Ryan Singerman, DO, PPG – Weight Management & Bariatric Surgery, discusses the concept of foods that can help you shed unwanted pounds.
We've all heard of these mystical foods that you can eat and magically lose weight. The most common are celery, cabbage, lemon, grapefruit and lime. These might come with claims that you can eat as much as you want because it takes more of your body's energy to process these foods than you actually get from consuming the foods. This myth has led to blog posts and videos telling you to load up on these foods to lose body weight.
In a 2019 study, researchers asked if it was possible to eat these foods and get negative energy to the point that you lose body weight. For the study, lizards were fed strictly celery. In the end, the research showed that the lizards not only maintained their weight, they gained weight. There was about an 8% negative thermogenesis from eating the celery, meaning it took 8% of the energy gained from eating the celery to burn it. But that's far from the 100% it would take to be net negative.
Simply put, all these foods contain calories, and all of them contain more calories than it takes to burn them. So, they all net a calorie gain. None of them cause you to lose weight simply by eating them.
Another common health influencer myth is that drinking 8 ounces of ice water will help you burn more calories and lose weight. The definition of a calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. Without getting into the weeds too much, I’ll just say that it's a lot of water to drink to lose body weight, so I would not use that as method to achieve your goals.
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