Can Chocolate In The Morning Help Weight Loss?
Chocolate is fantastic, but do you think it's forbidden on a diet?
You might be surprised to know dark chocolate has some health properties that will benefit your weight loss. But, more than that, more and more research is coming out on how healthy chocolate is.
Now we know that the time of day you eat chocolate can benefit you much more than just feeling good by having a little Indulgence.
Why Is Dark Chocolate So Healthy?
We got a great article on why you should eat dark chocolate for your weight loss. It gives you all the information on why you should eat dark chocolate, this one tells you why you should eat it at certain times.
Overall, what you're eating chocolate for is the tremendous amount of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Dark chocolate is an exceptionally nutrient-rich food, one of the top in the world. Many of the nutrients work as antioxidants, helping to prevent diseases and cancer. Some of them help increase your circulation and lower your blood pressure.
Chocolate can help reduce your hormone ghrelin, the hormone that makes you hungry. Like we said in the article before, even smelling dark chocolate could help reduce your appetite. That makes it great for an afternoon snack.
Also, dark chocolate helps improve blood sugar control, helping to reduce your desire to eat something quick and helping to stabilize your weight loss.
Timing Matters – Breakfast & Night Time Snacking Has Benefits, Just Different Ones
What goes even further than this is when you eat the chocolate matters.
A study just published on June 23rd, 2021 looks at what happens to metabolism, sugars, and several body factors depending on when someone eats chocolate.
The premise started that different types of food and mealtimes can influence circadian rhythms and hormone production within our bodies. So it stood to reason that dark chocolate could do the same based on the high nutrient content.
The biggest takeaway of the study shows that the women consuming chocolate did not gain weight. IN addition, it did show that they reduced waist circumference when consuming chocolate in the morning.
On top of that, they found that the extra calories consumed from the chocolate ended up getting burned off fairly quickly, and reduced eating throughout the day, resulting in a 16% reduction in overall intake. They compared this group to a control group eating no chocolate.
Those who ate chocolate in the morning burned off more fat than those who had it in the evening. However, those who ate chocolate in the evening tended to burn more carbohydrates. Overall, eating chocolate helps reduce glucose levels in the blood, which is why it's so good for people with diabetes.
How To Incorporate Chocolate And Not Gain Weight
Since dark chocolate is so good for you, eating it at any time of the day benefits your health. Fortunately, the studies are showing eating it earlier in the day helps you the most.
That means you can have a mid-morning snack of dark chocolate and get the benefits out of it. We recommend doing something such as chocolate-covered dried fruit or chocolate-covered nuts. That way, you get the added benefits of the fruits and the nuts. Nuts can help keep you awake in the afternoon.
You could try eating the chocolate with breakfast, although many people do not care for the bitter taste of chocolate first thing in the morning. If you can, great! But if not, waiting a little bit longer in the morning is just as good.
The one thing you don't want to do is to incorporate chocolate into cereals or pastries. The high sugar and carbohydrates from the cereals and pastries entirely overruns the natural health benefits of the chocolate. You end up with a high sugar intake with cereal and pastries, which defeats the purpose of weight loss.
The big takeaway from this is it is okay to have chocolate when you're trying to lose weight. It can help you control your appetite, burn a little bit more weight off, and help you feel satisfied and happy with what you are doing. And, if you're eating chocolate, it really can't be a diet, can it?