Can you lose weight by eating celery or drinking water?

I have heard that you burn more calories than you take in when you eat celery. If this is true, couldn't you eat large quantities of celery to lose weight? Also, water contains no calories, so wouldn't drinking water help lose weight too? Your body has to first absorb the water then filter it out of your blood using your kidneys. Don't these actions burn calories?

Yes, but it's not good for you. Celery contains pretty much nothing but cellulose, which humans don't produce the enzyme to digest, and water. So, basically you're just eating water. After a week of it, you'd have lost plenty of weight, but you wouldn't be able to walk to the closet to try on your new pants either. On the other hand, animals which *can* break down cellulose treat it like sugar (which it actually is), so to them a celery stalk is about the same as eating a Twinkie.

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"I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

This is another fad diet, made up to sell books. The best way to lose weight is to cut down on your fat intake(and calorie intake), and work out at least 3-4 times a week. Aerobic exercise periods of at least 20 mins are recommeded for weight loss, but you really should do some weight training too.

Cellulose is a sugar? I am very tired but that sounds wrong. If I am not mistaken, all animals that digest cellulose do so with the aid of bacteria. The "twinkie" analog is incorrect.
Celery is a low calorie food not a no calorie food. It, like all plants contains sugars and other nutrients. The assertion that it takes more calories to chew, swallow and digest celery is a myth, though not far from the truth.
If you must, eat several stalks and a glass of water before dinner. This will reduce your appetite and cause you to eat less. Heck, take a walk afterwards. That wouldnt hurt either.
Avoid those silly fad diets. Eating grapefruit will not "melt" off the pounds either. The key is to modify your lifestyle. Don't sit in front of the tube eating twinkies, get up, go walking and eat only what you need. Save room for icecream too.

Like Kevin Meany says, "All you can eat buffet? You're not supposed to eat all you can eat" Damn I hope that didn't sound too stupid. It's late and I am off to bed.

My original intent of this question was not to suggest this as a fad diet but as a legitimate question about calories. If you drink water, does your body burn any calories at all digesting this? If it does, wouldn't you consequently lose some weight, however insignificant it may be?

Cellulose is a sugar? I am very tired but that sounds wrong. If I am not mistaken, all animals that digest cellulose do so with the aid of bacteria. The "twinkie" analog is
incorrect.

My error. Complex carbohydrate, but we still can't do much with it in our human digestive systems. Try eating nothing but celery and lettuce for a week and let me know how you fare. For most herbivores (deer, rabbits, cows, sheep, what-have-you), these same plants are quite digestable and this is why a rabbit can get fat on lettuce and celery, and you'll waste away to nothing. They can break down the cellulose (which is basically all celery has, nothing to speak of in the vitamin, minerals and proteins groups) and gain energy from it. We can't.

To answer the original question again, yes you'd lose weight eating nothing but celery. You're body will expend energy running it through the system, but will gain nothing in return except for some water and a cleaner intestine. However, after a while, you're going to start missing the calories, vitamins, minerals, etc that comes from a healthy balanced diet like the one on the back of your cereal box

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"I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

Handy sez, "celery = 0 [energy needed to eat is more than you get]" Repeating a myth don't make it so.
"..most herbs, pepper,.." HUH? Where'd you get this? Most weight losing diets don't count spices and herbs, but thats bacause the quantities used don't amount to much. But if your body can digest it then your body is exracting the calories.

Jophiel said," a rabbit can get fat on lettuce and celery," whoa there. Not sure about the celery,but befor you go to giving Floppsy any iceburg lettuce you check with your vet. That stuff will kill a bunny right quick.

Re: Rabbits. Sorry 'bout that. I was simply choosing a herbivore that people could relate to eating these sorts of things and being fat and happy. Use sheep and grass if it makes you feel better For all practical purposes, celery has about as much nutritional value to humans as grass, it just tastes better.

As for "your body breaking it down", just because something passes through you and comes out the worse for wear doesn't mean you're getting anything from it. I can eat a stick of balsa wood and have it come out the other end affected by the digestion process, but you can't tell me I'm gaining anything useful from eating balsa wood.

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"I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

Wait a second... lettuce is deadly to rabbits?!

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Cave Diem! Carpe Canem!

Sure, there are NON calorie foods. I wrote here about it before. Luckys pickles = 0 calories, celery = 0 [energy needed to eat is more than you get], perhaps mushrooms ?, coffee, no-calorie soda, most herbs, pepper,
etc.

Can you lose weight eating them only? Sure you can, makes your shit green most of it.

Frightfully boring meals with lots of salt.

