What are so-called negative calories and do they make you lose weight?

The term negative calories refers to the small group of foods that contain practically no calories but significant amounts of fibre.

The theory is that your body will burn more calories digesting these foods than the food itself actually contains and therefore as you eat you lose weight. However, the truth is that the negative calorie concept is essentially nonsense.

Although some foods, such as celery, contain very few calories, these types of foods don't require your body to work particularly hard to digest them.

Only foods high in protein cause the body's metabolic rate to speed to aid digestion but all these foods also contain a significant number of calories. Sadly, the concept of a negative calorie is no more likely than a chocolate teapot.

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