Can You Eat Chocolate and Still Lose Weight?
Can You Eat Chocolate and Still Lose Weight? So can you really Eat Chocolate and Lose Weight? Well actually, yes you can! Let us share with you a few facts to help you on your road to permanent weight loss. We have over 15,000 hours of 1:1 clinical treatment time working with overweight people. So you can relax; you are in experienced hands.
Dark chocolate is good for you!
So, firstly, chocolate, specifically the dark variety, can have a positive effect on insulin sensitivity, which can be beneficial if you are trying to lose weight. In contrast, its bad neighbour, insulin resistance, is a major contributor to diabetes, which is often a factor in obesity. Obesity and its connection to insulin resistance has been accepted for many years.
Research indicates that dark chocolate can help lower participants’ risk of developing insulin resistance in two key ways. Firstly, it appears to improve the function of cells that typically become less responsive to insulin in people who are overweight or obese. Secondly, it appears to increase blood levels of adiponectin, a substance that helps counter inflammation and does not raise blood-sugar levels.
Eating Dark Chocolate Lifts your Mood
For anyone trying to lose weight, or indeed trying to make any positive changes in their life, eating dark chocolate can be very beneficial. To be successful at lifestyle changes, it helps if you are in your best state of mind, with a positive outlook. And dark chocolate can help with this. According to a study of 13,500 people, those who consumed higher amounts of dark chocolate had 57% lower odds of experiencing depressive symptoms than those who did not.
Slim people eat more chocolate than overweight people
Researchers in the US revealed that, surprisingly, slim people eat more chocolate than overweight people. Does that study mean that you can lose weight eating chocolate? Or does it mean that eating chocolate as a part of a healthy diet promotes weight loss? Most chocoholics are already jumping up and down reading this!
Can You Eat Chocolate and Still Lose Weight
Either way, chocolate lovers reading this, are probably already celebrating with an insanely satisfying mouthful of chocolate. Go ahead – nibble on a chunk of dark chocolate! Weight loss experts agree that you can lose weight eating chocolate. At the bottom of this article we have listed 5 reasons why you should eat more chocolate.
Milk Chocolate is different to Dark Chocolate
So, it seems there’s a lot of good news for chocolate lovers, who are watching their weight. But before you stock up on your favourite chocolate bar, let us share a few facts you need to be aware of. The first thing you really need to accept is that milk chocolate is very different to dark chocolate! You may be Interested in our story Why We Love Sugar, Fat , and Salt.
Select Dark Chocolate containing 85% Cocoa
The biggest difference between Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate besides the milk, is how much cocoa solids they contain. Dark chocolate contains 50 to 90% cocoa solids, while milk chocolate has as little as 10%. Cocoa solids are the healthiest part! If you want to sink your teeth into chocolate, go for cocoa powder. Or alternatively, select dark chocolate with at least 85% cocoa. You maybe interested in our Dieters Easter Eggs Page.
Reverse Eating – Dessert First – Main Second…?
The media has published a number of articles recently around what has been termed ‘Reverse Eating’. What’s it all about? Well, basically it starts with you selecting and eating your chocolate dessert, ahead of ordering your main course. Four research studies seem to agree that it could form a new approach to weight loss.
Before you write it off, give it a go.
Reverse Eating. Whilst I was writing this, I was invited out to lunch, and thought, why not try it... So, I looked at the menu, and made a mental note of what I was going to order later for my main course. I then ordered my chosen ‘Baked New York Cheesecake’. Let me just say that my friends thought I had lost the plot! It took some explaining to the waiter as well!
The Effect was incredible
The cheesecake was incredible. But then it always is, because it’s the house speciality. I ate it slowly, whilst my friends ate their ‘mains’. After a while, the waiter cleared my plate and asked me what I wanted for my main course. That was the strange part. Before eating the cheesecake, I had decided to order a fillet steak for my main. But in all honesty, I just could not do it! I felt full, heavy. It was so weird, I ended up just ordering a starter!
Try ordering and eating your meal backwards….
