Does eating broccoli really burn more calories than it actually contains?

Does eating broccoli really burn more calories than it actually contains?

The staple vegetable of many bodybuilders and fitness models.
It has long been considered to be the most prominent of what is known as:
"Thermogenic Foods"

Thermic Effect of Food / Thermogenic Effect of Food

Definition:

"The energy expenditure brought on as a direct cause of the digestion, absorption and transportation of nutrients" (Goljan, 2013). 

The apparent criteria for a thermogenic or 'negative calorie' food is one that contains a low calorie count while simultaneously containing a high fibre count. A list of these so called fruits and vegetables can be seen below:

The Theory:

In one piece / spear of broccoli there is, on average, 11 calories. The theory of the thermogenic effect of food dictates that throughout the digestion, absorption and transportation of nutrients from that one piece of broccoli, the body actually burns more than the original 11 calories consumed.

"Great! So if i eat nothing but broccoli I will lose copious amounts of weight!"

Wrong!!!

This theory and subsequent popular assumption is wrong on two parts:

Part A: The theory is flawed

Part B: The Calorie Myth

Part A: Why the theory is flawed.

Different foods do use varying degrees of energy within the digestion-absorption-transportation process: 

Carbohydrates: 5-15%

Fats: 5-15%

Proteins: 20-35%

The body obtains the above mentioned percentages from the energy obtained from the digestion process (Granata, Brandon, 2002). So if a piece of meat contains 100 calories the body will use 20-35 calories to digest, absorb and transport the nutrients from that piece of meat......on average of course.

No one is denying that certain foods use a varying amount of calories during this process, this has been proved in various studies. But not a single study has ever proved that the processing of certain foods like broccoli or celery. None! Zilch! Nada!

Unfortunately it's all lies, based on unfounded theories and evidence!

In fact, those who fall into the category of overweight or obese have actually been found to burn an even lower percentage of consumed calories during the day compared to a lean individual. (De Jonge, Bary, 1997, Nelson, Weinsier et al. 1992). 

Part B: The Calorie Myth

Part B will evolve into a 4 part series of blogs featuring over the next 4 Sundays. 

We've already shown that no evidence to support TEF (Thermic Effect of Food) exists. But let's for one minute assume that the theory played out and you did in fact burn more calories than you consumed. This is based on the Calories in Vs. Calories out way of thinking, in that, if you require 2000 calories to maintain your bodyweight and only eat 1800 in a day, you will lose 200 calories and subsequently lose weight. 

Wrong! And on many levels!

• A calorie is defined as a unit of energy that is required to contribute to a reaction within the body. A certain amount of calories are required for daily functioning and that is it! No mention of a certain amount of grams of calories so why would a reduction in the weight or number of calories consumed have a direct impact on the weight of an individual. It all depends on everything that comes along with the calorie. To put it another way some houses are heated using home heating oil, another house is heated using gas. They both heat our homes but weight totally different amounts, but, that doesn't effect how warm our house is, does it!
• Different foods cause different hormonal reactions within the body. These different hormonal reactions cause an array of different processes to occur and to make matters more confusing, each process effects each person differently based on body fat%, lean mass%, vascular health, nerve health, gut health, skin health and organ health. The hormonal changes can cause weight gain in one person and weight loss in another. This can again be influenced by stress, exercise and disease! In essence no one person is the same and any diet or nutritional plan should be individualized.

An excellent source on this very topic and a contributor to my own personal research is a book called: 

"The Calorie Myth" by Jonathan Bailor." Below is a link to a review of his book through amazon! But remember to check out the 4 part series starting on Sunday night on my blog called "Eat Less, Lose Less".

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Calorie-Myth-Exercise-Weight-Better/dp/0062267337/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395782438&sr=1-1&keywords=the+calorie+myth

Thanks,

Ethan

All about me

So you've read on the amazing posts to come from my welcome post - if not, why not? Just kidding, but to find out what is to come after this slight deter, give the welcome post a good read.

Regardless you're probably wondering the following:

1. Who on earth is this guy?
2. Why should I listen to him?

To answer these questions and the many more probably rattling round in those heads of yours, it give you a brief history of who Ethan Lowry is.

Some details first:

• Full name: Ethan Stewart Lowry
• What age am I: 20
• Where do I live: Portglenone,  Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
• What school did I go to: Ballymena Academy
• What University (college for you americans) did I go to: University of Ulster, Jordanstown Campus, Bsc Hons Physiotherapy
• What religion am I: Christian

So where does my story begin?

To keep it applicable to my job and this blog, it spare you the details of my first 10/11 years of my life - Thank goodness you all say! Don't worry its not going to be a day to day diary of my life. Events like how I was so distraught that my primary school crush ended up falling for my best friend, is in the past. You'll be happy to know this post isn't going to be about such trivial matters.

I start at the first most influential moment of my childhood, when I had just started secondary school, my beloved Ballymena Academy.  I was so engrossed in being involved in such a sport driven school, twice a week or more we ran the rugby pitches practising our plays for the game on Saturday, once a week we had p.e. and every Wednesday we had games which involved a myriad of sports and activities. So I was definitely an active child, encouraged by my sport driven father and a wildly competitive family, you can soon see how the seeds where planted when it comes to sport and exercise. But something strange began happening a couple of months in at my first year in school. I was drinking lots!  Just to clarify, I was not drinking alcohol, I did not suffer from alcohol abuse at age 11. I just couldn't get enough water, I would drink and drink and drink and it would never be satisfied. I was leaving class, saying I was going to the toilet and secretly running to the nearest water fountain. A week went by  and I was still feeling like this and then one night, BAM, I wet the bed. Yep that's right, wet the bed. At this point I was freaking out, so I told the parents the symptoms I had been experiencing and so the next day they took me down to the Doctors to get checked out. The doctor asked a few question, done some blood work and that was it, he turned round and said "DIABETES." I was confused, I'd never eaten a lot sweets, sugar or bad foods, we were a relatively healthy family. I was eventually diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes melitus. But my diabetes is for another blog.

