So as well as giving your love-life a kick-start, is one of your New year’s Resolutions is to stop hitting the biscuit tin, come 11am, 3pm, or 11pm? Many of us add hundreds of calories to 
our daily intake with snacks.
We took a look at ways to stop snacking.
Using a red plate
It might sound strange – but using a red plate to eat could curb your appetite. Scientists from the University of Basel gave individuals in a study they conducted the option to snack on pretzels while filling out a questionnaire. The snacks were given on white, blue or red plates. Those who were offered pretzels on the red plate ate the fewest number. The same result held true when they were drinking out of blue or red cups.
Having a protein-rich breakfast
So the saying goes, breakfast like a king but apparently up to one in six Brits skip it. However, research has consistently shown that eating a breakfast rich in protein significantly improves appetite control and reduces snacking on unhealthy high sugar and high fat treats in the evenings.
Eating just a bite
How much do you need to satisfy your craving? This could be half as much as you think, according to a recent study by Cornell University. Using chocolate chips, apple pie and crisps, researchers designed a study to determine if people were given smaller portions of snack foods would feel hungrier or satisfied fifteen minutes after eating.
Those given larger portions consumed 77 per cent more food, amounting to 103 calories more, but they did not feel any appetite enhancing or stronger feelings of satisfaction than the group with the smaller portions.
Brain-training exercises
Brain training exercises made popular by Nintendo could be the answer to curbing the desire to snack because both food consumption and weight are linked to brain activity and self-control.
A study from the universities of Exeter, Cardiff, Bristol, and Bangor discovered that an individual’s brain ‘reward centre’ response has more of an effect on the amount they ate than their feelings of hunger or how much they wanted the food.
Surround yourself with non-snackers
Is there an office feeder in your workplace? Research says the effect of emotional ‘peer pressure’ is much more pronounced than previously thought. An analysis of 20 years of 
data at Harvard University on more than 5,000 adults revealed that habits, such a smoking and snacking is likely to be influenced by your network of friends and family, and your chances of becoming obese trebled if they had obese friends.
Eating at your computer
Most of us are guilty of eating with one hand, while tapping away on your computer in the other, when work is busy. Scientists have shown that eating at your desk is more likely to make you snack later on. The University of Bristol study was looking at the ways in which memory and attention influence our appetites. They found that distraction during just one meal leads to snacking afterwards.
Get enough sleep
Late night snacking has been linked to sleep deprivation. A controlled sleep study conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver’s Anschutz Medical Campus also showed that people tended to eat more in after-dinner snacks if they were sleep deprived or had less than five hours sleep a night for a week.
Break associations
Do you manage to not snack at all during the day and then hit the fridge after dinner? One study says that our internal clocks are programmed to cave sweet, starchy and salt foods in the evenings, especially around 8pm. One way of combating this problem is consciously breaking the pattern by reordering you evening activities. If you always snack while listening to music or watching TV, set up a new routine.
Any more advice to add? Tell us @lovestruck
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