It seems that we are more likely to make lighter, healthier choices, if we’ve had a dessert first. When you have a ‘sugar hit’ before your meal, psychologically you tend to make healthier food choices. The article writer suggested that if you choose and eat dessert first, you can always have dinner later. By the way, did you know that desserts is stressed when spelled backwards?
Research around chocolate surprised us…
We decided to do some additional research around reverse eating. Our findings backed up everything we had read. Firstly, just deciding on and ordering your chocolate dessert, ahead of ordering your main course, made a considerable difference to a person’s food choices. It seems that just thinking about the pleasures that would be delivered to your brain later affected your choices.
Chocolate first, Steak to follow
The biggest surprise to us came from research we did with a group of people we took out to lunch four times over a four-week period. We never explained exactly what we were doing; it was kept very informal. They were given a two-course menu to choose from. During the first two weeks, we invited them to order their dessert after finishing their main course. We monitored and recorded what they ordered and ate, and photographed any food left on their plates afterwards.
Chocolate eaters consumed 40% less calories
For the second, two-week trial, we invited the same group to the same restaurant. Then we surprised them. We asked them to eat their pre-selected dessert, (heavy and chocolatey), ahead of ordering and eating their main courses. The results were staggering! The calorie density of their main courses were around 40% less than the previous two weeks. Also, something we hadn’t considered, a few of the group declined to order a main course. They reported that they had eaten enough.
So what is it about chocolate?
Chocolate has a special place in our lives, and probably has done since childhood. It is eaten and enjoyed by tens of millions of people every day. Why? It’s uniquely rich, combined with a sweet taste. In recent years we have even tweaked it further to make it hyper-addictive, by adding salt. It’s believed that chocolate has a beneficial effect on ageing and cognitive decline.
Five Reasons You Should Eat more Chocolate
Chocolate has also been linked to lowering cholesterol levels and helping to reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems. One study, published in The Journal of Nutrition, suggests that chocolate consumption might help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, also known as “bad cholesterol.”
Chocolate may keep you young – think about the Willy Wonker Chocolate factory. Cognitive function Scientists at Harvard Medical School have suggested that drinking two cups of hot chocolate a day could help keep the brain healthy and reduce memory decline in older people.
According to Medical News Today, results of a lab experiment, published in 2014, indicated that a cocoa extract, called lavado, might reduce or prevent damage to nerve pathways found in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. This extract could help slow symptoms such as cognitive decline.
Eat Chocolate and Lose Weight
Chocolate and your heart. Research published in The BMJ, suggests that consuming dark chocolate could help lower the risk of developing heart disease by one-third. Based on their observations, the authors concluded that higher levels of chocolate consumption could be linked to a lower risk of cardiometabolic disorders.
Chocolate and suffering from a stroke. In a study involving 44,489 people, Canadian scientists found that those who ate one serving of dark chocolate were 22 percent less likely to experience a stroke than those who didn’t. Also, people who had about 50g of dark chocolate per week were 46 percent less likely to die from a stroke.
A further study, published in the journal Heart in 2015, tracked the impact of diet on the long-term health of 25,000 men and women. The findings suggested that eating up to 100g of chocolate each day may be linked to a lower risk of heart disease and stroke.
Eating Chocolate When Pregnant
Chocolate and Pregnancy. Eating about 25g of chocolate every day during pregnancy might benefit foetal growth and development, according to a study presented at the 2016 Pregnancy Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Atlanta, GA.
Bonus Benefit…
Chocolate may help athletes cover more distance while using less oxygen. Findings published in The Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition suggest that dark chocolate might boost oxygen availability during fitness training.
Researchers who studied cyclists doing time trials in the United Kingdom found that “After eating dark chocolate, the riders used less oxygen when cycling at a moderate pace, and also covered more distance in a two-minute, flat-out, time trial.”
The scientists believe that the success of dark chocolate in this case is that it contains flavanols, known as epicatechins. This enhances the release of nitric oxide in the body, which in turn improves blood flow to the brain. Beetroot juice has a similar effect.
