When it comes to losing weight, traditional diets are not for me. “Eat smaller quantities” and “cut out desserts” are not phrases I like to employ in my vocabulary. However, this time of year means shedding the extra winter weight that has long been hidden by sweatpants and making way for a summer-ready figure. Presenting: The Chocolate Diet.
Photo by: Sarah Wu
In the past five years, many different variations of the illustrious chocolate diet have hit the internet, boasting about losses in both cravings and weight. Many of these diets include implementing chocolate, usually high cocoa content dark chocolate (sorry milk chocolate lovers) in varying quantities into your daily meals. These diets base their validity off studies suggesting that chocolate has much nutritional value.
Some studies advocate for chocolate’s ability to boost one’s metabolism, and others boast about chocolate’s many flavonoids and antioxidants. The following two chocolate-rich diets could be your way to weight loss:
Chocolate Diet Number 1:
This chocolate diet plan is based off Dr. Will Clower’s book, “Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight.” The book uses science to disprove the myth that chocolate is a junk food by revealing its health benefits, including antioxidants. This diet includes several methods, however the most interesting, involves starting and ending every meal with dark chocolate.
Natalie Matthews, a woman who lost weight on the diet, explained the diet best, “According to Dr. Clower, the cocoa speeds up your basal metabolic rate while triggering satisfaction signals in your brain, so you want to eat less during your meals (hence, the starter) and snack less between them (hence, the ender).” Plus, Elle magazine has endorsed it. Enough said.
Photo by Danielle Gervais
Chocolate Diet Number 2:
Similarly, this diet was created by Dr. Lily Stojanovska, and is based off the belief that cocoa has many health benefits. As stated by the foundation’s website, “high quality chocolate not only improves your heart health, blood pressure, and your overall metabolism, it is also a very effective aid to weight management.”
This diet includes six meals a day to keep your metabolism continuously burning. Two meals a day are specially formulated ‘Chocolate Diet’ Shakes. The program also provides and encourages users to eat dark chocolate every day, in addition to the shakes. All of the Chocolate Diet’s chocolate products contain Polyphenols, a blend of nutrients that are said to “regulate the way your body stores fat, and they also help to control your appetite.”
Photo by Arlo Gordon
Whether your chocolate consumption is based on a strictly regulated diet or simply for pleasure, the benefits of dark chocolate have landed it onto the list of super foods for weight loss. Although mass consumption, sadly, is not healthy due to chocolate’s high calorie and fat content, there is no longer a need to feel guilty about a piece of dark chocolate (the darker the better) here and there. In fact, your summer bod might just be begging for it.
Photo by Peter Yu
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