zero calorie foods like diet soda non fat cooking spray and a few others .... i cant think of now but i did see a calorie free salad dressing in the supermarket i cant remember the brand name it was in the refrigorator section but in any case .... are these foods really zero calorie?

Diet soda is pretty low.

Most cooking sprays are expressed in parts of a second so they can put zero on the label. The one I use is 10 cals/sec (I give them kudos for not saying zero calories for 1/2 sec).

I can't speak to the salad dressing, but again, if the 'serving size' is under a specific number of calories they can put zero on the label. If you like experimenting I use ~1Tb cornstarch with a cup of water (brought to a boil and cooled) as an oil substitute. Taking 1/2 cup of that (15 cals) and 1/2 cup vinegar (17 cals) then make vinaigrette with it. I'll add different herbs, sometimes a little sweetener (depending on my mood) and you end up with a salad dressing that's around 50 cals for a bottle. The only tip if using other recipes, cut back on the pepper (hot items) a bit.

No. The makers can round down. Also, if you use double a serving, it could affect the calories. Every food has a calorie, even "celery" that people tout that it's "negative."

Nutrition Diva on negative calorie foods: http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtyti...rie-foods.aspx

Now, I heard about the "no such thing as a zero calorie food" thing on Jillian Michael's podcast. I would tell you what day but I have so many on my MP3 and I listen to so many, I just don't know. Although it's in one of these on this page: http://www.kfi640.com/pages/podcasting/

I think that only natural zero calorie thing we consume is water The other two ladies are right!

im crushed to bits ..... i <3 diet soda ..... idk if i can do without it ..... do you think seltzer water is a better alternative?

I cannot have sweeteners of any kind, chemicals or naturals so I drink seltzer water and LOVE it. I actually limit myself to one bottle with my dinner because if not, that's all I'll drink. Sometimes I just really want something fizzy.

You said "zero calorie salad dressing" and I gagged. :P I bought some bottled zero calorie Italian dressing last year and it was an abomination. Seriously - it tasted like vinegar and band-aids! :P

So many low-cal foods are crammed full of fillers, artificial sweeteners, and chemicals. I honestly think my weight loss is faster and more consistent when I stay away from the low-cal stuff. My body knows what to do with cream, milk, and salt (a.k.a., butter). It doesn't know what to do with hydrogenated vegetable oil, artificial flavorings, and emulsifiers (margarine).

Stepping down off my now!

Walden Farms makes zero calorie dressings and some other items as well. But like has already been said, they're allowed to state that if one serving has less then I think it's 5 or 10 calories. So if you use more then one of their miniscule serving sizes - it adds up. Like the cooking spray. Though with the cooking spray, it's all about coverage and it's still waaay less then consuming what you would most likely pour in oil. I use the cooking spray a lot, but I do also use just some good old plain olive oil.

The case with Walden Farms no calorie dressing - well, it's so bad, IMO, that it really and truly is guaranteed zero calories - you can't eat the stuff. No way to eat even a single serving of it.

I dress my salads mostly with balsamic vinegar. I LOVE it.

A bit OT, but I wanted to chime in about the Walden Farms Dressing, Robin was speaking about. Robin, you really think it's awful? I get the ranch and thousand island and love them both, though the ranch is what I tend to get most of the time. I couldn't believe how good it was. I'm heart broken Robin.

Yeah, I thought it was horrible. But quite frankly, I haven't tried those flavors. I tried one or two of them a while back, can't remember which ones (I think I blocked it out of my memory ) and decided that was enough trying.

Please don't be heartbroken - this is all about finding foods that we as individuals love and that will vary tremendously. That's why it's great to throw different opinions around.

I always thought that they could say 0 calories if there was less than 1 or 1/2 calorie per serving, something like that. So if you knock back a few diet colas and pam spray your pans, then yeah, you are getting a couple calories. I don't count it, though. Which may be odd as I do count my morning black coffee (which I'm drinking now) as a few calories per cup, but I don't count other things that are similar. Oh, well. It's hard to know what the other things count for, exactly, and it's not important to me. What's important to me is that I am constant in counting the same things I've been counting, as the same number per amount, etc. I don't have a kitchen scale and I'm possibly wrong on a fair number of calories -- but it's all about being consistent to me.

I have never, ever counted my cooking spray and since I make a LOT of roasted veggies - I use an enormous amount. And I lost pretty nicely using it.

Let me just say that back in the day - cooking spray - I'm pretty certain that wasn't the "cause" of my being 287 lbs.

And any time my weight's been up now a days - also, nothing to do with cooking spray. That was never my *issue*.

Hmm Band-aid salad dressing! No thanks! haha!

I thought walden farms was disgusting too

thank you for all your imput ladies ... much appreciated