Generally, the most common reason anyone gains weight or struggles when trying to lose weight is that we often eat completely the wrong types of food. If you are a sweet-toothed person, you will understand the strength of the craving for a taste of something sweet. While “ordinary” people who are on a weight loss plan can comfortably browse the supermarket aisles, we sweet lovers are dragged by an invisible force towards shelves full off chocolate, cookies, cakes and sweet fizzy drinks. Oh dear, nothing there to help us shift our belly fat.

There are two problems with having a sweet tooth and trying to lose fat. Firstly, the high calorie foods we love are lacking in essential nutrients – just check the labels and see if you can find many useful vitamins or minerals in a bag of potato chips. Secondly, many of our favourite snacks contain large quantities of fat – the fat content of most cakes and pastries is right off the scale of what is considered reasonable and healthy.

The first belly fat loss tip for chocoholics or any sweet toothed person is not to let yourself get too hungry. You already have this natural fondness for sweet things; if you are also hungry it is very much harder to resist snacking on the kind of sweet food that will just add to your belly fat problems. The best ways to avoid hunger are to eat regular meals and to ensure that you include foods that will make you feel full for longer (these foods include pasta, rice and other cereals), and to substitute healthy alternatives to your usual high sugar treats.

High calorie treats containing refined sugar should be avoided, but you can satisfy your craving for sweets by eating fresh fruit which contains natural unrefined sugars. In addition to avoiding refined sugar, you will be getting the added benefit of the vitamins and minerals which occur naturally in fruits.

Don’t make yourself feel deprived by skipping dessert, simply make sure you avoid pastry or very creamy desserts, and opt for fruit based desserts instead. Fat free fruit yoghurts are an excellent quick dessert or snack.

If your dieting downfall is cakes or cookies, you can try the special diet ranges, but be sure to read the labels carefully as reduced fat items often contain masses of sugar and as many calories as the normal non-diet variety. As most of these diet foods have a flavour far inferior to the “real” thing, they are best avoided altogether. If you can trust yourself to practice moderation, a small portion of your usual favourite cake will be much tastier than a substitute diet product.

Chocolate! There, the word’s out. Chocolate is the big one, the most common reason for people to break their good dieting habits. If you are a chocoholic you will know that there is absolutely no substitute for the real thing. It would be a mistake to vow that you are going to live chocolate free forever. This pledge will make you feel miserable at the start and a failure later when you give into temptation; if you are a real chocoholic giving in to temptation is inevitable and will most likely result in a huge chocolate eating binge. It is better to take things step by step.

If you can trust yourself not to cheat on the portions, you could allow yourself a small ration of chocolate as part of your daily calorie intake. If you don’t trust yourself to stick to your chocolate allowance, it might be better for you to give up chocolate altogether for a set period.

If you follow through on a decision to eat no chocolate for, say a month, this will give you time to see some definite progress in your effort to lose belly fat. Seeing the improvement in your weight and size, will give you the strength you need to keep your chocolate eating under control through the next month or so.

This step by step management of your favourite treats works well with most foods (cheese is another very good example). This technique cuts down on the likelihood of giving in to binging, or completely giving up your attempt to eat sensibly and healthily while trying to lose belly fat. If you make sure you never say never, you can look forward to the day when you have lost the dangerous belly fat and can introduce your favourite forbidden goodies back into your everyday diet (in moderation, of course).