The fight against fat gets harder as the years pass. If you’re approaching 30 years old (or well past it), you’ve no doubt realized how the teenagers in your life can eat whatever they want and never seem to gain weight. You were once that way, too. Unfortunately, time, gravity, and a breakdown in metabolism, has probably caused you to forget all about it.
Knowledge of nutrition and your personal caloric requirements is essential to maintaining control and winning the war. Do you know how many calories your body requires just to function? If not, that is the first step you need to take in gaining the upper hand.
Say you are a 6’2,” 205-pound man. You would require roughly 1,800 calories per day just to exist. This does not count calories needed from the activity level of your lifestyle. It is simply the break-even cost – in food dollars – of keeping your body open for business.
Calories add up. Everything you eat and drink carries a count, and it’s often hard to juggle the two. Wouldn’t it be great if there were something you could put in to your body that actually subtracted from that total?
That’s where negative calorie foods come in.
Negative calories? How does that work? You’ve never once seen a product that had on the nutritional facts section of its packaging a (-) sign. These can’t exist. But they do. Remember, the body must burn calories to process food.
If you put 300 calories in your body, and it only takes you 100 to break down that particular food product, then there is a surplus in your system of 200 calories, which will go toward weight gain.
But if you eat a food product with 150 calories that forces your body to burn 200 calories for breakdown and digestion, then you’ve created a deficit of 50 calories. That goes toward weight loss. Obviously, the more of these you can work into your diet, the better off you are.
So, what kinds of foods qualify?
Commonly considered are:
- Asparagus
- Turnips
- Lettuce
- Celery
- Carrots
- Green cabbage
- Garlic
- Strawberries
- Oranges
- Grapefruits
The reality is these foods have calories, but they can end up causing you to work harder in their absorption and application, and it is this negative net that makes them negative calorie foods.
Don’t see any meat in there, do you? If only!
Know Thy Self
You obviously can’t make your diet on nothing but celery. As with all things in life, moderation is the key. Eat foods that cause your body to work a little harder, but don’t swear off the good stuff all together. Doing so will just burn you out quicker and head to a faster, harder relapse.
Peace of mind is just as vital to the weight war as anything else, and if you’re eating things that are souring your attitude and perspective towards life, any benefit these foods contain will vanish in your apathy. So make sure to balance.
But it all begins with knowing your caloric needs. Recommended Internet search: Go to http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm for a handy guide on what it takes to keep you, you.
