How to Eat Chocolate and Lose Weight

Eat Chocolate and Lose Weight

Losing weight is hard work for some of us especially if you are over 40. Did you know that it’s possible to eat chocolate and lose weight? Well, it is and I’m here to show you how to do it and which recipes I use.

Now, I’m not saying that you eat chocolate all day and will still lose weight. That is foolishness. I just know that I like eating chocolate and snacks. So here are some tips on how I eat healthy and have some chocolate snacks too.

Living Healthy with Chocolate

Make sure you’re eating mostly fruits, vegetables, protein, good fats, and whole grains. There are tons of diet plans out there. Some that I’ve seen that are successful include Keto, Intermittent Fasting, and Low Carb diets.

Even if you’re eating good things, sometimes you just want a yummy chocolate snack that won’t throw your diet in the toilet for the day. I’ll share all the tips and tricks I know to help you eat chocolate and still lose weight.

Top Tips if you Crave Chocolate

The key is in the sweetener – although there are tons of artificial sweeteners out there, not all of them taste good or are good for you. Some artificial sweeteners like aspartame,
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sucralose, and others are downright bad for your health and should be avoided. Stevia is a great sweetener although it doesn’t always work the best in all snacks or desserts. Liquid stevia is good for hot or cold drinks, but Lakanto sweetener is the one that I have found that works best with the least amount of aftertaste.
Dark chocolate is important. When you eat chocolate, make sure it’s dark chocolate (organic is best) and not milk chocolate or white chocolate. Dark chocolate is more filling and has many health benefits that I will highlight below. In baking and recipes below, use dark chocolate cacao powder.
Try limiting yourself to just one treat a day. Just because I tell you that you can eat chocolate and lose weight, doesn’t mean you should be eating chocolate every hour of the day. The book Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight actually tells you to eat a little of the right chocolate before and after a meal.

Benefits of Eating Dark Chocolate

Do you crave chocolate? Did you know that healthy dark chocolate can reduce stress, reduce inflammation, control appetite, decrease body fat, and decrease cravings?

New studies show dark chocolate consumption reduces stress and inflammation while improving memory, immunity, and mood. “…These studies show us that the higher the concentration of cacao, the more positive the impact on cognition, memory, mood, immunity and other beneficial effects.”

Professor David Kennedy, director of the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Research Centre at Northumbria University, said that chocolates can be beneficial for mentally challenging tasks. “For things that are difficult to do or mentally demanding things that maybe crop up in your work, chocolates can help,” Professor Kennedy said.

Another study provides strong evidence that “daily consumption of 40 g of dark chocolate during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of free living and healthy human subjects, as per variation of both host and gut microbial metabolism.”

“Chocolate should be as minimally processed as possible to offer the most nutritional benefit. Choose chocolate that is 70% cocoa or higher, and aim for one that has no milk solids, extra syrups (glucose syrup, sugar) or other un-pronounceable ingredients.” Shilpa Shetty Kundra

Dark chocolate can also slow the rate that your stomach empties resulting in lower insulin levels and feeling satisfied for longer.

The bitter taste of dark chocolate can also cause you to be satisfied for longer periods of time. In this study, they showed that the bitter taste of chocolate activated ghrelin secretion which decreases hunger. The mice in this study showed a decrease in hunger for 4 hours! What a cool discovery that something that tastes so good can actually help us feel full and satisfied! Why is everyone not using this information?

Chocolate Snacks for Weight Loss

For me, snacking is where my weight loss goals fall off. I can eat great meals and then sabotage that with unhealthy sweets the rest of the day.

Here are some of my favorite healthy chocolate snacks that are satisfying to me and are still healthy. Enjoy these easy chocolate recipes.

Healthy Chocolate Desserts

Healthy Peanut Butter Fudge – This fudge is my favorite chocolate snack so far. I love the taste and it’s easy to make. I like the ease of cleanup by putting it into a pan with parchment paper too. I substituted Lakanto sweetener because I’m not a fan of the ingredients in Swerve. The Lakanto sweetener and dark chocolate cacao powder make this treat taste great! Get the full recipe at One Wholesome Life.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fat Bombs – This was another easy recipe to make but I didn’t like it as much as I liked the fudge above. Instead of using ice cube trays or silicone molds, I just put some wax or parchment paper into a rectangular bowl and poured this mixture into it. Then I just broke off pieces of this after it was refrigerated. Get the full recipe at listotic.com.

I hate washing ice cube trays that had anything in them but ice because they are a pain to get clean. So this idea was less messy and the pieces broke off easily. I also used the Lakanto sweetener instead of the packets of stevia listed in the recipe.

More Healthy Dark Chocolate Recipes

Chocolate Cheesecake Balls – These tasted pretty good too but were a little heavy on the cream cheese. If you like cheesecake, you will love these. I also substituted Lakanto sweetener for the xylitol and stevia powder listed in the recipe. Get the full recipe at Grass Fed Mama.

