Desperate to lose weight? One doctor says you can do so by doing the unthinkable: Eating chocolate everyday.
Detailing his findings in the book Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight, Dr. Will Clower, who now has both scientists and consumers abuzz with disbelief, says that eating chocolate could help you lose weight–even if you aren’t keeping a check on the rest of your diet.
But according to Clower, it matters when you eat it.
“With the little piece of wonderful, rich dark chocolate at the end of your meal, it stabilizes the sugar onset into your blood stream so that you have more of that blood sugar more often throughout the afternoon, so you’re just not hungry,” says Clower. ““What we see in all these people is that the amount that they’re hungry for at the plate will drop by a half to a third. And the amount that they’re hungry for, the amount of between meal snacks that they have, will drop by about a half.”
How the Chocolate Diet Works
For chronic dieters, the struggle to stay thin seems like an unattainable battle–but now The Chocolate Diet may offer a cure.
While Clower hasn’t made any claims of how much weight loss you should expect, he does promise one thing–by eating chocolate with your daily meals, you’ll cut your appetite in half.
However, to do so, you’ll need to follow a special plan outlined in Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight, and here’s how it works:
1. You’ll need to eat dark chocolate. While white or milk chocolate are more likely to satisfy your taste buds, Clower claims that chocolate’s darkest variety helps stabilize blood sugar, keeping hunger pangs low all day. Your best bet: Dark chocolate made out of 70 percent cocoa.
2. You must eat chocolate before and after a meal. However, this doesn’t mean gorging on bars of dark chocolate–instead, you’ll reach for a small, bite-sized ounce to start and end your meal. Doing so, according to research, helps you eat less food and feel less hungry throughout the day.
3. Savor the flavor. Clower says that those who lose the most weight savor the chocolate instead of chewing it mindlessly, which forces the body–and appetite–to slow down. It’s also more likely to appease your taste buds, according to research.
Does it Really Work?
While Clower naturally is a big supporter of the diet, is the diet really that effective? According to research–and experts–it’s actually more effective than you think.
Take the advice from Sue Decotiis, M.D., for example, a board-certified internist and weight loss specialist.
“Dark chocolate also contains healthy fats, which slow the absorption of sugar into the blood stream,” Decotiis explains. “Insulin spikes turn off your body’s fat-burning mechanisms and make you hungry again several hours later.”
In addition, a study from Italy found that those who ate one dark chocolate bar per day for 15 days–something nutritionists often don’t recommend–decreased their insulin resistance by nearly 50 percent. While it may not make sense at first how it relates to weight loss, it does if you look at how it affects hunger–spikes in insulin cause people to crave more food.
In short, no one has anything negative to say about this diet–and if you want to lose weight, this may be the ticket.
“A small piece of chocolate can control your appetite and may even help regulate metabolism,” says Christine Fissora, a gastroenterologist. “We’re talking about less than a square inch; less than a quarter size piece of chocolate, four times a day, is enough. That’s all we’re talking about.”
Readers: Would you try this diet?
Sources:
Chocolate Diet Could Help You Lose Weight – DailyHerald.com
Weight Loss Cure? Chocolate Weight Loss Diet – WomensHealthMag.com
Chocolate Diet May Be Dream Come True – CBSLocal.com
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