even such thing as 0 calories. A serving of "zero" cal diet coke can have up to 5 calories in it. It's negligible until consumed at a larger quantity. That being said (I hate celery and don't eat it) but if I did, I would 100% count it toward my daily calories.

    Water has no calories
  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,338 Member
    Options
    CattOfTheGarage wrote: »
    I always think this is an interesting question and depends on your definition of "food". People say "doesn't cold water take calories to process?" Yes, but water isn't "food", by anyone's definition. Defining something as "food" does rather imply it has some calories.
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    skyblueteapot wrote: »
    From a purely physics point of view, ice goes in at about zero degrees Celsius and comes out at 37 or so degrees, so it must take energy from the body to process it. I did the maths long ago but it didn't inspire me to try an ice diet.

    Rather the opposite, I love my tea and I drink it hot. Does that make it more calorific?

    Would your body have to cool the tea, just as it must heat the ice?

    You don't really spend calories to cool down, you just make various changes which vent the heat which has already built up.

    Whether hot food and drinks contribute useful energy to the body through heat is going to depend on the ambient temperature. If you're somewhere hot where you are having no trouble maintaining your core temperature and are actually having to work to stay cool, taking in something hot will not contribute energy, it will just add more surplus heat that has to be got rid of. But if your are somewhere cold and are having to burn calories to keep your core temperature up, a hot drink will reduce how many calories you need to burn to do that. In this sense, jumpers and woolly hats and radiators are also "calorific".

    This part appeals to me, we're freezing over here!
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    Options
    JustMissTracy wrote: »
    CattOfTheGarage wrote: »
    I always think this is an interesting question and depends on your definition of "food". People say "doesn't cold water take calories to process?" Yes, but water isn't "food", by anyone's definition. Defining something as "food" does rather imply it has some calories.
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    skyblueteapot wrote: »
    From a purely physics point of view, ice goes in at about zero degrees Celsius and comes out at 37 or so degrees, so it must take energy from the body to process it. I did the maths long ago but it didn't inspire me to try an ice diet.

    Rather the opposite, I love my tea and I drink it hot. Does that make it more calorific?

    Would your body have to cool the tea, just as it must heat the ice?

    You don't really spend calories to cool down, you just make various changes which vent the heat which has already built up.

    Whether hot food and drinks contribute useful energy to the body through heat is going to depend on the ambient temperature. If you're somewhere hot where you are having no trouble maintaining your core temperature and are actually having to work to stay cool, taking in something hot will not contribute energy, it will just add more surplus heat that has to be got rid of. But if your are somewhere cold and are having to burn calories to keep your core temperature up, a hot drink will reduce how many calories you need to burn to do that. In this sense, jumpers and woolly hats and radiators are also "calorific".

    This part appeals to me, we're freezing over here!

    By that measure, I burn more calories sleeping under my heavy blankets because it's cold outside. I like it, but high doubt that would help in any way with my weight goals.

Categories