Keto cake recipe – This is a yummy gooey cake recipe when you need a Keto alternative to chocolate cake. Get the full recipe at My Sweet Keto and more Keto recipes at Tasteaholics.

Keto Frosty – Here’s an easy recipe to make if you like Frosty’s and can manage dairy well. This uses a cup of heavy whipping cream but DOES taste very close to a Frosty. So give this one a try if you want a keto snack that is easy to make. Get the full recipe at Listotic and more Keto recipes at Tasteaholics.

Best Chocolate Almond Snack Recipe – I used to make this all the time and now I need to remake this with my dark chocolate cocoa powder and Lakanto sweetener to make it even more healthy. Check out the recipe for my Healthy Chocolate Snack Recipe.

Other Methods and Tips to Help You Lose Weight

Essential Oils for Weight Support

Essential oils are powerful tools that many people use for health and wellness. Some are even finding that they help maintain a healthy weight. Here are some suggested blends and tips to use when using essential oils.

Lemon oil helps flush toxins.

Grapefruit oil helps flush and clean the cells.

Cinnamon Bark helps regulate metabolism.

Peppermint helps with digestion, minimize cravings, and promotes better circulation.

Endoflex helps regulate hormones. I roll this on my thyroid every morning.

Several of these can be combined and taken in capsule form if they are Young Living Vitality Oils. I don’t trust any other company besides Young Living for my family because they are the purest and don’t use chemicals or pesticides anywhere in their process. Find out more about my essential oil research here.

Emotions play a part in how much you eat too. Essential oils can help ease emotions if you often feel stressed or anxious or are an emotional eater.

Essential Oils for Emotions

Peace and Calming – This is such a wonderful blend of oils that smells so calming and relaxing. I dare you to apply or diffuse this oil and not feel instant calm.

Valor – This is a favorite oil blend among both men and women. It uses spruce oil which was used by Roman soldiers thousands of years ago for courage before they went into battle. If you seem to be afraid or lack confidence, then this is the oil blend for you!

Stress Away – Stress is everywhere! We would all like to send stress away from us and with this oil blend by Young Living, we can do just that. Many times we overeat because of stressful situations. This oil, applied or diffused, can help diffuse those feelings of stress and help us feel more calm.

There are more oils that can be used for emotions, but these are some of my favorites.

Emotions are everywhere and the sooner we get a handle on them, the quicker we will end emotional eating and lose weight. Essential oils are amazing and help when dealing with emotions and stress. Why not try some of these oils today!

Weight Loss Coffee

Some people have found that adding this weight loss coffee to their daily routine helps their body release weight and increase their mood and energy levels. Since I’m not a scientist, I use this coffee and let their scientists come up with the right formula for me. I just put a coffee packet in some hot water in the morning and that’s all I have to do.

Living Healthy with Chocolate – More Weight Loss Tips

Eat out as little as possible – It is just so tempting to go off your eating plan when you go out to eat or buy fast food. I almost always gain a pound when we eat out and then have to work to get that off and more. Cooking food at home is going to be your best line of defense when wanting to lose weight.

Plan ahead – It’s best to have an idea of what you will eat for the day. I usually have leftovers for lunch since I know that the dinners I prepared were healthy. Then I have a collection of dinner recipes written down that I can choose from that I know are good for us. Here is how I spend less time in the kitchen and still cook good healthy meals.

Make Easy Meals that are Healthy – This will help you cook at home more and be less tempted to rely on fast food. Here are my best easy meal plans that you can use to cook healthy meals for your family. And here are even more easy healthy meals you can make at home. They say that the rate of cooking at home has gone down in the same proportion to the obesity rate has gone up. I think there is a direct correlation! Cook at home more if you want to eat chocolate and still lose weight.

More Quick Weight Loss Tips

Eat slowly – this will help you fill up and know when you’re full. When we eat fast we don’t give our bodies a chance to even know when we are full.
Share dessert with a friend/spouse if you have dessert at all.
If you’re going to eat a snack, it’s way better to eat chocolate than chips! Not too much though!
Make individual servings if you crave chocolate. Don’t make a whole cake and expect yourself not to eat too much of it. I like mug cakes and the recipes mentioned above for this.
Find a good way to exercise – Choose something you like to do and do it regularly. I like to exercise at home. So check out all my Exercise at Home Tips even if you’re really busy.

Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight Book

Did you know that there is a book by the title of Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight? They say that “New science proves you should eat chocolate every day.”

The book covers how to know what kind of chocolate to eat, how much to eat daily, how the right chocolate is a superfood, meal plans for weight loss, and chocolate-based recipes.

The book walks you step by step through how to know which type of chocolate to eat and how much of it to eat.

It even helps you know how to lose your sweet tooth! Then they go into how to eat chocolate and how to avoid eating too much because of stress. They even teach you how to use chocolate to boost your workouts.

There are all kinds of studies in the book about the mood-boosting effects of chocolate and other benefits. You’ll read interesting case studies of people that have used the system described in the book and been successful.

I hope these tips have been helpful to you. Please let me know if there is any way I can help you on your journey in living healthy with chocolate.