OK, here goes:

The irony of any diet is that your body has a thing called a "fasting state." It seems that if you were actually starving, you're body wants to conserve as much energy as possible, so while not consuming calories for long periods of time, your body actually decreases the amount of fat burned. It also greatly increases your fatigue levels, so you conserve more energy. It's quite simple really; if you lower your caloric intake, you lower your bodies ability to burn fat. The only way to effectively burn fat is to maintain a caloric intake that doesn't cause you to gain weight, and then increase exercise. The only diet that works: Eat healthy portions of a balanced list of foods (yes, fats too!), but get out there and run a few miles. Unfortunately, that means you might actually miss Oprah if you had to get your fat ass off the couch and went outdoors once in a while. So go back to eating your celery, and maybe that positive thinking will miracle your ass back into a size 8. But I wouldn't count on it.

As anyone with a brain figured out all by themselves long ago, you can't cheat mother nature. There are no shortcuts.

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Jason R Remy

"Open mindedness is not the same thing as empty mindedness."
-- John Dewey Democracy and Education (1916)

[quote]
For all practical purposes, celery has about as much nutritional value to humans as grass, it just tastes better.

Sorry to nitpick, but wheat, corn, barley, sugarcane and bamboo are all grasses.

Ok a quick inventory of my cupboard reveals: Pickles 5 calories per serving Mushrooms 12, Coffee? diet soda? never thought of them as food.
Fact is it is possible to live on nothing but vegatable matter. That humans cannot digest celluose is why it is called "fiber". Last I heard, this was a good thing. Doesn't mean I would advocate a wood pulp diet.
Back to the original question. The answer is no. Celery does not require more calories to digest than it contains. Water is not digested but absorbed into the blood stream in an unchanged state. Though this process does require energy it is negligble. Non-poisoinous and edible are not synonyms. Because wood pulp will not poison you does not qualify it as food. Termites manage to eat your house begause little bacteria live in their bodies that digest it. The bugs themselves are incapable of digesting it. Cows can not thrive on a diet of pure celluose and do in fact eat anything green, weeds, grasses (seeds and all)plus whatever feed they are fed. Their secret is in the amazing bulk of their diet.

It occured to me that rather than just argue I should cite fact. So here it is from the USDA nutritional database, all you could ever want to know about celery
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH?d=dmtUSDA&c=81640&p=~br,ALT|~st,408|~r,WSALT002|~b,*

Fact is it is possible to live on nothing but vegatable matter

Actually, it is possible to live on nothing but vegetable matter, but you cannot live healthily on nothing but vegetable matter. You won't die, but there are lots of vital nutrients, especially certain kinds of fatty acids, that only come from animal products. That is not to say that you need to eat only meat, but some animal product (such as milk or eggs) is necessary to allow your body to produce various hormones, for instance.

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Jason R Remy

"Open mindedness is not the same thing as empty mindedness."
-- John Dewey Democracy and Education (1916)

Llardball, sure you use calories drinking water, but very few.

Take notice, you can overdose on water, causing your blood to over thin. Rare, but hey, moderation in all things.

Jayron 32, you might want to move this to the great debates, but there are lots of healthy vegans. American vegans have a longer life expectancy than American non-vegans, and are less likely catch a wide array of diseases. So I wouldn't say it's impossible to live healthily on veggie matter alone.

As for the original question, sure, when you eat celery or drink water, your body takes in no calories and burns some. This is also true when you breathe. But even if you eat tons of "rabbit food", you'll still feel tired and hungry, because you haven't had the calories and protien that you need. It's much better to have some beans and rice, and do lots of sit-ups instead of eating lots of celery.

Your Quadell

To Jayron 32: About your comments on "getting off your fat ass off the couch and going outside once in a while." And something along the lines of "positive thinking will miracle your ass back to a size 8." I sure hope you were not directing your comments to me seeing as how 1) I do not watch Oprah 2)I am a man and "size 8" has no meaning to me (I know it's clothing size for women I just mean that being a man, size 8 doesn't matter to me) and 3) I can't think of 3 except that I just hope you watch what you say and who you say it to.

Sorry to nitpick, but wheat, corn, barley, sugarcane and bamboo are all grasses.

No, they are all monocotyledons, but they are not all grasses. A single cotyledon, parallel veination and leaf sheaths does not automatically make a plant a grass. Anyway, I had assumed it was obvious I meant turfgrass

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"I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

[quote]
No, they are all monocotyledons, but they are not all grasses.

