substitute sweets with berries for weight loss

The study by Loughborough University claims that the change could make a person lose a pound a month, even if there was no physical exercise done, and nearly a stone in a year, The Mirror reported.

'Super berries' like acai and goji are already popular for their weight loss qualities, but researchers found a snack of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries cuts down calorie intake at the next meal.

Dr Lewis James said that their findings that berries had number of potential health benefits, however, it was the first time that consuming them as a snack has been shown to reduce how much people eat during the next meal of the day.

The four-month trial involving 12 participants who after a berry snack were told to eat a pasta dinner until they were "comfortably full and satisfied".

Dr James estimated that people switching from an afternoon confectionery snack to mixed berries might expect to reduce their energy intake by 938 calories a week on average.

Given that 1lb of body fat is equivalent to around 3500 calories, this reduction in daily energy intake would probably produce a loss of approximately 1lb of body fat a month, nearly a stone in a year.

Laurence Olins of Seasonal Berries, which commissioned the study, said that the crazy diets for losing weight often demand huge sacrifices, but this study showed that by compromising on one snack and replacing it with delicious berries could help shed up to a stone in a year.