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Diet on chocolate: how to lose weight?
Last reviewed: 03.07.2025
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The chocolate diet can rightfully be called strange or bizarre (fad diet), because until recently this product was not considered a dietary one. And even now nutritionists remind everyone who wants to lose weight: due to quickly broken down carbohydrates, including sweet fruits and chocolate, it is impossible to rebuild the body's metabolism to burn triglyceride reserves in adipose tissue.
So is it possible to lose weight on a chocolate diet? After all, chocolate gives the body "fast calories" that temporarily dull the feeling of hunger.
General information chocolate diet
So, a chocolate diet for 3, 7 days (such a monotrophic diet is not designed for a longer period) cannot, and does not aim to change eating behavior, that is, in terms of effect, it is an express diet. Therefore, with a clearly increased body mass index and obesity (how to determine BMI, read in the material - Degrees of obesity ), the benefits of a diet designed to reduce weight in a short time are very questionable. Its "invention" in women's online magazines is attributed to Italians, then French women, which they most likely do not even suspect. Someone even came up with a diet on chocolate candies, promoted among gullible young ladies dreaming of a thin waist...
Considering the proposed “menu” of the chocolate diet, many experts in the field of rational nutrition see the essence of the chocolate and coffee diet in a sharp reduction in the caloric content of the daily diet (more on this below).
However, the main weight loss occurs due to the diuretic effect. The fact is that the methylxanthine alkaloids theobromine and caffeine, which are contained in cocoa beans - the raw material of chocolate (as well as caffeine in coffee), increase diuresis and the number of urinations.
In addition, according to the results of a study by the University of Copenhagen, chocolate alkaloids, acting on receptors for the peptide hormone ghrelin (synthesized in the stomach), reduce the feeling of hunger during the next meal. Due to this, in the group of subjects who followed a low-carbohydrate diet and ate 1.5 ounces (42 g) of dark chocolate daily, weight loss was 10% higher compared to those who did not eat chocolate. But as soon as the experiment was completed and all its participants returned to their usual (usually excessive) way of eating, the lost kilograms quickly returned.
The ability to reduce appetite has also been found in catechin and epicatechin, plant polyphenol antioxidants, found in cocoa beans. Cocoa beans and chocolate also contain the monoamine alkaloid phenylethylamine, which has a psychostimulating effect on the central nervous system by increasing the release of endogenous neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine and dopamine, which also reduce appetite.
Chocolate Diet Menu
The claims that the coffee-chocolate diet helps you lose 6-7 kg in seven days are not true. In fact, we are talking about pounds, so the maximum weight loss per week can be 2.7-3.5 kg.
What can you eat? Throughout the day, you can eat 100 g of dark chocolate (divided into three or four portions) + drink four or five cups of coffee without sugar + drink 1.5 liters of water (mandatory). Recommendations regarding drinking coffee with milk contradict the rules of food compatibility: even low-fat milk and chocolate are not “friends”, so a milk-chocolate diet is impossible.
In total, the body receives about 550 kcal per day from 100 g of dark chocolate and 20 kcal from coffee. You can drink tea - black or green (without sugar). However, you should drink it two hours after the next portion of chocolate: this is exactly how much time is needed to digest cocoa butter in the stomach, which is part of chocolate and contains several types of triglycerides and unsaturated fatty acids (palmitic, stearic, oleic, etc.).
It turns out that such a chocolate-drinking diet limits the daily caloric intake to 570 kcal, which is half as much as other mono-diets and four times lower than the average norm of 2200 kcal.
What can't you eat? Obviously, everyone understands that the whole "quirkiness" of this diet is the refusal of all other food products. Drinking alcohol is also prohibited, so as not to harm the pancreas.
The optimal alternation of a three-day chocolate diet is once every 3-4 months, and a seven-day diet is once every 10-12 months.
Chocolate Cheese Diet
If you break the principle of mono-diets and add a piece of hard cheese weighing no more than 50 g to your daily chocolate-coffee diet (which will increase the daily caloric content by 180-200 kcal, that is, up to 750-770 kcal), you can get a chocolate-cheese diet.
Despite the fact that many express diets strictly prohibit both chocolate and cheese, this combination has a right to exist: both products are oxidizing and, in addition, contain tyramine, a biogenic amine that increases the synthesis of dopamine and activates overall metabolism.
But the presence of salt and extractive substances in cheese cannot be called useful for weight loss, since, in general, cheeses promote an increase in appetite.
But the chocolate-fruit diet is a fake, since fruits, unlike chocolate, are alkalizing foods.
How to get out of the chocolate diet?
At the exit stage of this express diet, it is recommended to consume protein products with minimal fat content (low-fat chicken broth and chicken, turkey, kefir, cottage cheese), as well as steamed vegetables, non-acidic fruits, and yeast-free bread.
The daily drinking regime should remain at the level of 1.2-1.5 liters of water.
Contraindications
Since chocolate is a food that often causes allergies, this diet is not suitable for people with increased food sensitivities.
The chocolate diet is also contraindicated in the presence of diabetes, gastritis and/or gastric ulcer, inflammation of the gallbladder with cholestasis, functional renal failure and nephrolithiasis, chronic cystitis, acidosis, cardiac arrhythmia, and increased nervous excitability.
In no case should you try to lose weight using this method during pregnancy and lactation.
[ Possible risks
The most probable risks associated with such a low-calorie diet are the body's reaction to the reduction in nutrition by slowing down all metabolic processes, and not by using up fat depots. Only muscle tissue proteins can be used up with such a diet.
Returning to a normal diet is fraught with the return of lost kilograms in 97% of cases.
Complications
It is also necessary to keep in mind possible complications in the form of heartburn, abdominal pain, tachycardia, decreased blood pressure, dizziness and general weakness, headaches and increased frequency of migraine attacks, worsening mood and sleep problems.
Experts also note a possible increase in oxalate levels in urine and a slowdown in calcium absorption, which can lead to a decrease in bone density.
Reviews
Reviews and research results obtained by foreign nutritionists prove the possibility of using rational ideas of the chocolate diet: arrange a fasting day on dark chocolate (once every two weeks) and add 40-50 g of chocolate to your diet (naturally, taking into account its calorie content) and coffee, if it is not contraindicated for you.
Read also – How to Lose Weight Properly and Fat Burning Products