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The Secret Guide to Making Any Food Calorie-Free

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As every serial dieter knows, there are certain occasions where calories don't count and aren't counted. Here's some (and the reasoning behind each):

"There are no calories in food belonging to someone else"

This includes anything...

  • Taken from your partner's plate in a restaurant
  • Made for you by your mom
  • Stolen from a communal fridge

The unwritten "rules" say that whoever owns the food should get the calories from it ... regardless of who eats it.


"There are no calories in free food"

This includes anything...

  • Eaten at a buffet or pot-luck
  • Packaged with a magazine
  • Given away as a sample (see also "There are no calories in small pieces of food")

Free food is too good an opportunity to miss. And if it doesn't cost you a dollar, it shouldn't cost you any calories either.


"There are no calories in food eaten outside normal circumstances"

This includes anything...

  • Eaten in the dark
  • Eaten in the middle of the night
  • Eaten on New Year's Eve
  • Eaten on your birthday

Calories don't exist when you can't see them, or when you're not sure what day to record them on in your food diary. This goes doubly on New Year's Eve as you don't even know what year it should be, and on your birthday, as your body is still adjusting to suddenly growing a year older.


"There are no calories in small pieces of food"

This includes anything...

  • Which could be called a "smidgen"
  • Which weighs too little to bother counting
  • Smaller than your thumb

Since most "smidgens" come in at under a hundred calories, they can be rounded down to zero calories. Note: expert dieters know that a giant slice of chocolate fudge cake can be rendered calorie-free in this manner, by eating it as a series of thin slices.


I'm sure I've missed a few of the "rules" of calories: do you have any of your own to add?

(Disclaimer: The above "rules" are not intended to replace conventional dieting advice! Read What is a calorie to find out the real facts about calories.)

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40 Comments

Lauren

"There are no calories in my kid's dripping ice cream cone"

Reply
MizFit

if Im dancing vigorously with my Toddler to YO GABBA GABBA whilst consuming.

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Mark

That link doesn't work.

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Ali Hale

Whoops! One missing forward-slash ... I've fixed it now. Thanks for the heads-up, Mark!

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Heather

Awesome!

Another rule: If it has no nutrition information available, it has no Calories (or you can estimate as low as you want)

One of my friends and I joke about there being a comparative size method of determining Calories when we go out and splurge.
This candy bar is smaller than a carrot, thus it has fewer Calories. This bowl of icecream is smaller than a head of lettuce... ;)

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apinkpony

There are no calories when you eat standing up. :-D

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Ali Hale

How could I forget that one? And, of course, if you eat standing on your head the food has NEGATIVE calories...

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Linda

...but you could wind up with fat legs :)

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jo

ah the free food gets me every time and free food is always the junkiest

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Pam

There are no calories at weddings with an open bar (cocktails and dancefloors burn all calories). And calories do not exist on Thanksgiving Day.

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Kailash

There are no calories in food labeled "Zero Trans Fat" or "A Source of Whole Grains". Not to forget, "Provides Five Essential Vitamins"

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Judy

If you stand while you eat the calories travel through your body and into the ground beneath you.

If you eat a high calorie food (candy bar) and drink a diet drink, they cancel each other out and you consume no calories.

(I think my mom heard these way back when she was in Weight Watchers in the mid-80s.)

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Laura

If you eat a high calorie food (candy bar) and drink a diet drink, they cancel each other out and you consume no calories.

That was always my favorite, especially when I was back waiting tables. There was a family that would come in, they were all extremely overweight and would all order cheeseburgers, fries, and dessert......and diet cokes. I always figured they must be operating under that theory..

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Katie

Don't forget the appetizer of fried mozzarella sticks. I've seen that too many times as a waitress, too.

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Kyla

Or they order "Low-carb" meals and a large milkshake

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Susanna

There are no calories if you eat while walking.

This rule enables me to get a scoop of ice cream at our local ice cream shop. I walk to the shop about 1/2 mile away, this is worth at least 50+ calories. Then I walk back home while eating ice cream. Balancing while walking and eating surely count for around 100+ calories on the same 1/2 mile back.

And a small cup of ice cream (nevermind that it is over flowing) can't possibly have more the 100 calories.

So I really just burned 50 calories... Right???