Below you can read about the incredible My Weigh Less, medically endorsed permanent weight loss treatment, you can also download a free Audio Introduction.
Our Top Five Facts about Chocolate
1. The buffet experiment: eat, or select backwards to lose weight.
Research undertaken at the Elite clinic. Over two nights, two separate groups of people were invited to a social event. The same buffet was provided each evening. However, on the second evening, the order/layout of the food was dramatically changed. The sweet, dessert items were the first thing the participants had to select. The overall calorie reduction was deemed to be around 25%.
2. Dark and milk chocolate are different beasts.
ANSWER: Not all chocolate is the same. Milk chocolate contains a high level of sugar, it has been blamed for increasing acne, obesity and causing high blood pressure. Conversely, dark chocolate benefits from positive press.
Journal of Medicine
The Journal of Medicine authors point to the discovery that cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate, contains biologically active phenolic compounds. This has changed people’s views on chocolate, and it has stimulated research into how it might impact ageing, and conditions such as oxidative stress, blood pressure regulation, and atherosclerosis. You can read more about this on Medical News Today website.
Chocolate’s antioxidant potential may have a range of health benefits. The higher the cocoa content, as in dark chocolate, the more benefits there are. Dark chocolate also contains less fat and sugar.
3. Chocolate helps us celebrate and relax.
From The Telegraph Newspaper…
In times of stress, sadness, celebration, happiness, boredom, Friday night, any night… many of us turn to chocolate to put a smile on our faces. But chocolate isn’t just delicious, it can also be good for your heart health. That’s according to a new study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. The scientists involved followed up the results of six previous studies, across 330,000 participants, and found that those who ate dark chocolate more than once a week were 8pc less likely to suffer from coronary artery disease, a condition which causes heart attacks.
4. Chocolate tastes amazing, and it’s good for you.
Flavanols in Chocolate
Chocolate is especially rich in flavanols like epicatechin and catechin, as well as anthocyanins and phenolic acids. All of these compounds help protect your cells from inflammation, improve your brain function, and boost your immune and cardiovascular health. Dark chocolate can also give you cardiovascular support.
5. Chocolate, similar to factor 15 on the beach.
Taken from Everyday Health: Sun protection, in the form of hats and sunscreen, isn’t the only way to prevent skin cancer. It turns out that what you eat may help mitigate the damaging effects of the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation, (the major risk factor for skin cancer), too. Among the foods that might help, chocolate is up there at the top…
Chocolate boasts lots of healthy antioxidants in the form of phenols and catechins. “Cocoa, or dark chocolate, contains 4 times as much phenols and catechins as tea — antioxidants that protect our skin from sunburn and skin cancer,” says Frank Lipman, MD, founder of Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in New York City, who recommends fitting 2 ounces of dark chocolate into your daily diet. Antioxidants disarm free radicals, which are DNA-damaging molecules, formed when UV rays penetrate the skin, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Below is a selection of weight-loss tips that everyone can start using straight away. And, if you enroll in the My Weigh Less Course, you will learn many more of our helpful tips and techniques about how to achieve successful, permanent weight loss.
Tip No. 1 – Only Eat When You’re Hungry!
This has to be our number one, golden rule, when it comes to achieving successful weight loss. In our experience, most overweight people eat for many different reasons, other than physical hunger. But, if you allow your emotions to control your eating habits, then it is unlikely that you will be able to control your weight as a result. So, before you reach for anything to eat, stop and ask yourself first if you physically NEED to eat, or you just WANT to…
Tip No. 2 – Use a Smaller Plate!
You’ve probably heard this many times before, but it’s a fact that people who use larger plates tend to eat more food than those who eat from smaller plates. Remember the famous Delboeuf optical illusion, because a small portion of food looks more generous when served on a smaller size plate. If you stick to our mantra, “always go for quality over quantity”, then you will definitely lose weight much more easily.
Tip No. 3 – Drink a Glass or Two of Water Before Your Meal!
