For those of you who calorie count have you ever heard of "negative calories" ? http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/negati...rie-foods.html

If so, do you still count these foods into your plan?

Fibrous veggies such as lettuce, broccoli, etc. are 'free' foods to me. They use almost the same or more calories to process and burn than the foods are worth. If I have salad with lettuce and dressing, I will only count the dressing.

I still count the calories. Everything has calories no matter if it may take more calories to use. I count everything becuase if i stop counting some things i will slowly stop counting a lot of things then gain.

"A piece of dessert consisting of 400 Calories (actually 400 kilocalories) may only require 150 Calorie (actually 150 kilocalories) to digest by our body, resulting in a net gain of 250 calories which is added to our body fat !

On the other hand, a 5 calorie piece of celery may require 150 calorie to digest, but resulting in a net loss of 145 calories from our body fat !! It implies that the more you eat, the more you lose weight!!! "

If i really believed in 'negative calorie' foods and counted this way then i would count the difference. I eat a 400 calorie dessert, but it only burns 150So in return counting 250 cals. If i did it like this and ate 1600 cals i would gain. If i ate 2,000 cals that day, but my body used 1,400 to burn i would still gain would i not? Now i know your not going to eat 2,000 cals in lettuce and gain. I suppose it is personal preferance and i just feel to be accountable for myself i need to count everything. All these 'negative calorie' foods can add up. Man i hope this made a tiny bit of sense

ETA: it has a list of 'negative calorie' foods. So lets take the apple. If i ate 4 apples that day and didnt count i could easily be eating up to 400 calories more a day and not accounting for them. So i would gain even though it is 'negative calorie' and owuld prolly be confused as to why. i eating such good food but still gaining.

p.s- im not trying to bash anyone that doesnt count these or anything. This is just my personal opinion on how to keep myself on track

I don't know, but this is a cool concept that I never heard of before.... Negative calories. I like it!

The numbers on that article are wrong. They discussed this on the news a few days ago. While the number of calories in celery is very low, and the number of calories used to chew and digest are more, it's not nearly as much as the article states. You'll actually only burn a couple more calories than the food contains, and to gain any benefit at all you'd have to eat celery nonstop all day. Good for rabbits, not good for chicks

So it's basically a myth.

It's a myth. Seriously.

I mean, if you're going to calculate the calories it takes you to chew and digest celery, and call it a free food, then to be consistent, you have to calculate the calories it takes you to chew and digest EVERYTHING you eat. Then you'd have to subtract those calories from your basal metabolism calories that you're allowed, because bodily functions like digestion are part of what is included in your base. Then you might as well begin to calculate the calories every single little thing you do burns ... etc, etc, etc.

Honestly, you can play the numbers game with calories to make yourself feel better, but the truth of the matter is that anything you eat ... ANYTHING ... contributes calories to your diet.

Playing games with the numbers is just a mind game. And it's one of those things that will eventually frustrate you and cause you to quit ... because it's simply not sustainable long term.

.

I have a friend who does weight watchers and always talks about "free" this and "free" that...
I don't consider anything a free food. Negative calorie foods are a myth. Everything has a calorie or two in it. Do your self a favor and count them no matter what.

I do WW and nothing is "free" -- there are many vegetables that are considered "free" -- as in you are allowed to eat what you want, but even with these, if you want to eat a whole head of lettuce, you have to start counting at some point. I think their plan is to get you to make healthier choices, so if you technically go over your daily points (1 point equals approximately 50 calores) because you had a "free" salad -- okay -- but you can't have "free" cookies or anything like that!!

Besides, with the "negative" foods -- it seems like even if it was true, who wants to spend that much time calculating how much work it took to chew/digest everything? To me the point of tracking calories/points, etc. is to make it easier for me to keep track, without obsessing over it.

I just find it interesting because I've noticed in most diets there are 'free' foods or allowances and it has crossed my mind that they still must add up.

Also just curious to see how many of you tracked everything. Thanks for the replies!

I think programs like Weight Watchers consider many vegetables as 'free' food to encourage people to eat more veggies. Studies have shown that overweight and obese people tend to eat fewer vegetables than people at normal weights. It would be really hard to overeat non-starchy vegetables.

Well, if I'm going to have a salad, I don't call it free and then just add the calories for the dressing, I track how many veggies cals I take it too because I eat almost all veggies all day, I'd be a catastrophe if I didn't add it all up. I actually weigh my veggies, if I eat a tomato, I weigh it (and I grow my own tomatos so I weight it and brag about how big it is online in my mater forum). There are some veggies and herbs out there that are so low cal they are almost negligable, but in that case, I add at least a calorie or two...they do have substance on some level. The hippy metaphysical touchy feely part of me says, they exist so therefore they have value...like a few snips of basil...I'd call it a calorie just to acknowledge its existence. LMAO! But, hey, thats how I think.

The numbers look very wrong to me. If they were in the right ballpark, I'd be tempted to punt my morning walk and spend my time eating tomatoes instead!

Anyway, to the extent that the notion has any validity at all, I presume that you wouldn't want to chop, juice, cook, or otherwise process these foods else they become easier to digest.

not buying it.... I count all my veggies. Besides vegetables are definately not cheap and I think there are "digestive" consequences of eating to many veggies.