List: 10 Negative Calorie Foods To Help You Shed A Few Pounds

By Jonathan Wolfe, Thu, February 26, 2015

If you’re really serious about losing weight, it’s essential to run your body on a calorie deficit – that is, you've got to burn more calories than you consume. Doing this forces your body to use its excess fat reserves for energy, and – voila – the flab starts falling off.

A great place to start if you want to run a calorie deficit is eating negative calorie foods. These foods, most of which are fruits and vegetables, are unique in that they require more calories to digest than the food itself actually contains.

While you should never eat a diet strictly comprised of negative calorie foods – you’re body still needs a number of essential nutrients regardless of your weight loss goals – they can help give you something to snack on without running up your calorie count.

Here, courtesy of MailOnline, is a list of ten common negative calorie foods:

1. Cucumbers
Calorie content: 100g contains 16 calories

2. Asparagus
Calorie content: 100g contains 20 calories

3. Cauliflower
Calorie content: 100g contains 25 calories

4. Lean, low-calorie meats
Calorie content of chicken breast: 100g contains 172 calories

6. Tomatoes
Calorie content: 100g contains 18 calories

7. Papaya
Calorie content of papaya: 100g contains 43 calories 

8. Chili
Calorie content of chili peppers: 100g contains 40 calories

9. Apples
Calorie content of apples: 100g contains 52 calories

10. Coffee
Calorie content of plain brewed black coffee: Two calories