Reduce your calorie intake by over 20%, with almost with no effort! Research results, published by Harvard Medical showed that people who drank two large glasses of water, just before eating, consumed, on average, around 20% less food than previously. This is possibly as a result of the stretching and fullness sensation in the stomach.
A Permanent Solution to Weight Loss
Are you tired of trying an endless list of diets that just don’t work? Are you becoming weary of your efforts, always resulting in you regaining all the lost weight? Has your approach to dieting made you fear social events?
Are you looking for a Medically Endorsed solution; one based on thousands of hours of experience? Do you dream of finding a ‘Permanent Weight Loss’ treatment? Have you searched on Google in the hope of finding a proven programme? Maybe something that doesn’t involve undertaking a restrictive diet, doing lots of exercise, or having invasive surgery… And no need to buy any “Meal Replacement” products!
My Weigh Less Downloadable Course
Read on the pages of this website how Oxford Therapeutics Limited – ‘My Weigh Less’ – is successfully delivering what is Utopia to Dieters. A Medically Endorsed, proven weight loss approach. A programme based on over 15,000 1:1 clinical treatment hours.
You can download a free MP3 introduction right now. No email or credit card details required, just ten minutes of your time. Find out how My Weigh Less can help you reach your weight loss goals and discover long term weight management!
Let Us help You
We have spent the last 15+ years help people to take permanent control of their weight. Please spend ten minutes of your time to take a look around the website. Our Medically Endorsed Approach is psychology focused. We treat the cause of obesity first, never the symptom. We ask if you eat when you are sad, lonely, tired, depressed, bored, or maybe sometimes to please someone else. Then let’s fix that first!!!!
My Weigh Less Delivers
Downloadable Weight-Loss Treatment
– Permanent Weight Loss –
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Martin and Marion Shirran, the developers and joint Clinical Directors of My Weigh Less appeared on the This Morning Breakfast Show. Kay Lindley, photo below, lost over 105 pounds, and reversed her type 2 diabetes, following her treatment with Martin and Marion Shirran.
Lose Weight in a Healthy Way
Eat Chocolate and Lose Weight
So, how do we start to eat chocolate and lose weight in a healthy and permanent way? There are so many approaches to weight loss. If you type “diet”, or “weight loss”, into Google, for example, you will have over a million references, in a heartbeat. We would be naive to say that the My Weigh Less course guarantees 100% success. We will not insult your intelligence! Sarah Hart, below, lost 140 pounds following her treatment. Follow this link to hear a complimentary audio introduction of the course.
The My Weigh Less treatment is psychology-focused. The fully downloadable treatment has been the subject of extensive real person trials. But, as with your considerations regarding any weight loss approach, do take a look at the verified case studies, and their before and after photos on the My Weigh Less Site. If you require additional comfort, which is fair enough, please have a look at the Medical Endorsement page.
The Gold Standard in Non-Surgical Weight Loss
The My weigh Less treatment package consists of twelve, one-hour weight loss sessions, with Martin and Marion Shirran. In addition to the twelve sessions, clients receive a number of videos, animated presentations, visual aids and hypnosis sessions.
Martin Shirran was one of first trial candidates.
The My Weigh Less Course is new and refreshing, incorporating the latest, science-based, behavioural change techniques. Completely based on an approach that has changed the lives of over a thousand people. You too can experience the benefits, the changes in your life, and your thinking around food: maybe today… Martin, above, went on to lose 84 pounds.
Vogue Magazine feature their work.
Eat Chocolate and lose Weight
If you want to lose weight for good, and have looked into different diets, and possibly even surgery, then take a step back, before you decide which approach to adopt. You don’t need to spend any money right now. Just take ten minutes to read the pages of the My Weigh Less website. After all, you have nothing to lose. Martin and Marion Shirran’s GMB site contains additional information. Katie, below, lost 100 pounds with the Shirrans.
Registered Stakeholder in NICE – National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Marion Shirran, as a director of Oxford Therapeutics Limited, is proud to be a registered Stakeholder in NICE – National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
My Weigh Less, the Downloadable Weight Loss Solution.
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