Watch CBS News

New Diet Lets You Eat Chocolate And Lose Weight

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Chocolate lovers, listen up! There's a new diet out that promises to let you eat chocolate to lose weight.

It sounds too good to be true, but it's working for real people. KDKA's Kristine Sorensen talked with the creator, who's from Pittsburgh, to get the skinny on it.

Whether it's liquid or hard, hot or cold, light or dark, chocolate makes us happy.

Now, a new book says you can "Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight."

Dr. Will Clower, a neuroscientist, says eating chocolate can help you eat less all day. Studies conducted with thousands of people proved it.

"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," he said. "And the amount that they're hungry for, the amount of between meal snacks that they have, will drop by about a half."

However, there are specific rules that you have to follow to make it work.

The first rule is the darker the chocolate, the better.

"So all of the good stuff in chocolate comes from one place and one place only -- and that is the cocoa," Dr. Clower said.

Cocoa that is 70 percent or higher is ideal.

At Mon Aimee Chocolat in the Strip District, you can find chocolate as high as 100 percent. However, If you don't like dark chocolate, the book explains how to train your taste buds and curb your sweet tooth.

Rule No. 2 is to make sure you eat the chocolate 20 minutes before and five minutes after lunch and dinner.

"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," Dr. Clower explains.

The third rule to follow is to make sure each portion is no larger than the end joint of your thumb.

Rule number four is to savor the chocolate, not chew it, which might take some getting used to.

Last, consistency is key. Rule No. 5 requires you to do this every day.

This is how the diet worked for some of the people who followed these rules while eating healthy, all-natural foods at meal-time.

There are also other benefits in addition to weight loss if you eat dark chocolate. It gives you more energy, protects against sunburn, improves dental health, helps diabetics by stabilizing blood sugar, helps prevent cancer and improves your mood.

"If they brain scan people and have them eat chocolate while they're doing it, their pleasure centers are like a Christmas tree -- everybody's happy in there," Dr. Clower said.

At Sarris Candies Factory and Shop in Canonsburg, we found a lot of chocolate lovers who had this to say: "It's just so tasty and sweet, it makes you feel good" or "There's nothing like it" and "I love it. It's probably one of my favorite things."

The book, "Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight," was just released this week. It also has ways to incorporate cocoa into other foods with recipes.

Dr. Clower even predicts that chocolate is going to be "the super food of 2014." Just like wine went from being considered bad for you to being something you should have a small amount of every day, same goes with chocolate this year.

RELATED LINKS
Ideal Protein Diet Takes Scientific Approach To Weight Loss (11/18/13)
Fitness Trends: Trying The Pure Barre & High Intensity Interval Training Workouts (2/5/14)
More Health News
More Reports by Kristine Sorensen

Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.