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Lyds

Healthy foods cancel out unhealthy foods to equal zero calories.

Example: 1 celery stick + 1 item of "junk" food = zero calories.

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nodietneeded

There no calories in junk food if you promise you won't eat it again...

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Heather

ha! :)

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A different Laura

My favorite "food-rule" of all time is this: if you break a cookie (or whatever the food is), all the calories fall out. So eat two.

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lynn

what do they mean there are calories on my birthday!!?! its next week and my friend makes red velvet cake every year with no calories even if i eat the whole cake!

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caffeine free

The more you cook something, the less calories it has. So if you burn things, which I am famous for, there are no calories and the fat was definetly burnt out of it.

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Gabrielle

I here to much of this sort of thing from clients. That's one the reasons why our program has room for a little slippage.

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The Baroness

*stares at the floor in shame*

It's me.

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bijou

uh, yea. sure.

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Bob Allen

A variation on the cancelling out rule -- in fact, this is even better:

If the brownies sit next to the celery on the snack table, the celery actually absorb the calories (and fat) of the brownies but leave all the taste. Then, it's actually better to eat the brownies than the celery because the celery would make you gain weight.

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Jen

Calories never ever count on VACATION!!!

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Pelikan

Calories in healthy food (raisins, avocado, salmon, nuts...) don't count.

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Chris

There are no calories in the broken cookies. This is a corollary to the rule that food eaten in small amounts may be safely rounded down to zero--however breakage requires its own rule because the calories leak out. You can intentionally break a cookie to destroy the calories.

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Spectra

You can't forget about the thermodynamics of this rule: The colder the food/drink is, the fewer calories it ultimately has because your body has to warm it up. Oh, and any food consumed while you are drunk has zero calories because you probably can't remember exactly what you ate!

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b

Man, I'm a grad student. If free food has no calories, I should be a size 6 by now. :( What gives?

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Jordan

This article is hystertical if only it were true though. I generally don't count calories from vegetables since they tend to be so low and you can get away with eating a lot more. Take for instance a bag of spinach has about 2.5 servings in it and has less than 30 calories for the entire bag. What's the point in even counting them and the way I eat spinach one bag equals one serving. Treating yourself to a bite of something here and there shouldn't be counted against you as long as you are not doing this all day long because yes eventually all those little bites can add up to a substantial amount of calories not including all the other calories from your meals or snacks. The key is moderation and not self deprivation.

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PODp

There are no calories if it's dipped in Olive Oil or marinated in Olive Oil.

And there are no calories in food eaten in front of the TV because you cannot remember what you have eaten when you eat in front of the TV.

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Amanda

I usually don't post, but I have to say this: there are no calories in food not in its "final" form. For example, cookie dough or cake batter do not have calories because they are not yet cookies or cake.

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personal trainer

"Since most 'smidgens' come in at under a hundred calories, they can be rounded down to zero calories" ... hilarious and so true!

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brianna

another rule: every food has calories.
therefore, you will get fat off every food you eat.
so good luck fooling yourself by saying "there arent calories in this, there arent calories in that"
im anorexic and i know all about calories.
there are never no-calorie foods. never.
and if people say there are, then they are lying.

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natasha

Ice. . . i was anorexic for five years go get some help and don't crap all over a fun website!!

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l brooke

dear briana

it is true that foods always have calories, but there are companies that make calorie free products (bad for you full of chemicals) but deceptively yummy if you want to cheat without cheating! I eat extremely healthy, but i slip in the odd WALDEN FARMS products, and fat free jello occasionally, WOWCOW, LMOND BREEZE, (along with a little exercise every day) to get my fix without deprivation...I used to be bulimic and anorexic, until i discovered how regular and healthful eating habits contribute to a functional and slimmer body! When your body isnt starved, it doesnt feel the need to store calories as fat . I never feel tired, dizzy, weak or moody anymore...and my skin and hair are glowing! you should check out how eating fruits and veggies are great for every aspect of your life! i stay a vegetarian though, and take iron supplements with vit c, and i never feel guilty anymore! good luck

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natasha

if you eat something and just leave the bottom, all the calories have sunk to the bottom so there for if you just lave that last mouthful you save your self from the calories!!!

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awesome

Alcohol has no calories because it evaporates too fast for you to absorb any calories from it.

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