Losing Weight with Chocolate: Too Good to Be True?

You want to turn your sweet tooth into a strength? We’ll tell you if losing weight with chocolate works.

Losing weight with chocolate: What’s behind it?

Chocolate is usually found on the list of fatteners! It contains many calories – especially fat and sugar – and now you’re supposed to lose weight with it? Too good to be true, right?

Unfortunately, we have to take away some of your anticipation right away: There’s no such thing as a diet where you eat chocolate all day and lose weight with no worries. 😞 However, a controlled consumption of chocolate can have a positive effect on your diet and on losing weight.

The positive effects!

• Dark chocolate is satiating due to high cocoa content
• You don’t eat dark chocolate in bulk
• The cocoa in dark chocolate contains many antioxidants
• No renunciation and therefore reduction of increased appetite

Which chocolate helps me?

You see, the devil is in the details! Losing weight with chocolate is not about the delicious milk chocolate with nuts or yoghurt coating, but dark chocolate.

Studies have found out that dark chocolate, i.e. dark chocolate, is satiating due to its high cocoa content and increases the sugar metabolism. The darker the chocolate, the higher the cocoa content.

American researchers from the Hershey Center for Health & Nutrition have also revealed that the high antioxidant content prevents both obesity and diabetes. In particular the content of flavanols and polyphenols make cocoa rich in antioxidants.

But beware! A hot chocolate with instant cocoa loses its high content of flavanols due to industrial processing.

Milk chocolate also has a lot of fat and instead of cocoa it provides sugar and calories. Therefore use chocolate with at least 70 percent cocoa.

If possible, use a chocolate without sugar. In the meantime, there are alternatives such as xylitol or coconut blossom sugar.

This is how the chocolate diet works!

Yes, they do exist! The Chocolate Diet was created by TV star Ruth Moschner, as she herself helped her go from dress size 40 to 36. The diet is based on two principles:

• Psychological effect: chocolate is allowed
• Physiological effect: Dark chocolate makes you full

The 6 steps of the chocolate diet!

1. Before the diet, you give up sugar for 72 hours.
2. Before each meal, you eat two pieces of chocolate.
3. However, 30 minutes before you eat your breakfast, lunch or dinner. Don’t be late in the evening either, preferably around 5 pm.
4. Breakfast should consist of lots of fruit and whole grains. At lunchtime, fibre is important, as it will keep you full for a long time. In the evening the focus is on protein.
5. Although carbohydrates are eaten in this diet, it is more of a low-carb diet, as the intake is reduced towards the evening.
6. Drink enough water throughout the day and incorporate exercise.

3 practical tips!

• Testing: Yes, dark chocolate is not for everyone! But before you throw in the towel, try out different varieties of dark chocolate. There are different directions in terms of both cocoa content and taste. And finally, it is also a habit that the chocolate is less sweet.
• Questioning: If you are a person who always eats sweets immediately, then the chocolate diet may not be optimal for you. You have open chocolate lying around all the time and the temptation to take a bite in between is not exactly low.
• Timing: The Chocolate Diet recommends eating 30 minutes before the meal. As a general rule, you should not eat chocolate too late in the evening, as your metabolism slows down overnight. If you do exercise, it is best to eat sweet things before or after. In this way, you ensure that the body does not put in the energy (calories) but uses it up.