chocolate weight lossScientists have got an early Christmas present for chocoholics, the news that eating healthy dark chocolate can help you lose weight.

Research has found that dark chocolate is far more filling than milk chocolate, lessening your craving for sweet, salty and fatty foods.

The University of Copenhagen say this means eating healthy dark chocolate may be an efficient way to keep your weight down over Christmas.

I don't know about you but I suddenly have a new found respect and liking for academics from Copenhagen.

They got volunteers - there are always plenty when the test includes eating chocolate - to fast for 12 hours before eating 100g of either dark or milk choc. Two and a half hours later they were offered pizza and told to eat until they felt comfortably full (being a subject in this research keeps sounding better and better).

After the meal, the individuals’ calorie intake was registered and it was found those who had eaten the dark chocolate has stuffed themselves with 15 percent less pizza.

"The results were significant. The calorie intake at the subsequent meal where they could eat as much pizza as they liked was 15 per cent lower when they had eaten dark chocolate beforehand," said one of the researchers.

It was also discovered that those who ate dark chocolate were less likely to crave salty and fatty foods meaning their overall diet improved.

Weight loss through dark chocolate! I love it.