From Encyclopedia.com

Wheat, cereal plant (genus Triticum) of the grass family
Barley, annual cereal plant (Hordeum vulgare) of the grass family
Sugarcane, tall tropical perennial (genus Saccharum) of the grass family
Bamboo, plant (genus Bambusa) of the grass family

[quote]
A single cotyledon, parallel veination and leaf sheaths does not automatically make a plant a grass.

Possibly, cite one example of such a plant that is not a member of the grass family

[quote]
Anyway, I had assumed it was obvious I meant turfgrass

How was it obvious? The context was plants grown for livestock fodder, not lawns. OK I admit I knew what you meant I just couldn't resist that one.

As for vegan nutrition let's leave that to the great debates.

What I find the most maddening is no one even bothered to check the url I posted. Unless the USDA is involved in some sort of coverup, the nutritional data on raw celery proves that celery is not non-nutriative. It does not take more calories to eat it than it provides.

Possibly, cite one example of such a plant that is not a member of the grass family

Hemerocallis species
Iris species
Lilium species
Liatris species (as I recall. It might be a dicot.
Liriope species

Anyway, I don't have my texts with me to look into this further, and I doubt anyone else here cares (will Horticultural Taxonomy overtake Russian Pronunciation for the lamest flame war award? ) I guess you could mail me, but I doubt you care either.. heh As for the original post, I'll let your USDA report answer that and withdraw my earlier asseration that celery was without calories, although it's not especially nutritious either. Yes, you'd quickly lose weight from an all celery diet, no it wouldn't be from the calorie lost via digestion vs. calories gained from plant ratio. Fair enough?


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"I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

Fair enough.

You should know that on my side, I never considered this a flame war. Just a spirited debate aimed at setting the facts straight, in the straight dope spirit.
As for debating plant taxonomy? you're right, I don't care. Plus it is too far off this thread to compare lilies to fescue. (a little botany humor).
Also you should know, I read this board for months, along with Cecils archives before even thinking of posting a reply here. So I had respect for you before beginning the debate.
Looking forward to more of the same.

To Jayron 32: About your comments on "getting off your fat ass off the couch and going outside once
in a while." And something along the lines of "positive thinking will miracle your ass back to a size 8."
I sure hope you were not directing your comments to me seeing as how 1) I do not watch Oprah 2)I
am a man and "size 8" has no meaning to me (I know it's clothing size for women I just mean that
being a man, size 8 doesn't matter to me) and 3) I can't think of 3 except that I just hope you watch
what you say and who you say it to.

Sorry to dissapoint you, but when I get on my soapbox, I rarely address people directly. You should really learn to discern the "collective you" from the "personal you." I was merely pontificating, and not attacking. The fact remains that there are a lot of people out there (not you specifically) who think that there is some way to fool the human body. These people (not you specifically) are looking for some diet that will allow them to lose weight quickly and keep it off without some regular exercise plan. These people (not you specifically) often ironically spend their time doing precisely those things that prevent them from losing weight, such as starvation diets, diet without exercise, or temporary behavioral changes.

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Jason R Remy

"Open mindedness is not the same thing as empty mindedness."
-- John Dewey Democracy and Education (1916)

EvilGhandi, not a problem. I didn't think of it as a flame war either, was just making a joking reference to another long gone thread.

And I guess you're not so bad yourself

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"I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

[Zyada]

Thought I would throw in a techical analysis:

One cup of celery has 16 calories. Another page I found shows that you burn approximately 115 calories an hour eating. So if it takes approximately 5 minutes to eat a cup of celery, you would use 9 1/2 calories to consume sixteen calories. So no, you don't get negative calories from celery.
Note also from this page that just sitting burns about 95 calories an hour, so you're not really increasing your activity levels at all eating celery.

The number of calories you burn drinking water is going to be very inconsequential. Actually absorbing the water does not take any calories, and the activity of lifting the cup & swallowing is not very strenuous.

OTOH, I was told by a Diet Dr. that drinking plenty of water is essential for weight loss, because adequate water allows the kidneys remove toxins in the bloodstream, allowing the liver to process fats and glycogens properly, IIRC.

[mr john]

I said 'digest' not "break down" you really can't digest balsa you can chew it up and churn it up but it is still balsa. when you 'digest' you break stuff down to molecular levels.
OLENTZERO, Yes, Iceburg lettuce is definatly off the salad bar for bunnies. I learned the hard way. Then was told by the vet. If i remember right it interferes with that thing they do since they chew the cud but aren't ruminants. I don't know about the other types I just avoid um all and use commercial pellets and let the bunnies graze the backyard. I don't know the species or variety for iceburg , some of the plants we call lettuce aren,t all that closely related. We seem to classify them all lettuce more by taste and appearance than taxonomic reasons.