Testing blood sugars...
One of the many annoying aspects of diabetes

I progressed through school being involved in various sports but mainly rugby and eventually football. My rugby career came to an abrupt end in my GCSE year when i had a severe break in my collar bone with associated shoulder problems. It healed in approximately a year but the rest of the teams had progressed so much i decided to go for the football team. At the same time I had become more involved in the gym. My best friend and subsequent gym partner became "disciplined" in our own eyes, training 4/5 days a week. And we made pretty good progress, with quite a lot of muscle mass and still staying really lean. But at this stage we just followed the standard  "t-shirt muscles" workout - you know, biceps, chest and abs. The very idea of training legs or back never even crossed our mind. We just wanted to look good - forgetting that other people seen a lot more than what we seen face on in the mirror.

For myself this led to over-pronated shoulders due to tight pectoralis major and minor and weak (never used) back muscles. My core strength was terrible from never squatting and my legs were miserably thin. It wasn't until i went to Uni that i realised how this had affected my posture.


On obtaining the grades i needed to get into Uni i headed off in Autumn 2011 to University of Ulster, Jordanstown Campus, Belfast, to do my dream course of Physiotherapy.

 When i got to Uni everyone wants to make a good impression so I decided heck I'm gonna take my training to a new level, I want to look good - even though from the neck up there wasn't much of a chance. Heck I was happily in a relationship so i wasn't even on the pull. But its a guy thing, what guy doesn't want to look bigger and stronger in front of other guys? Who doesn't want the bulging arms that stretch the probably too tight hollister t-shirt and the rippling abs that you "accidentally" show off when you take off your hoody and the tee just happens to slide up your torso.

But low and behold i walked into one of my first practical class for physiotherapy and the lecturer points to me and says; "Can you come to the front and take off your t-shirt and strip down to your shorts." I didn't mind, I thought I was in pretty good shape and I was pretty lean, but, the lecturer was quick to point out all the parts of my body effected by only training the t-shirt muscles when i was at school. He confirmed my pronated shoulder, weak back muscles - signified by muscle atrophy (wasting) - my weak posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings and calves.) The weak posterior chain led to a lordotic curve in my lumbar (lower) spine . This caused a stretching of my abs and even though i had trained them frequently, the stretch caused them to still be relatively weak. More significantly it also caused a huge "sticky-out-butt," which was very noticeable.

Basically I looked like this!

From this new information I quickly changed around my gym routine. I started squatting loads and you know what, I hated it!! I hated the feeling of being weak at the gym. I mean, when I was training chest i could dumbbell press 35-40kg each arm at 18! I could barely squat with 60kg and i was a broken man for the next few days with doms. But, then i started to see progress. I saw my lordotic curve begin to correct itself and i put on about half a stone of mostly muscle in about 6-8 weeks of squatting like this.

So i progressed through my first year at Uni training away! By the time summer came round I had been thinking more and more about entering into the fitness industry. I saw the way physiotherapist and personal trainers often liaised with each other and it finally clicked, why can't I do both. So, I talked to a number of personal trainers and others in the industry and with the financial assistance from my aunt, I enrolled onto my first Level 2 Fitness Instructor course. I was hooked immediately, I was dying to take it to the next level and couldn't wait to enroll onto a Level 3 Personal Trainer course. But i had a dilemma, I was still at University. I couldn't just take 6 weeks off, especially on a course that involves regular placements. I thought I couldn't progress, but then I found out that the same company offered the level 3 qualification part-time. So, I enrolled. At the same time i had taken various different courses in; kettlebells, spin, boxercise, circuits and kinesiotape therapy.

I began reading more and more around the science of training and nutrition. I wanted to be an expert in the field. I knew I needed to take the brave step and start to attract clients for the first time. Through talking to friends and family I began to devise my own set of kettlebell classes. These ran over a period of 6 weeks right through second year at Uni. The summer months were on me again and i decided to offer a an early morning bootcamp over two months. It was during this time I realised the benefits of early morning rises. Difficult at first, I quickly realised that i had much more energy throughout the day and more of the day to enjoy. Through both the classes and the bootcamp, I knew that i loved what i was doing and I wanted to do it more, but, third year of Uni was coming. Finals, dissertations all loomed. But i knew i had to do something to better my knowledge within the industry. I had been wanting to improve my knowledge of nutrition and because of my ties with Uni it had to be part-time. I decided upon enrolling on an Advanced Diploma in Clinical Nutrition. Which as of yesterday i completed with a distinction an I am already putting it to good use with helping clients control their health and weight through simple and effective programs.

So what is next for me in my life. I was hooked on the knowledge i learnt on my diploma and once my degree finishes this year in April i plan to enroll with the International Society of Sports Nutritionists whilst also taking on an Advanced Diploma through the ISSN as well.

I also am currently planning to apply for a Masters program at the University of Ulster in Sports and Exercise Nutrition.

Hopefully I haven't bored you all senseless with this post but I felt it was important to give you guys an insight as to how i entered and started off my journey into the industry

Where can you find me at:

• Facebook: Ethan Lowry Health & Fitness
• Instagram: @ethanlowry_pt
• Blogger: Ethan Lowry Health and Fitness
• Pinterest: SolidRock Gym
• Twitter: @EthanLowryPT

Many Thanks,

Ethan