The thermic effect of food is the calories burned for metabolizing the food eaten. Hence, thermic effect is estimated to be 10% of calories intake i.e. 10% of the calories taken within each meal are burned during the metabolism of food. the exact thermic effect of each meal may vary with the constituents of food taken as some food take more energy to metabolize while other take less energy to metabolize. For example, protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, poultry, dairy, legumes and seeds uses high energy content for metabolism and thus have higher thermic effect.
